RE: speaking of lactose

[Guest guest]

Here's why:

(Part 1) -- Milk sugar is called lactose. It is actually a double

sugar, the simple sugar glucose bonded to another simple sugar,

galactose (if memory serves me correctly). It takes a lactase enzyme

in your gut to break lactose down into the two simple sugars. For

reasons unknown to me, WLS deprives us of lactase (it may live in the

sections of our intestines that are bypassed), so we cannot handle

the lactose, and we cramp and run. But, we absorb the simple sugars,

glucose and galactose, just fine.

(Part 2) -- With milk products that undergo fermentation or

processing, including most cheeses like brie and cheddar (but not

cottage cheese by the way) and other products of fermentation (I'm

not sure that fermentation is the most accurate term here) like

yogurt and kefir, most of the lactose is cleaved into the simple

sugars by the fermentation process. That's one reason that Lactaid

milk tastes a bit sweeter than untreated milk: there are about twice

as many sugar molecules in it as in untreated milk.

HTH,

Steve

At 7:27 AM -0700 5/2/03, Butterflye wrote:

>I've noticed most people who are truly lactose intolerant can't eat any

>dairy, including cheese, but for most of us post-ops, we come to assume

>we're lactose intolerant because of our reaction to milk (which is usually

>dumping or worse). And there's something in the processing of these products

>that changes the carb & lactose values of things made with milk.

>... milk sends me directly to the

>bathroom. For the longest time post-op, I would wonder why, when I would

>have cereal with no added sugar like shredded wheat of All-bran, I would

>dump hard and then get diarrhea. It finally dawned on me that it wasn't the

>cereal, it was the milk.