Lactaid Milk on a Low Carb Diet---Answer

[Claudia Marek]

If you are on the strict diet, you should NOT drink Lactaid Milk. If you are on the liberal, after two months you can try it. I just did some research and checked it with Dr. St Amand.

Lactaid doesn't convert the lactose in milk to a non-sugary substance. Instead, it converts the lactose to simpler sugars. You see, lactose is what is called a "disaccharide" -- a sugar that is made up of two simpler sugars. Some people lose the ability to break down the bond between those two sugars as they age, and this is what causes lactose intolerance. Lactaid breaks down the bond, leaving the two simpler sugars behind.

Not only does this mean that Lactaid treated milk has as much carbohydrate as untreated milk, but the treatment causes the sugar in the milk to be absorbed more rapidly, increasing the glycemic index of the milk. Indeed, I have read of nutritional experiments regarding the effects of low glycemic foods versus high glycemic foods where Lactaid treated milk was used for precisely this reason.

The second part is--if you are lactose intolerant (and most of us get less able to digest lactose as we age as it states above) you can't absorb any sugar from regular milk. In other words, if you can't digest lactose, or break it down, you can't absorb any sugar from it. That sugar, left undigested, is what causes the gas and bloating. But it can't make you HG because you are not absorbing it.



Claudia Marek