Lactose Intolerant

you could invest is some lactase pills. these pills will help may not cure the problem totally but it will deff. help because they contain the enzyme that breaks down lactose.

Many traditional cheeses contain little lactose, are you very severely intolerant? You can also get lactose free dairy products. I am finding I crave way less cheese now I am consciously eating more nuts and seeds.

Really old cheese has very little lactose if you like the stronger cheeses. Some people can tolerate yogurt (I can) or regular cheese in small quantities. Almond milk or soy milk or rice milk are all fine. I don't have a problem with butter. Some products like sausage will have lactose added as a filler so there's always that added surprise if you don't read the packaging!

Lactose intolerance is only a digestive upset so I weigh how much I want to eat something against the discomfort it will produce. I love ice cream so if I really want some I buy the good stuff that's made with cream and pay the price.

I am lactose intollerant as well... I have been able to find similar items to replace milk and ice cream... but not yogurt or cheese sorry I miss cheese tremendously as well... I have learnt to eat pizza without it and like it but I still crave...

vegan cheese is pretty tasty... they taste almost like normal cheese to me..

I found out 3 years ago that I'm dairy, gluten, soy, beef and sunflower intolerant. If I can cut all that crap out, you can cut out lactose! ;-)

Some of my fav alternative foods:
Cheese - Anything made by Daiya - best alternative "cheese" invented. You can melt it, turn it into cheese sauce for mac'n'cheese or nachos, or you can buy the shreds to make tacos, etc.

Milk - So Delicious coconut milk is so delicious (pun intended). Also try almond or rice milk. Each one is good for certain things and you'll figure out which one you like for cereal, or cooking, etc.

Chocolate - watch for dairy in chocolate. You can find lots of them that contain no dairy though, just read the labels.

Also, FYI - dairy is in EVERYTHING! It's in the preservatives they put in lunch meat (anything that says lactalate or similar). It's in cookies, chips, crackers, most food at restaurants. Basically anything processed is at risk for containing dairy so read labels.

Good luck to you. It will be hard in the beginning, but you will figure it out quickly, and you'll feel so much better!

Lactaid pills are my friend, plus they make a lot of milk products lactose free these days (cheese, yogurt, milk).

I am also lactose intolerant. I don't like cheese so don't miss it but you can try different goat cheeses since you are missing the enzyme to digest cows milk. Goat's cheese might not bother you at all (I can eat it all I want). I drink lactose free milk. If I do want to indulge in a creamy dessert, then it does help to take a lactose pill. It doesn't work for me to eat dairy and take lactose pills daily. I just get sick in a different way. My daughter is also lactose intolerant and the lactose pills don't work for her at all.

Personally, it's not hard for me to avoid dairy because of how much it upsets my entire digestive system. I've associated dairy with feeling sick so don't care to eat it. Try going dairy-free for 2 weeks and you'll probably be amazed by how much less bloated and gassy you feel.

I have some lactose intolerance, but I still eat dairy. I've never tried the pills before, but I've heard good things about them.

It's not an allergy where you need to cut it out 100%. It's a tolerance level. Two people both with intolerance may have very different tolerance levels. Go over your individual tolerance level and you get an upset system. I just have to watch how much dairy I eat and how close together I eat it.

It's common in some genetic lines. Europeans tend to be OK, but if you have Native American for example then historically it was uncommon to drink milk after infancy. So for those lines, the body's ability to create the enzymes that break down lactose declines. I'm real mix of heritages, so it's not surprising that I get it both ways.

For me, cheese and yogurt aren't generally a problem, especially "older" (aged natural artisan) cheeses and "live" (probiotic) yogurts. I love milk and chocolate milk, but I've cut a lot more of it out, especially as I've gotten older (tolerance declines). For cereal, I use very little milk anyway (I hate soggy cereal) or I use almond milk. For those cravings for a tall glass of chocolate milk, I go for chocolate soy or almond milk. Almond, soy and lactaid milks don't taste like "real" cow's milk, but they have their own charms that you get used too. Almond milk tastes sweeter and nuttier, so it actually goes well with cereal anyway. We often have 3 or more kinds of "milk" in the fridge on any given day (1% skim for cooking and for hubby, chocolate soy, almond vanilla, and sometimes a half & half or cream for cooking). Hubby calls the soy and almond, "fake milk" but gets into them on occasion just the same. Then again, he'd have whole milk if I wasn't brought up on skim, so to him we don't have any "real" milk in the fridge most of the time anyway.

I still cook with cow's milk, but I make sure that if a meal has a lot of dairy that I go light for the other meals that day or even for the next couple days. Ditto for ice cream. I often choose sorbet, a fruit Popsicle or shaved ice instead, especially if I've already had dairy that day.

I've also found that my tolerance varies with my health. When I'm sick, I have less tolerance.

I sometimes even forget about it until I accidentally cross my tolerance level and then my system gets upset with me to remind me of the issue. Happened most recently on a trip to Spain. Halfway into the week my system just got really upset with me and I tried to think what it might be. It wasn't like food poisoning, but it was definitely something I was eating. Figured it might be that I'd had the local "cafe con leche" (espresso with full cream) with just about every meal. I cut dairy completely for a day, and then only had it once a day after that. Fixed the problem and I was fine after that for the remaining trip.

As an infant, I had to have soy formula because I was intolerant. As a youth, I would have bouts of intolerance, usually around growth spurts. I would be fine for months, enjoying ice cream and chocolate milk and other yummy bits of dairy, and then BAM! upset stomach, gas, etc and it would be back to the lactose free stuff for a couple months again while all my clothes "shrank". When I could tolerate milk, I was encouraged to drink a lot of it, actually. I had a childhood bone disorder, so anything with lots of calcium was considered a really good thing, even it meant eventually hitting my tolerance level periodically.

I'm lactose intolerant and when I first figured it out I was freaked out about not being able to eat dairy.

But I have learned that I can actually eat a lot of dairy if I am careful. Yogurt, cottage cheese and most cheeses that are solid at room temperature are no problem at all.

Sour cream, liquid milk products, ice cream, ricotta and other soft cheeses are no good.

I buy lactose free milk to use in my coffee (I don't like artificial creamers and soy/almond etc have the wrong texture or consistency for in my coffee) and use it in cooking.

And Breyer's makes lactose free vanilla ice cream! Once I discovered that, being lactose intolerant became no big deal! I don't eat it very often these days, but knowing it's there and I can still eat ice cream made a huge difference for me.

I do miss real whip cream on the occasional dessert, but the stomach ache and other discomfort are not worth it.