Hasn't Australia Heard of Lactose Intolerance?

OK, I admit that in 1978, when I was first diagnosed, I had never heard the term lactose intolerance. That was a full 30 years ago. I thought it was common knowledge everywhere on the planet.

Then I saw this article on coeliac disease in the Australian newspaper, The Age.

Coeliacs have an auto-immune disorder of the small intestine; they comprise about 1% of Australia's population. A further 1% to 2% of adults suffer allergic reactions to products such as cow's milk, wheat, peanuts, eggs, soy, fish and seafood. And then there's the fast-growing, if less easily quantified, group who are intolerant of substances such as fructose and lactose, but whose symptoms fall outside the medical definitions of food allergy.

I imagine that the percentage of people in Australia who are lactose intolerant hasn't changed much in decades. Awareness of it may have grown, but not the underlying condition.

In addition, the symptoms of both fructose and lactose intolerance overlap those of food allergies. They are entirely different conditions - both from allergies and from each other - so they are indeed outsiders in that sense, but that is hardly the understanding you would get from that article.

My work is never done.