IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT COMMENTS

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN DISABLED

Because of spam, I personally moderate all comments left on my blog. However, because of health issues, I will not be able to do so in the future.

If you have a personal question about LI or any related topic you can send me an email at stevecarper@cs.com. I will try to respond.

Otherwise, this blog is now a legacy site, meaning that I am not updating it any longer. The basic information about LI is still sound. However, product information and weblinks may be out of date.

In addition, my old website, Planet Lactose, has been taken down because of the age of the information. Unfortunately, that means links to the site on this blog will no longer work.

For quick offline reference, you can purchase Planet Lactose: The Best of the Blog as an ebook on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. Almost 100,000 words on LI, allergies, milk products, milk-free products, and the genetics of intolerance, along with large helpings of the weirdness that is the Net.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

81-Year-Old Founder of Lactaid Still a Dynamo


I finally met Alan Kligerman two years at the NIH State of the Science Conference on Lactose Intolerance. Kligerman is the founder of Lactaid and the man responsible for the current public awareness of lactose intolerance. (Almost to a fault. The other day I saw yet another supposedly authoritative source recommend that people get Lactaid pills rather than lactase pills to alieve the symptoms of lactose intolerance. If they're not careful, Lactaid will lose its trademark.) I called him a ball of fire in that earlier post and I meant it: he exuded more energy during that half-hour sitdown lunch than I do all day.

Kligerman sold Lactaid many years ago and his big second product, Beano, in 2001, but still runs his pharmaceutical firm AkPharma, and is committed to introducing new products to the market even after 61 years in the business. An article in the pressofAtlanticCity website, Made in South Jersey: Developer of Beano testing product to heal wounds faster by Kevin Post, gave some details.

Today AkPharma is focused on research and development, but still manufactures one product — Prelief, which when added to coffee takes the acid out of it and provides calcium, a nutrient coffee drinkers lose. ...

Kligerman, 81, sees the company’s future in potential medical uses for the active ingredient of Prelief. ... he suspected that the active ingredient — calcium glycerophosphate, or CGP — was doing more than just removing food acid.

Preliminary studies suggested it was having an effect on the bladder cell walls, he said, so he commissioned studies confirming the bladder effects and also showing promising benefits of applying the compound to skin. ...

The study was conducted on 20 patients who were getting both knees replaced, with the CGP preparation applied to the surgical incision on one knee and a preparation without CGP to the other. ...

A report on the trial, published this month in the Journal of Wound Care, said the treated knees showed less swelling and inflammation, particularly in the first two weeks when the incisions were closing. The overall assessment of CGP-treated wounds was significantly better.

“The results of this study demonstrate that topical CGP application might speed wound healing,” the report said. ...

Such product development is a long way from the original Kligerman Dairy founded in 1918 in Atlantic City.

“This is thrilling to a kid who would go into a store and if they put two quarts of Kligerman milk in the dairy case they were doing him the biggest favor in the world,” he said.

The company today also has a pet milk called CatSip, produced and packaged in a Western dairy and distributed from there and from the Egg Harbor Township plant. CatSip is a fortified milk that is digestible by adult cats and dogs, which can be lactose intolerant, he said.

Even after working for 61 years, Kligerman said he’s still fired up by the creative potential of what has become a research and development firm.

“I’m probably the only member of the family who had fun in the dairy business,” he said.

I'm thrilled that's he still part of the business and still striving to do good. I hope that both of us get to have fun doing this for another 61 years.

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Sunday, March 25, 2012

No Scream Lactose-Free Ice Cream


Barry J. Beran, the President of No Scream Ice Cream and Dessert Company, LLC, kindly sent me an e-mail to give me the good news that his company is introducing a new brand of lactose-free true milk ice cream.

NoScream.com is the website and it contains the basics.



No Scream Ice Cream is a manufacturer of lactose free, dairy-based ice cream. We are dedicated to making delicious regular ice cream that can be enjoyed by those who experience digestive problems due to lactose intolerance, such as cramping, nausea, diarrhea and gas.

We use only the finest lactose free ingredients in all of our products. Our ice cream has no rice or soy and we are gluten free. Our goal is to make an ice cream which is extremely delicious and not just "tolerated" by those with lactose intolerance. We want those who avoid regular ice cream due to lactose intolerance to choose our ice cream because of its wonderful taste and not due solely to its lactose free feature. We are confident that No Scream Ice Cream will more than satisfy the most discerning ice cream connoisseur, whether lactose intolerant or not, because we strive to make a great ice cream which just happens to be...lactose free.

We currently offer five flavors: vanilla, chocolate, chocolate chip, mint chocolate chip and cookies and cream, with more flavors in development.


The company is frankly just getting started. Beran told me that samples have been "extremely well-received by several small stores in the South Jersey, Delaware and Maryland area" but I couldn't tell you exactly where to find it today. However, they'll be going into full-scale production shortly, he said.

If you're in the area keep an eye peeled for No Scream. Or maybe bookmark the webpage and check back in periodically. I'll certainly update you with whatever further news Beran sends me.

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