Lactose in Goat Cheese and Yogurt

I received an email from Jo-Ann asking me about the percentage of lactose in goat cheese and yogurt.

That's a question that looks very straightforward, but it contains traps and pitfalls.

Goat cheese is a fad food today. A few years ago you might never have seen goat cheese outside of a few specialized cheese shops or fancy restaurants. Today I went to a chain restaurant that served salads and sandwiches and paninis featuring goat cheese. They might have had goat cheese is their oatmeal, too. They called it Swiss oatmeal but it came with banana slices and goats are far more Swiss than bananas are. The irony is that practically every farm across the world makes its own specialty cheese and thousands of those cheeses with thousands of tiny distinct variations can be purchased even in ordinary supermarkets, but somehow "goat cheese" has entered the vocabulary of fast food as a single thing.

So what is goat cheese? There are two main varieties, the Mediterranean style of brined curd known as feta and the French style known as chevre. Feta is crumblier and chevre is creamier. As Wikipedia handily points out, though, goat cheeses come in many varieties from many nations under many forms. The cheese used in salads is probably feta, because the crumbles are visually attractive and give good mouthfeel.

Cheese is the slipperiest dairy product. Pinning an exact number on a product you can't even identify by name is an exercise in futility. Those thousands of variations mean thousands of variations in the percentage of lactose they contain. I doubt if anybody's ever bothered to do a lactose comparison between Mató and Pantysgawn and Kunik and Rubing, just to pull a few fun-sounding names out of that Wikipedia article. It gets worse when big corporations buy from many sources that produce an individualistic product that varies season to season and probably cow to cow.

Don't give up just yet, because it turns out there are a few things that I can say. Your intestines aren't research scientists and they aren't grading you to three significant figures. Approximations and generalities will do.

We know one big fact about cheese. The more aging that goes into cheese, the lower the lactose percentage. The aging process literally squeezes the liquid out of the cheese and the liquid takes the lactose with it. Broadly speaking, therefore, the harder a cheese is, the lower the lactose percentage. And that also implies that the softer a cheese, the higher the lactose percentage. And feta and chevre both are soft cheeses.

I put together collections of lactose percentages from several sources into a table on my website called The Really BIG List of Lactose Percentages. Yep, feta is there. At 4.1% lactose it's definitely at the high end of lactose in cheese.

Still, it's part of a continuum of percentages, not an outlier. And that brings up an important point that I try to hammer home whenever I can because so many other people avoid saying it. Goat cheese, like goat milk, like every other goat dairy product, has essentially the identical lactose content to the similar product made from cow's milk. I've ranted about this before so I won't go down that road today. When it comes to lactose all the milks that people use to make dairy products from are essentially interchangeable.

Which takes care of the answer to the question about goat yogurt. If it is made in traditional tart style, it's probably low in lactose, just as cow's milk yogurt is. But manufacturers often make yogurt sweeter for the North American market, and that usually means adding in no merely sugar and fruit but also additional dairy products than can drive up the lactose percentage. All I can tell you, as good consumers, is to check the ingredients lists and see if they contain milk products other than the milk at the top of the list. If you see them, assume that lactose will follow.

Goat Milk No Cure for Lactose Intolerance

I could do a post about the ignorance of people concerning goat milk almost every day. It would bore you and raise my blood pressure, so I don't. I said it all last year when I asked Goat Milk. Will the Ignorance Ever Stop?

In that post I wrote, "Goat milk dairy products will contain almost exactly the same amount of lactose as cow's milk dairy products." That's true. It's true today. It was true fifty years ago, too.

So how do you explain this, Mr. Smarty Pants?, I hear you ask when you read:

"I am standing here in front of you today because my father was born lactose intolerant," Joey Hoegger of Hoegger Supply tells his audience.

When Hoegger’s father was born and couldn't stomach the cow's milk, Hoegger's grandfather was advised to use goat's milk instead.

(The credulous reporter is Adelia Ladson of The Moultrie Observer.

If goat milk has exactly the same amount of lactose as cow's milk then how did Joey Hoegger's father survive? Because he wasn't lactose intolerant. He might have been allergic to cow's milk, though. Goat's milk does have a different set of proteins than does cow's milk, so some people who are allergic to the one are not allergic to the other.

As I keep repeating, however, lactose intolerance and milk protein allergy are two entirely different things, having no relation to one another at all. They merely both involve milk.

Since this can literally be life and death, the distinction is critical. Let's hope that doctors can explain themselves better today than they could when Mr. Hoegger was born.

Goat Milk Allergies Are Real

Goat milk is the current hot fashion and so most of what you read about goat milk comes from people who are trying to sell you the stuff. Objectivity isn't their goal. Money is. Some are true believers, to be sure, but I wouldn't go first to true believers for my facts.

So it's not true that goat milk is good for people with lactose intolerance. And it's not true that goat milk is good for people with cow's milk protein allergies.

What is true is that goat's milk has a somewhat different set of proteins than cow's milk, so some people, the ones who are allergic to the specific proteins that are found in cow's milk but not goat's milk, can safely drink goat's milk. You can't know for sure who you are unless you get a very sophisticated test or actually try drinking the milk and challenging yourself.

What is less obvious is that the reverse is also true. If goat's milk has a different set of proteins and people are allergic to some proteins but not others, there must be people who are allergic to goat's milk but not to cow's milk. You never hear the goat milk crowd warning anybody about this, but it must logically be true.

And here's the case that show it. A story by Conor Sharkey in the Strabane Chronicle in Ireland reported the harrowing tale of Rachel Devine, who went into a coma on a holiday trip to Turkey after eating some ice cream.

The terrifying incident occurred in August when Rachel Devine (24) was holidaying in Turkey with her boyfriend. On the second day of their break, Rachel unwittingly bought an ice-cream made from goat's milk. Within minutes the law graduate's allergy to the milk took hold, bringing on anaphylactic shock and subsequently a heart attack.

As Rachel slipped into coma, she was rushed by military escort to the nearest intensive care unit before being transferred to a specialist unit in Ismear, 40 miles away.

The following morning her parents Stephen and Sandra flew out to Ismear to be told that their daughter's future hung very much in the balance.

Ten days later, Rachel was transferred by air amubulance to Altnagelvin and then Belfast's Royal Victoria where she remained in intensive care for almost four weeks.

...

"She and her boyfriend Chris had gone to Turkey on holiday and on the second day she bought an ice cream. She has only recently developed this allergy to goat's milk and just didn't realise.

"She could go down and buy an ice cream over here any day of the week and would be fine but didn't realise it was goat's milk she was eating out there. It just crept up on her.

I'm glad she's recovering. And I'll bet she'll never make this mistake again.

Don't you make this mistake either. While it's possible that you may be able to have goat's milk products even with a dairy protein allergy, don't test this theory out while on vacation in a country whose language you don't speak. Know your foods.

Many "Milks" Comparison

What even larger than galore? I ask because a mere couple of weeks ago, I posted "Milks" Galore: Soy, Rice, Almond, and Hemp, about a Los Angeles Times comparison of different milk alternatives, along with cow's milk itself.

That apparently set off a trans-Atlantic one-upsmanship contest. The UK Daily Mail has a comparison of, deep breath now, whole cow's milk, 1% fat cow's milk, raw milk, goat's milk, sheep's milk, buffalo milk, and soy, almond, oat, and rice "milks."

And after the idiocy shown in the post I made about the firm who claimed that goat's milk had smaller lactose molecules, a chemical and physical impossibility, this article correctly points out that it is the "fat globules" in goat's milk that are smaller. Obviously, globules can be of various sizes. Molecules of lactose can't. You can tell the quacks instantly by their scientific illiteracy.

Unfortunately, the article goes on to give this statement:

This helps to avoid symptoms that can occur with cow's milk intolerance such as bloating and discomfort.

You can easily find claims by goat milk enthusiasts that the smaller fat globules make goat milk more digestible and that somehow helps people with lactose intolerance. What I can't find is a single claim that has any references to actual medical or scientific evidence for this. I also can't find any such articles in the medical literature.

Even the most honest admit that they don't know what this should be so, although that doesn't keep them from making the claim anyway.

"Raise a Glass of Nature's Goodness."

Goat’s milk contains less lactose than cow’s milk and therefore is easier to digest for those suffering from lactose intolerance. Now the interesting aspect to consider is that goat’s milk isn’t much lower than cow’s milk (contains about 10% less than cow’s milk) and yet, countless lactose intolerant patients are able to thrive on goat’s milk. Although the answer for this is unclear, it has been hypothesized that since goat’s milk is digested and absorbed in a superior manner, there is no “leftover” lactose that remains undigested which causes the painful and uncomfortable effects of lactose intolerance.

The Daily Mail article also hits a bump when it comes to the part on sheep's milk.

Like goat's milk, it has small fat globules that are easily digested by the body. ... Unsuitable for the lactose intolerant and babies.

But if it's the small fat globules that make goat's milk more easily digested, then...

I've learned never to expect consistency in claims by proponents of anything. Milk is just a particular bad example.

On the plus side, the information on the milk alternatives doesn't have these obvious faults.

Once Again, Animal Milks and Lactose Intolerance Don't Mix

Appropriate and timely for Halloween: the Nonsense That Just Won't Die!

Remember when I beat my head again the wall because of the lady who claimed that goat milk had smaller lactose molecules?

I found another one.

Yayi International is a leading manufacturer and distributor of goat milk powder products in China. While the Company's main focus is premium infant formula goat milk products, its product portfolio currently includes goat milk powders, goat milk formula tablets, and goat foremilk powder. ...

Compared with cow milk, the molecules of lactose in goat milk are smaller, making the milk more easily absorbed by individuals who are sensitive to milk products.

They vant your money. Bevare!

And they're not alone. Camel milk has equally magical properties!

If Dr. Millie Hinkle has her way, camel milk will someday be as easy to find in North Carolina as barbecue.

For 3,000 years, camel milk has been revered for its medicinal properties in the Middle East and Hinkle, a physician in Raleigh, hopes to bring it to the U.S. and make it legal to sell.

"We know that folks who are diabetic or lactose intolerant have absolutely no allergy to camel milk, so it's a great thing for those people as well," she said.

Lactose intolerance doesn't involve an allergy. Neither does diabetes. Camel milk affects those with either in exactly the same way as cow's milk.

This particular nonsense is too dangerous to make jokes about. It's such extreme nonsense, though, that I have to wonder if the reporter is quoting Dr. Hinkle correctly. Unfortunately, it's within the realm of possibility. Dr. Hinkle is an ND, of Naturopathic Doctor, which North Carolina does not regulate or allow to prescribe medications, according to Wikipedia. Her site does include citations of medical journal articles about the possible efficacy of camel milk for diabetics, but also includes the false "fact" that "Camel milk can be easily digested by lactose-intolerant individuals."

No. It can't. Camel milk has almost exactly the lactose content of cow's milk. The protein segments are slightly different from those in cow's milk so that the immune systems of people with milk allergies may not get triggered by camel milk.

So where is the backing for that weird fact?

There's a link on that page of Dr. Hinkle's website that leads to Camel Milk for Food Allergies in Children by Yosef Shabo et al., Israeli Medical Association Journal, vol. 7, December 2005, pp. 796-798.

It does contain the following line:

Lactose is present in concentrations of 4.8%, but this milk sugar is easily metabolized by persons suffering from lactose intolerance [5].

But if you go to footnote 5, you find this:

5. Hanna J. Over the hump. In: Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures. TV series (USA) 2001 season; #2190. www.animaladventures.com.

I kid you not. The justification for human lactose intolerants "easily metabolizing" camel's milk in an article in a medical journal comes from a syndicated television show for kids.

We're beyond surreal here. I can't compete with a guy who brings cute cuddly animals on television for a living. Why would anyone listen to me while they're watching Jack Hanna hold a bottle to the mouth of a baby camel? Awww. But he's not right about this.

And nobody in a medical journal should be citing his television show.

Goat Milk. Will the Ignorance Ever Stop?

Goat milk dairy products will contain almost exactly the same amount of lactose as cow's milk dairy products. It's true that goat's milk contains a different collection of proteins, which means that a small minority of those with cow's milk protein allergies can safely drink goat's milk. But that's simply mot the case for those of us with lactose intolerance. You can have as much or as little goat's milk dairy as you have cow's milk dairy ... or sheep's milk or camel's milk or horse's milk or whatever other kind of milkable animal product you can find in a store.

Why do so many people think otherwise? I cannot imagine. I haven't a clue to where this meme started. It's everywhere and I can't kill it.

Here are this month's goat heads.

Fainting Goat Gelato's array of rich flavors will make you swoon

For the lactose-intolerant, there's goat's milk gelato

Goatherds thrive on milk of their stock

Goat’s milk is perfect for those who are lactose intolerant.

Bermuda gets its first taste of goat's milk

Also, if you are lactose intolerant, it is a much better chose [sic] than cows' milk - I'm living proof.

Goat’s yogurt cheesecake topped with fresh figs and raw honey

A delicious cheesecake made with goat’s yogurt is lactose-free, light yet decadent and indulgent, yet not regrettable.

Why do you Eat ?(2)

If you want to take milk, take goat milk as cow milk is difficult for humans to digest; which is why so many people become lactose intolerant.

Don't forget sheep, either.

Foods That Can Save Your Life

Saitta says when it comes to dairy, cheese made from the milk of goats and sheep is natural and easily digestible. With no cow’s milk protein, it doesn’t create lactose-intolerance problems.

Farmhouse cheesemaker defies the recession

Initially the milk from his herd of Friesland sheep was sold for drinking, capitalising on the fact that sheep's milk is good for people with lactose intolerance and protein allergies.

Please, Please, Please, Please, Please. Is anybody out there getting it right?

Yes. There is a ray of hope.

Go for goat milk. An article in Tampa Bay's TBOonline.com, syndicated from the Sacramento Bee. A quiz on goat's milk.

3. Goat milk contains significantly less lactose than cow milk

True or false, readers? True or false.

ANSWERS: 3: false (cow: 4.7 percent; goat: 4.1 percent)

Yes, the author nailed it. Goat milk, at best, has on average 12% less lactose than cow's milk. Lactose is normally expressed in grams. An 8 ounce glass of milk weighs 227 grams. 4.7% of that is 10.7 grams. 4.1% is 9.3 grams. A reduction, but certainly not a serious or meaningful one. That reduction is the best you can hope for. Because both cow's milk and goat's milk are blends of the milk from different animals whose feeds change their lactose content over the course of the year, that variation is probably an extreme. Harold Eddleman, Ph. D., on Goatworld, gives the lactose content of cow's milk as 4.8% and goat's milk as 4.7%, making the difference negligible.

Goat milk is not fine or good or perfect or a better choice than cow's milk for those with lactose intolerance. It is an urban myth. Or possibly a deliberate lie introduced into the brains of goat milk enthusiasts who repeat it without understand that it is a lie. Percentages don't lie as easily as newspaper articles. They proclaim that the difference is slight to invisible. There's no use even separating the goats from the sheep. They're all in the same hole. Milk from milkable animals is all just lactose-filled milk. If you can drink one you can drink the others. If can't, avoid them all.

Science is wonderfully simple at times, isn't it?

Goats Get Lactose Intolerance

Remember the old joke in which a teacher gives a class assignment to write about a pet peeve and some future delinquent writes about his pet, Peeve?

It's not very funny. I know.

Not funny. Just relevant. To me, at least. You can't imagine how many times I go on the Internet and find people dumb or oblivious or self-interested enough to proclaim that goat's milk is acceptable for people with lactose intolerance.

Here are some examples I pulled off of Google News, just this month.

FoodBizIntel: Meyenberg Goat Milk Products

Goat milk has a delicious, gourmet taste, is easily digested, and is a real milk alternative to lactose sensitivity.

Tabbouleh Chavrie Salad

Healthy tips about our all-natural cheese include goat cheese contains 30% less fat than sour cream and many cow’s milk cheese. It is gluten-free and is easily digestible for those who are lactose intolerant.

Editors' Picks: Automaker offers goat with purchase

Goat's milk, he added, "provides a nutritious alternative for the growing number of lactose-intolerant people ...

Milk, it was good for you as a kid, it is good for you as an adult

There is goat’s milk which has slightly different properties than cow’s milk. Those who are lactose intolerant may be able to drink goat’s milk.

Not just kidding around

Goat's milk contains a different protein base than cow's milk and so can often be tolerated by people who are lactose intolerant or have other digestive sensitivities, Heather said.

That would be no, no, no, no, and no.

Goat's milk has almost exactly as much lactose as cow's milk. Some people who are allergic to cow's milk can drink goat's milk because it contains a different set of proteins. But that is almost exactly opposite to what these nitwits claim.

How do I know that goat's milk will affect the lactose intolerant?

How about a lactose intolerant goat?

J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2000 Aug 1;217(3):372-5, 340.
Secondary lactose intolerance in a neonatal goat.

Weese JS, Kenney DG, O'Connor A.

Department of Clinical Studies, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Canada.

A 2-week-old Toggenburg kid was evaluated for persistent diarrhea and poor body condition. The herd had high morbidity and mortality associated with diarrhea in neonatal kids. Lactose intolerance was diagnosed on the basis of results of a lactose tolerance test and glucose absorption test. Clinically normal herdmates were used as control animals. The kid responded to lactase supplementation. Cryptosporidium organisms were detected in feces of several affected kids during episodes of acute diarrhea. Lactose intolerance was presumed to have developed secondary to intestinal cryptosporidiosis.

In other words, this poor baby goat got an intestinal ailment, and developed secondary lactose intolerance, in exactly the same way that so many humans, especially infants and babies. do when their intestines are attacked by something like the "stomach flu," actually a gastrointestinal ailment. The cure was also exactly like that of a human: use lactase to digest the lactose and reduce the symptoms.

Everybody. Please stop saying that goat's milk is for people with lactose intolerance. That's not true. Even the goats know better.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Milk Alternatives

I admit that when this article first appeared my eyes glazed over it because I didn't think it had enough new information. But I keep seeing it reprinted in paper after paper, so I'm going to defer to the collective judgments of the newspaper editors of America.

The original article, Giving up milk? Try these instead was a Julie Deardorff column that appeared in the March 29, 2009 Chicago Tribune. She examines the strengths and weaknesses of soy, almond, coconut, hemp, oat, and rice "milks" as well as goat milk.

The whole article is not long enough to do justice to seven types of products, any of which can have large amounts of variation within the group. And she repeats the nonsense that goat milk is "often suitable for those with lactose intolerance." No, it's not. It's sometimes suitable for those with cow's milk protein allergies, but never for those with lactose intolerance. That's the major season I didn't post about it in the first place.

However, if it's getting this much attention far better for me to point out the nonsense and make sure you're aware of it. The rest of the article seems sounder on the facts and may help point some of you toward different alternatives.

The Anti-Milk Crowd Steps on Its Udders Again

If you've been reading this column for more than a few days, you knew that an article titled "Seven Good Reasons to Avoid Cow's Milk" was going to set me off. It was written by "Sheryl Walters, citizen journalist" - honest, that's what it says - and can be found on the NaturalNews.com site.

As always with these articles, the citizen journalist cherry picks negative studies and ignores all studies that reaches opposite conclusions. As I hope I've warned you often enough, single studies on any medical subject are rarely if ever to be taken as authoritative. Epidemiological studies, those that purport to show that a single food or nutrient has significant impact on health, are even more problematic. Isolating a single cause out of all the possible contributors toward health is extremely difficult and only the very best, largest, and longest studies have any meaningful results. This is true no matter what single factor is being studied or what conclusion is reached.

You can ignore most of what Walters writes just for this reason. It's clear she doesn't even know why what she says is wrong.

Most newspaper accounts of medical research ignore this basic fact, so your understanding of it may also be affected. A person writing an article should know better, though. And there are clues all through her seven reasons that her grasp on nutrition and diet is comical at best. Some of the best:

Milk is not the great source of calcium that most people believe it is. First of all, pasteurizing milk kills all of the nutrients, including calcium.

Pasteurizing milk does absolutely no such thing. There is as much calcium in pasteurized milk as any other. Calcium is a mineral. It can't be killed, since it was never alive.

Approximately 75 percent of the world's population is lactose intolerant, which means that they are unable to fully digest dairy. Lactase is the enzyme needed to digest lactose, and most people stop producing it around the age of 5.

Probably 75% of the world's population does have the gene that stops lactase production, true. But the decline starts at all ages. In many populations the decline does not begin until adulthood. Even most people with lactose intolerance can drink some milk products without symptoms, as shown by the huge growth in dairy in various Asian countries where the genetic levels of LI are extremely high.

People with many different healthy complaints notice a significant improvement when they avoid dairy.

I wish I had healthy complaints. Unfortunately, mine are always the opposite.

My complaints about the anti-milk crowd? Always the same.

Another Anti-Milk Moron

I found this article reprinted on News Blaze, whatever that might be.

It's an unfortunately standard food nonsense diatribe. Here's the nuttiest piece, from our point of view.

Ron McCormick, a native of Oregon, was raised on a 22,000-acre ranch. McCormick was used to eating what he calls "the all-American diet" - steaks, milk, cheese and bread. ...

"Milk is full of sugar and lactose from the cow. It's full of impurities and antibiotics. Babies who are breastfeed are in a much better situation because the mother's milk is in an alkaline state," said McCormick.

Sugar and lactose? No. There is only one sugar in cow's milk, just as there is only one sugar in mother's milk. And that's lactose. Sugar always means sucrose, at least on all ingredients lists in the U.S. There is no sucrose in any milk, unless it is added after the fact.

And mother's milk? Mother's milk has the highest lactose content of any known mammal's milk. If lactose in milk is bad for you, the absolute last thing you would want to do is recommend mother's milk.

If you have a stomach strong enough to read further in the article, which appears to be more of an infomercial, you'll find to no surprise at all that McCormick is pushing his own line of quack products.

Don't buy them. Ignore him and everything he says. Do it for your sake and your children's sakes.

Yes, There's Lactose in Heavy Cream

Here's a question I received that reflects a common confusion, one actively created by the way the dairy industry constructs its labels and nutrition information.

My questioner was hoping to use heavy cream to make a lactose-free ice cream.

On your website, you note that whipping cream contains an average of 2.9% lactose. When I went to the grocery store today I grabbed some cartons of cream and read their labels. It turns out that the heaviest cream I could buy was listed as having ZERO grams of sugars per 1 tablespoon of cream. Half and Half and whipping cream both contained measures of sugars ... but the heavy cream did not. Do you think it might be safe to assume that the heavy cream really doesn't contain any sugars / lactose?

And of course it's not a safe assumption, or I wouldn't be able to turn it into a explanatory post.

My response was:

You have the right answer in front of you without realizing it.

The heavy cream is measured with a serving size of one tablespoon.
Well, 2.9% of a tablespoon is probably less than half a gram. By law, they can claim 0 whenever a quantity is less than 0.5 gram.

What are the serving sizes of the Half-and-Half and the whipping cream? I'll bet they are 1/2 cup or a full cup. And they have lots of lactose.

But you're not going to use a mere tablespoon, are you? You're going to use huge amounts of heavy cream, probably more than a full cup. And that's going to have about 3% lactose in it. Lots, in other words.

Sorry, no way out.

The problem here is that the fat content of dairy products has become a stick that the milk-haters of all stripes like to use to beat dairy with. And not in the good way that results in ice cream.

Heavy cream is heavy fat. Legally, in the U.S. anything called heavy cream must contain at least 36% milkfat. If you gave the calories and fat content in a cup of heavy cream, the size of the numbers would create palpitations in people.

However, while heavy cream has many uses, it is probably most often used a smoosh at a time to add to milk as a, well, creamer. That allows the industry to set the standard serving size at a tablespoon. Since there are 16 tablespoons in a cup, they get to shrink those awful-looking numbers down to puny size.

All perfectly legal and aboveboard. But it creates confusion, because none of the rest of the fluid dairy products use a tablespoon as a serving size.

I have the fat information about dairy products in massive detail in my book, Milk Is Not for Every Body, but I didn't bring it over to my website. However, I do have some useful pages on dairy products there, such as my SuperGuide to Dairy page and the Lactose Percentages page.

Answers to Questions from Readers, part 13

Q. a. Is goat milk lactose free?
b. My mom claims to have become lactose intolerant. since a lot of my diet here is milk based, with lots of cheeses naturally, will I be going wrong by substituting goat or sheep cheeses and other milk products in my recipes?

a) Goat's milk contains almost exactly the same amount of lactose as cow's milk. For a listing of the lactose contents of dozens of different animal milks, go to my Lactose Zoo page.

b) Goat's milk cheese will have about the same amount of lactose as cow's milk cheese or sheep's milk cheese: very little. All aged cheeses are low in lactose. Substituting one for the other shouldn't make a bit of difference.

Q. I noticed that I get occasionally get LI symptoms after eating Chinese takeout, especially dishes with thick, starchy sauces. This may be a long shot, but is it possible that they contain lactose?

My guess is probably not. Usually in cooking, sauces are made thick and starchy by adding corn starch rather than milk powder. I can't guarantee this, of course, and recipes are often adapted to local customs. Some people do have corn allergies, by the way, so it may in fact be the corn that is the problem. (I hate to suggest anything so obvious that you've probably already considered it, but just to be thorough, have you tested yourself on dishes with and without MSG?)

You might also want to simply ask the next time you're in a restaurant in which you've had problems whether the dish does indeed contain any milk. Most places will be happy to check for you.

Q. Could LI over a period of time lead to osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis does not a single cause, although inadequate calcium intake, especially while young, is thought to be a major factor. So LI by itself cannot cause osteoporosis. However, since milk is leading source of calcium, someone who does not drink milk (whether because of LI or not) must ensure a substitute calcium source, either though other calcium-containing foods or by taking calcium supplements. This would be true of anyone, regardless or LI status.

Q. My mother is severely lactose intolerant, and she recently came across a new one that she hasn't seen before. It's a chocolate bar ingredient: "milk fat." What part of milk is that? Is it suitable or not for an LI person to consume?

It's the fat that is taken out of milk when lowfat or skim milk is made fat-free. Since fat makes things taste better, milk processors sell off the waste fat to other manufacturers. It should have little or no lactose, however, being pretty close to pure fat.

Milk-Hearted Stout

On New Year's Day I skipped the endless bowl games for a marathon on Turner Classic Movies, with all three of the That's Entertainment! clip shows from the vaults of MGM and a special prize of That's Dancing! as well. Movie buff heaven. Somewhere in the middle of That's Entertainment II appeared Nelson Eddy in New Moon, yet another historical mish-mosh, this one set in Louisiana and Martinique. Eddy is the Duc de Villiers, temporarily enslaved until a shipwreck, when he emerges as leader, needing to rally his troops. And what better troop rallier could there be than for him to burst out in song? This song: Give me some men who are stout-hearted men/Who will fight for the right they adore.

(I have to admit that when we were kids, we modified the lyrics slightly into: Give me some men who are stout-hearted men/And we'll show you some men who are fat. Belated apologies to Nelson Eddy, and the considerably classy composing team of Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, Laurence Schwab, and Sigmund Romberg, giants all.)

Puns are in the air (remember "Love Is In the Air" by John Paul Young? Bet you don't.) and I can't help throwing a title of Milk-hearted Stout over the whole subject, the subject being the weird brewing process of adding lactose to beer.

Blame it all on Ferocious Fred, the name of the sweet porter brewed by Steve Urwin, the head brewer at High House Farm Brewery near Matfen, and named in honor of the original ferocious Fred, a very nasty bull.

The beer is somewhat milder:

Steve describes the nose as having chocolaty roasted, nutty toffee and spicy notes while the ale itself has a full bodied, smooth almost velvet texture.

So called sweet or milk porter/stout became popular in the years following the Second World War, but started to die out towards the end of the 20th century.

Now High House is leading a revival of interest in this nourishing stout which used to be prescribed for new mothers and invalids.

Milk stout is made from the addition of lactose to the beer, which gives it added body, sweetness and calories.

...

"The new beer is a delicious very dark porter, with a chocolaty flavour and a pleasing sweetness," said Steve.

"We wanted to create something a bit different for winter and Christmas this year, and decided on an old fashioned sweet porter, which we hope our customers will enjoy."

Milk stouts are coming back into favor in this country as well. Almost two years ago, I posted Lactose in Beer? which links to several American sources of the brew.

Salud!

Goat's Milk Allergy

Goat's milk contains about the same amount of lactose as does cow's milk, so it is not a good substitute for those with lactose intolerance. This remains true no matter how many times goat's milk advocates make the claim.

However, goat's milk does contain a somewhat different set of proteins than does cow's milk, so some people who can't drink cow's milk because they have allergies to casein proteins can drink goat's milk instead.

That doesn't mean that goat's milk is hypoallergenic. People can indeed be allergic to the proteins in goat's milk.

A study, Goat's milk allergy, by B. Tavares et al. (Allergol Immunopathol (Madr). 2007 May;35(3):113-116.) has the following abstract:

BACKGROUND: Goat's milk (GM) allergy not associated with allergy to cow's milk (CM) is a rare disorder. Caseins have been implicated as the major allergens eliciting symptoms.

METHODS: We report the case of a 27 years-old female patient that experienced two episodes of urticaria [hives] related to ingestion of goat's cheese (GC). She tolerated CM, dairy products and sheep cheese. Skin prick tests were performed with GM, CM, bovine casein and alpha-lactalbumin and fresh milk and GC. Serum specific IgE to GM, CM and its fractions, and GM and CM immunobloting assays with inhibition were also evaluated. RESULTS: Skin tests were positive to GM and GC and negative to CM. GM immunoblot showed an IgE-binding 14 kDa band that was totally inhibited after serum pre-incubation with GM.

CONCLUSIONS: Allergens other than casein can be involved in allergy to GM. Even small quantities of protein can elicit symptoms.

Rare, but possible. Goat's milk allergy is not a serious problem, but as the popularity of goat's milk grows in the U.S. it seems likely that the incidence of people finding themselves allergic to it will also grow.

Who Says Goat Cheese Isn't Dairy?

I saw the headline, Day in the life of an herbalist and Naturopath, by Mardi Suhs in the Cadillac, MI News.

You just knew that was going to set me off, didn't you?

I'm not going to reprint all the nonsense that the article quoted Kelly Sandelius, a certified herbalist about to graduate as a Naturopathic Doctor, as saying. It would melt your brain.

But here's the line that I had to share:

Tonight we are having homemade vegetable lasagna with ground turkey — no dairy. We use goat cheese and tofu.

Right. Goat cheese is not dairy. The fats, proteins, and lactose may be so close to cow's milk that few people can tell the difference, but it's not dairy. What is it? I don't know. Maybe it's fairy sweat. Maybe the bees make it from honey.

Speaking of which, she also said:

Make healthy sugar choices. There are healthy sugars.

No, all commercial sugars, including raw sugar and molasses and the other variants, are about as healthy as regular white sugar. No real difference.

Unless the sugar also comes from fairies.

Article Gets Goat Milk Right

I've denounced the nutty ideas of goat's milk fanciers, the ones who think that goat's milk is somehow magically better for people than cow's milk. See Goat's Milk for Lactose Intolerants? No. and More Goat Milk Nonsense.

So it's only fair to report on an article getting goat's milk right.

I found it in a letter to the editor on the greelytrib.com website.

The letter writer, Stephanie Smith, a spokeswoman for the Western Dairy Council in Thornton, says:

Be careful about comparing goat's milk to cow's milk; there's no difference.

...

The big picture shows milk to be naturally nutrient-rich, delivering various amounts of most of the nutrients people need without a high calorie count. Scientific analysis finds no significant nutritional difference between goat's milk and cow's milk. They contain essentially the same amount of protein, carbohydrate and fat.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, neither goat's nor cow's milk is recommended for infants with cow's milk sensitivity. The good news is that infants usually outgrow allergies to milk proteins by the age of 2. People with lactose intolerance have difficulty digesting lactose -- the carbohydrate in both cow's milk and goat's milk -- and there are many ways to manage this without eliminating dairy foods.

Pasteurization, regardless of whether milk is heated for longer periods of time at lower temperatures or shorter periods of time at higher temperatures, does not significantly affect milk's nutrients. Furthermore, most cows' milk is not ultrapasteurized.

People sometimes complain about "biased" sources, biased by their definition anyone with an interest in the outcome. Somehow the idiots making false statements are never considered to be biased as long as their beliefs are contrary to those of "industry." The truth is that people with the most knowledge sometimes are employed by one side.

Your job as consumers is to get to know enough about the subjects you have concern for to be able to tell when they are just giving the facts out of their expertise and when they are putting a spin on the truth. Here be facts. Goat milk nuts, beware.

Milk: Some Impartial Facts

You don't have to believe me when I tell you that you can and should drink milk if you want to and can get around the symptoms, no matter what the milk crazies say.

But why not believe British medical writer Vivienne Parry, who is far away from the controversies that despoil the debate in the U.S.

In an article, It's udder confusion, on the prestigious Timesonline.co.uk, she says:

So should you aim for the milk moustache or never touch the stuff again? The way to find out is to speak only to those with no direct links with commercial organisations promoting any sort of milk, milk alternatives or therapies. So that’s what I’ve done.

First, let's go to the stuff we care about.

Dr George Lewith, who leads the Complementary Medicine Research Unit at Southampton University, is clear. “A few people have a bad time because of intolerance, but for most, it is safe and good nutrition.”

...

True allergies are a different matter. “Milk allergy prevalence is highest in infancy, at about 5 per cent,” says Professor John Warner, of Imperial College and a specialist in paediatric allergy. “But most of these infants get better spontaneously.” He says that parents who substitute with goat milk are giving something equally allergenic because the same allergens are present. Soya milk, he says, causes even more allergies.

That last sentence may need some explanation. Only about one-quarter of those with milk allergies also have soy allergies, from what I've read, but it may be true that overall more people have soy allergies than milk allergies.

Now, for milk's nutritional benefits:

Let’s start with the facts. The calcium content of milk is its big nutritional plus point.

...

Ah yes, say the milk detractors, but there are lots of other dietary sources of calcium; dark-green veg, seeds and bread (which is fortified with calcium), for instance. True, but milk’s calcium is much more easily absorbed by the body. “You’d have to eat 16 portions of spinach to get as much calcium as your body gets from a 240ml glass of milk,” says Joanne Lunn, of the British Nutrition Foundation. Try persuading your truculent teen to eat 16 portions of spinach.

The joy of milk for parents is that it’s surreptitious nutrition, a food that smuggles in protein and lots of B vitamins as well as calcium; for junior, usually in bowls of cereal (a double whammy since most cereals are calcium fortified).

Parry also takes a whack at the persistent urban legend that milk creates excessive mucus production:

Then there’s that phlegmy feeling you can get in your mouth from drinking milk. “That’s due to milk’s fat content,” says Collins. It has led many, especially those with asthma, to cut out milk in the belief that it creates mucus. But in an intriguing piece of research carried out by the University of Adelaide, milk drinking was shown not to be associated with increased mucus production in 60 brave volunteers deliberately infected with colds.

Her final comments could have been written by me. Naturally, I like this woman.

Here’s the advice. If you like milk, drink it, but not too much of it (because too much of anything isn’t good) and choose skimmed or semi-skimmed. Get your kids to drink more. If you prefer the taste of organic, fine. If milk upsets you, avoid it. Simple really.

Simple indeed.

Dairy Free Made Easy

Alisa Fleming of GoDairyFree.org sent me an announcement about her new book.

December 7, 2006 - Alisa Marie Fleming of GoDairyFree.org is proud to announce her new book Dairy Free Made Easy: Thousands of Foods, Hundreds of Tips, and Dozens of Recipes for Non-Dairy Living.

Over 10 million Americans follow a dairy free diet, and millions more are striving to cut back. In a world rich with cream and cheese this can seem a difficult feat. Luckily this unique new resource has emerged. Though accurate, the title of this book may be an understatement. It is loaded with non-dairy foods, over 2000 entries in fact, and it does contain countless tips for cooking, baking, dining out, and grocery shopping. As well, there are several starter recipes for desserts, entrees, cheeses, milk alternatives, and other dairy substitutes. Yet, there is even more to this elaborate food guide.

Dairy Free Made Easy covers ‘understanding dairy milk’ to ensure readers are aware of the various types of milk (organic, goat, etc.) and what dietary needs they may have, since milk has become such a big nutrient source in the American diet. There is also a ‘strong bones’ guide with calcium resources and health information. Of course, the book would not be complete without discussions of milk allergies (for infants, children, and adults), lactose intolerance, weight loss, the vegan diet, chronic disease prevention, soy, and dairy food addiction.

The product lists within this book could stand alone in their own guide. Every item listed is free of dairy ingredients, hydrogenated oils (trans fats), and high fructose corn syrup. For those with additional diet concerns, the author has gone to the trouble of identifying which products are also vegan, kosher certified, manufactured on dairy free dedicated equipment, and free of gluten or soy ingredients. Plus, a manufacturer’s contact list (roughly 500 companies) offers website addresses and phone numbers for direct consumer inquiries.

To further the practicality, Dairy Free Made Easy is packaged in a spiral bound format for convenient in store and kitchen usage. The portable size and ability to flip right to the ‘dairy ingredients’ reference page is a savior while grocery shopping.

To up the ante, each book purchased directly from the publisher, Go Dairy Free, will include several coupons and discounts worth over $40 in value. As a special introduction to dairy free living, coupons are enclosed for non-dairy ice cream soy yogurt, dip, vegan cheese, baking mix, granola, cookies, soymilk, frozen entrees, and more!

Due to the inclusion of these money-saving offers, quantities are limited. Fortunately, Dairy Free Made Easy can be purchased directly from www.GoDairyFree.org should you not find it in your local store.

Her order form is hard to duplicate on a blog, so just go directly to her book page to order one.

I did.

(And why doesn't Google's auto-fill work on a Google Checkout page? Can anybody explain that?)

A Variety of Alternatives to Milk

At last: a sane, informative post.

Jarett Bies of the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader posted a good article that not only listed a variety of alternative "milks," from low-lactose organic cow's milk to kefir to rice and soy milks, but also added commentary from Michael Cheng, the director of the culinology and hotel-restaurant administration programs at Southwest Minnesota State University.

These "milks" cover a spectrum.

All should be tolerable by those with lactose intolerance. However, those with dairy allergies or vegans need to be more selective of their choices.

Indian Alternatives to Milk

An article in the online Hindustan Times, Dislike cow's milk? Try alternatives, gives a great summary of the varieties of non-dairy products available in India.

In addition to commercial products, such as Oatly oat milk, the article also lists various milk alternatives that people can make for themselves including their own oat milk, rice milk, Kokkoh (a rice milk of Thai origin), almond milk, and lupin milk.

One warning: the article also lists goat milk as an alternative. As I've written before (see Goat's Milk for Lactose Intolerants? No.), goat's milk has the same lactose content as cow's milk. It's the different protein composition that allows some people with dairy allergies to drink it.