Dairy In Acidophilus: A Problem That Can Confuse

For many people with lactose intolerance, symptoms only appear when undigested lactose gets fermented by certain types of bacteria that live in the colon.

An obvious solution to this is to try to replace those types of bacteria with different species that actually digest lactose.

That's the rationale behind advocating yogurt with live and active cultures, since those cultures are the right kind of bacteria and can take over the colon from the bad kind.

People who don't want to bother with the yogurt can also go directly to pills that contain bacteria. Lactagen and Digestive Advantage are two brands that market themselves to those with lactose intolerance.

There's no reason to suspect that other pills with the right kind of bacteria wouldn't also work. These fall under the general label of probiotics and are among the hottest pills on the market.

So what to do with the news that comes from Health Canada, the federal Canadian agency that monitors health, food, and nutrition issues that some brands contain contaminants from dairy proteins?

Health Canada is warning Canadians with milk allergies not to use several brands of unauthorized acidophilus-containing health products labelled as “non-dairy” because they contain trace amounts of milk protein from dairy ingredients used in the production process.

The products are:

Truly Premium All Naturals Acidophilus with Bifidus (50 capsules)
London Naturals Acidophilus with Bifidus (90 capsules)
London Naturals Acidophilus with Bifidus (180 capsules)
London Naturals Acidophilus with Bifidus (30 capsules)
Acidophilus with Bifidus & FOS -- Webber Naturals (180 capsules)
Acidophilus with Bifidus & FOS -- Webber Naturals (60 capsules)
Rexall Pro-Biotic (60 capsules)

And they added two more products to that list:

Further to a communication issued August 8, 2008, Health Canada is advising Canadians with milk allergies of two additional acidophilus-containing health products labelled as "non-dairy" that have been found to contain trace amounts of milk protein from dairy ingredients used in the production process.

The products are:

Natural Factors Super Strength Cal'dophilus (180 capsules)
Natural Factors Super Strength Cal'dophilus (90 capsules)

Nzatural Factors, the distributor, has initiated a voluntary recall of these products.

People with lactose intolerance will not suffer any symptoms from dairy proteins. There's no reason for them to stop taking any of these pills for this reason. Besides, if you're taking the pills because you want to be able to eat dairy products again, a fractional amount of additional dairy protein won't mean a thing.

But it's possible that some people with dairy protein allergies may be taking these pills to give them better overall digestive health. Whether they work for this purpose I can't say, but that would be the expectation. In that case, someone who is extremely sensitive to dairy proteins may have a reaction. They are certainly advised to find similar pills that are completely dairy free.

This confusion between lactose intolerance and dairy allergy pops up all over the place and it's a vital distinction to always keep in mind.