Drink Milk Can Get Sick? How To Identify Lactose Intolerance
If you find out you get a stomachache after a cup of milk, perhaps you have lactose intolerance.
Lactose intolerance is a syndrome in which the body cannot absorb lactose, the milk sugar that can be found in most dairy products, including milk.
This article can help you to understand lactose intolerance and the reason behind it. And there are things you can notice if your body is lactose intolerant.
This is Antlerium PotatoNews, a series focusing on the daily lives of ordinary people, including life tips. Today we explore lactose intolerance, a syndrome that happens to a lot of people.
It was normal to have lactose intolerance
Lactose intolerance is an issue only after we humans add dairy products to our diet. Humans naturally only eat fruit, nuts, vegetables and meat. It was the development of human civilization that brought cereals, dairy products, and processed food to the dining table.
Lactose is a kind of carbohydrate(sugar) that is long. Originally this brings an advantage: a good source of nutrients for newborn babies. That is why babies drink milk.
However, this is just because newborn babies haven't grown their teeth. After they have teeth, they should start to eat plants and meat, and absorb simple sugars directly. It is time for them to quit drinking human milk.
As a result, the human body is supposed to accept lactose only from birth to 4 years old. After all, long sugar is very hard to break down, lactose is inefficient when absorbing simple sugars directly is an option.
After 4 years old, humans gradually lose the ability to digest lactose, and lactose intolerance kicks in, helping us quit drinking milk naturally.
It was normal, but now it isn't
About ten thousand years ago, a genetic mutation happened to a group of people, and they can maintain the ability to digest lactose. Gradually, people around the world started to possess the mutation.
When drinking milk is an option, people who tolerate lactose have a survival advantage. That is why places that are hard to produce food traditionally (Middle East, North Africa, Eurasian steppe and Europe) can have a large proportion of people that tolerate lactose.
In places like East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa, foods are abundant, people are not desperate to add dairy products to their diet. Up till now, lactose intolerance has been very common in these places.
But during globalization, Western culture has influenced the globe. More and more people are reshaping their diets with Western influence, and if people can keep drinking milk or consume dairy products, their bodies can actually handle lactose.
Therefore, it is more and more uncommon to see lactose intolerance.
But lactose intolerance is still everywhere.
How to identify yourself to be lactose intolerant
Since lactose intolerance is common, the symptoms are well-known. To identify lactose intolerance, you can drink a cup of milk and see whether you have the following issues:
- Stomach pain and cramping
- Keep farting
- Diarrhoea, keep pooping
- Nausea and vomiting
If you have at least one that matches, you are pretty much certain to be lactose intolerant.
What can I do if I am lactose intolerant?
If you are a grownup
If you discover that you are lactose intolerant, you can keep dairy products out of your routine meal. Keep out milk, yoghurt, and butter. But weirdly, cheese is totally fine.
You can use alternatives like soy milk, read this article for more details: Can’t Drink Milk? Try These 10 Milk-Free Options.
If you are already living in a lactose-intolerant community, you don't need to do anything. Being an Asian living in East Asia, having a traditional diet is enough to get rid of lactose. Your life is totally fine.
IF A BABY IS
If a baby is lactose intolerant, that is the real moment to look for help. If a baby can't digest milk, he/she must go to the hospital.
Of course baby cannot read this, but the parents can. If it is not the age for someone to quit milk, but he can't digest lactose, he needs treatment.
Lactose intolerance is not necessarily a big deal
Just to remember, if you can eat plants and meat, being lactose intolerant is totally fine. Lactose intolerance is decided by gene and age. When you can quit milk, and get rid of dairy products, being lactose intolerant is not an issue.
These are the tips to identify and tackle lactose intolerance. To learn more about life tips or other topics related to our ordinary life, make sure to follow PotatoNews. We will also post some cliffsnotes on our socials, make sure to follow them.
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