Lactose Intolerance: How to Navigate It

In today’s world people a lot of people are allergict to things. You have people that are gluten-free, people that are allergic to nuts, and of course some people can’t have lactose at all. Lactose intolerance is an extremely popular issue to have in this day and age. There are even over the counter pills that will allow many people to properly digest dairy if they’re not too intolerant to it. However, it can become a real hindrance for many of us who really struggle with it. Nobody wants to be out with friends and realize they ate a bit of dairy and then have to make it home before they embarrass themselves. Here are a few tips I’ve learned when it comes to navigating lactose intolerance.

Lactose Intolerance: How to Navigate It

Carry Medicine With You

Not many of us have time or will remember to bring what we need, every time we go out. This is why it can be helpful to keep tums, gas medicine, or lactose medicine in your purse or car just in case. Although this might not help everyone, it’s still useful and great for a temporary short fix.

Know What to Eat When Going Out

It can actually be pretty easy to avoid dairy when eating out. In this day and age, people have gotten pretty open about the fact that there needs to be more options that cater to certain dietary needs. For this fact, many menus will list specifically what’s on or in food making it easy to know what to order and adjust with the food. Ingredients to avoid are cheese, milk, and whey. These three items, and those stemming from them, are going to be the main ingredients to avoid. Overall, even if the item includes the ingredient, you can request for it to specifically be left out. Don’t feel embarrassed, I promise they’re used to special requests.

Food Substitutions

If you’re like me, you don’t like to eat dairy as much as possible. This is because even the pills and such don’t take away all the consequences. If you’re needing some substitutions, below are a few options to swap out the most popular dairy products you might be used to using.

Cheese – There are diary-free cheese options that are pretty popular in most grocery stores. It’s important to point out that it won’t taste just like normal cheese and you might have to get used to it at first. It’s not bad by any means, but if you’re used to a certain type of cheese, it will always be a little odd switching it up. One of the chesses I use is Vermont Cheddar by Boars head thats a great option for lactose intolerant cheese.

Milk – There are a ton of milk substitutions to choose from and all of them are actually pretty good. I like to use almond milk more than anything since the taste and consistency are closer to the whole milk I’m used to. There’s also coconut milk, soy milk, cashew milk, etc. It’s important to note that many of these options will taste a touch sweeter than whole or 2% milk. You can use lactose free milk so far I have found the best brand to be Organic Valley lactose free milk.

Ice Cream – They offer quite a few dairy-free ice cream options. However, I can’t say that I’ve found a good substitute that didn’t also make my stomach feel questionable. No, frozen yogurt and frozen custard are not dairy-free and aren’t good substitutes. I usually switch and go for popsicles, shaved ice, etc. instead since that has been the best option I have found so far for ice cream. If you must have your ice cream try Ben and Jerry’s new almond milk ice cream. It’s the best dairy free one so far that I have liked.