Favorite 0 Featuring Jessica Corwin, RD · August 30 2011 at 12:13 pm

Registered dietitian Jessica Butcher goes over how to maintain healthy eating habits with a lactose intolerance. Host, Gerry Barnaby - Hey, how’s it goin’?  Barnaby...

Registered dietitian Jessica Butcher goes over how to maintain healthy eating habits with a lactose intolerance.

Host, Gerry Barnaby - Hey, how’s it goin’?  Barnaby here.  Another HelloLife Moment for you.  This one about lactose intolerance.  You know, HelloLife is a life science technology company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and we want to make sure you have the best life, so let’s talk to Registered Dietician, Jessica Butcher.  How ya doin’, Jessica?

Health Coach, Jessica Butcher, RD - Great, Barnaby! How are you?

Barnaby - Doin’excellent because I am not lactose intolerant and yet a shocking number of people are.  Do you have any figures for us?

Jessica - Well, you know, research shows – and it kinda goes back and forth – about worldwide, there’s about one-in-three people have been diagnosed with lactose intolerance.  And then, here in the United 
States, there’s about 30-50 million self-diagnosed with lactose intolerance.  So, they’ve not maybe been to the doctor yet to get that clinical diagnosis, but they’ve noticed the symptoms.

Barnaby - How do would you know or, why would you suspect that you were lactose intolerant?

Jessica - You would quickly find out.  Probably after 15 minutes after you had something that did contain lactose.  Maybe you have some yogurt. Shortly thereafter you going to maybe feel some bloating, you may be in the bathroom with some constipation, some other stomach issues, you might feel nauseous.  There’s certainly some gastrointestinal symptoms that will appear.

Barnaby - Alrightie and so you would necessarily take immediate action on that and say, I’ve gotta get this diagnosed, possibly by going to an allergist or, maybe by doing what’s called, ‘food elimination’ in your diet by just trying to subtract different things.  And boy, I tell you what, there are a lot of different products out here, Jessica, that are made specifically with people that are lactose intolerant. So, what has been subtracted from these products that make them ok?

Jessica - These products?  They all take out the lactose and lactose is one of the sugars found in milk products.  It’s in your milk and dairy – so that’s what makes the product a little bit sweeter.  So they pull it out, let’s say, here’s a yogurt that’s made with soy.  Now this product, they pulled out the lactose  - they don’t have to use it at all because they pulled it out from soymilk instead. They’ve made a similar product and they make similar products with rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk, there’s all kinds of other versions out there, they all have equal nutrition.

Barnaby - What would be some of the danger signals as far as products go. Anything that has the aura of dairy to it, that has probably got lactose in it.

Jessica - Right, right.  Definitely you know your milk products, your cheeses, your yogurts, all those products are certainly going to have lactose in it.  And yet, there’s also some versions like lactate milk, so it still has your normal milk from a cow, but, they add in the lactase enzyme that our body is missing if you have lactose intolerance. So, when you’re lactose intolerant, you don’t have the capability to even break down and digest that lactose which is why it causes all the issues in your body because it goes all the way right on through to your colon in its whole form.

Barnaby - You know there are all sorts of ways to go through life, but suffer because you love a product mightily like ice cream, there’s no need to do that thanks to all the great products that they have here and all the good information that you find when you visit HelloLife.net because we’re all about making sure your time on this planet is lived with the greatest enjoyment possible.  So, thank you, Jessica, really appreciate your expertise.

Jessica - You’re welcome.

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