THINGS THAT MATTER: Pine Hill Dairy’s Fabulous Lactose Free Milk

I was asked by several people a couple of years ago to explain the milk lactose/lactase story, and why some of us can’t drink milk without uncomfortable bloating, pain or diarrhoea. So here again is the full explanation, and kudos to Pine Hill Dairy for bringing us lactose free milk – the one in the purple and blue carton, labelled 2 per cent Reduced Fat Lactose Free Milk, that 80 to 90 per cent of us need.

Like the legendary phantom of the comics, I’m a milk drinker. Sadly, I have the gene for lactose intolerance, became intolerant about 20 years ago, and spent a fortune on lactase tablets. But finally, with Pine Hill Dairy’s new Lactose Free Milk introduced a couple of years ago, I can drink my favourite drink again, by the muscle-building glassful! So let me explain about lactose intolerance, and why so many of us have it.

Lactose is the sugar contained in milk … cow’s milk, goat’s milk and human milk. It comprises just under 5 per cent of cow’s milk, and it’s just slightly lower in goat’s milk. It’s a large sugar, or a “disaccharide”, twice the size of glucose, which is the sugar “currency” of the body – the “simple sugar”. Even cane sugar, sucrose, which is a bigger sugar, like lactose, has to be broken down in the gut into glucose and fructose, so it can be absorbed into the blood, while lactose must be broken down into glucose and galactose.

The problem is that the enzyme that breaks down lactose, called lactase, is in plentiful supply in infants and children, but its production falls rapidly in some populations by adulthood. And if you don’t have the gene for continuous production of lactase, you’ll be intolerant of lactose, and milk will therefore upset you – because if the lactose isn’t broken down, it will produce gaseousness (no rude words here!), bloating, maybe abdominal pain, and as it absorbs water into the gut the most common problem is diarrhoea. Some readers told me two years ago: “At last! Now I understand why I get diarrhoea every time I have a milk shake!”

Who suffers from lactose intolerance? Well, most of us in Barbados do! Northern Europeans, Laps and Russians, who use a lot of milk, are well adapted, and only about 5 per cent of them are intolerant. Most Europeans, Caucasians or “whitish” people are only about 10 per cent intolerant when young, but it increases in older folk - usually by the age of 50 or 60, like me. Asians and Africans are most commonly lactose intolerant… in fact the vast majority, as up to 90 per cent of adults of most African, African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Asian populations are lactose intolerant – perhaps only partially so as children, adolescents and young adults, but increasingly so with age and most commonly by adulthood.

So of course, in Barbados, where people who are black or brown often have European ancestors as well, and people who are “whitish” often have African ancestors too, it means that the great majority of us are affected. It’s such a common problem that most of us over 50, raised on terribly sweet condensed milk, never had the wherewithal to drink copious milk until Pine Hill Dairy started – and most of us then suffered bloating, flatulence and diarrhoea. And so the word went around “That milk e’n no good!” No one understood the problem, and sadly no one explained it. Even some doctors would tell mothers not to give the children milk, because “they must be allergic to it”. And yet the solution was so simple – Pine Hill merely had to produce milk free of lactose, and hey presto – like magic – we can all drink milk, just like the phantom – and perhaps perform the miracles of strength and agility that he does!

My mother only became intolerant in her 60s, when her favourite food, ice cream, started to cause her problems. I became intolerant at 50, and had to cut back on ice cream, spend a fortune on lactase tablets and nag Pine Hill into producing it! And of course ice cream is made with ordinary milk. On the plus side, less ice cream means less sugar intake, and so less obesity! Yoghurt and many cheeses, however, have much less lactose, and many partly intolerant people can eat yogurt and cheese in reasonable amounts.

One of the problems of lactose intolerance is that other milk substitutes are promoted, one of which, almond “milk” is absolutely nothing like milk. It’s “white water” with a few vitamin additives and whitened to look like milk, and has a mere one gram of protein per standard glass, compared to NINE grams of protein in milk! So the nutritional value is almost zero. It might be considered libellous to call it a scam, so I won’t, but you see the point.

So – a big bouquet for the New Year goes once again to Pine Hill Dairy and Banks! Well done, folks, you’ve made a huge contribution to the health of Barbadians – if only people who think they can’t drink milk can be informed and educated about it. And I understand the additional cost of the lactose reducing process at the factory is being dealt with in-house. Thanks, Banks!

Let’s hope that our medical colleagues, our nutritionists, our dieticians and our nurses (potentially the most powerful health educators of all) will all help to get the message across that this is the milk we can all drink now… LACTOSE FREE MILK … and NOT almond “milk” and NOT all those high sugar drinks!

So on that note, incorporate milk into your healthy 2018 diet … More fish, fruit, fibre and milk, less sugar, salt and fat! And you’re on your way to better health.

Postscript: Speaking of drinks, as I’ve said elsewhere, we in the health care field all congratulated the Minister of Finance for the tax on sugar laden beverages, but as I said then, and elsewhere and again in my Golden Jubilee lecture on Health Care, 10 per cent on something considered essential, or compulsive, or addictive, or necessary, is just a token, ignored with a laugh and taken in stride. It needs to be at least another 20 per cent on top of that 10 per cent added so long ago to make a difference, and it WILL make a difference to our people’s health, AS SHOWN ELSEWHERE! WHAT ARE WE WAITING ON?.

Bouquet: To our newly appointed Governor General, Dame Sandra Mason, whose distinguished career has taken her from the village community of Bayfield, in the Republic of St. Philip, to Government House. Congratulations, Dame Sandra!

(Professor Fraser is Past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology. Website: profhenryfraser.com)