Nutritionally Speaking: Drinking Milk Uncalled For (draft)

Dear Dr. Meinig: How come when so many can drink milk and are urged to do so, that when I do I get all bloated, full of gas and have diarrhea? Is there any solution to my problem? —N.B.

Dear N.B.: Whether or not Americans drink milk, they most certainly feel they should. However, this belief is an incorrect one; in fact, the majority of the world’s people avoid the use of milk. Most of the races living around the globe discovered, as you have, that they become ill when it is used.

The main reason, we now know, is that about the age of six, the majority of individuals lose an enzyme in the intestine called lactase. This enzyme is necessary to digest milk sugar, technically known as lactose.

In order to utilize milk sugar it must first be split into glucose and galactose. This is readily accomplished during infancy by the lactase enzyme. When it is missing the normal digestive process can’t take place. The result is a retention of fluid in the intestine, which, in turn, leads to diarrhea.

If milk isn’t properly broken down, bacteria in the colon cause the undigested sugar to ferment and to produce organic acids that are responsible for the formation of gaseous, acid stools.

The mal-digestion problem, called lactose intolerance, occurs in 15 percent of whites; 60 to 70 percent of Blacks, Jews and Mexican Americans; 80 percent of Indians, Eskimos, Formosans and South Nigerians, and 90 percent of Orientals. 

We should really think of intolerance to lactose as a normal happening and those who can tolerate it, the abnormal ones. This interpretation will seem more realistic when one learns that 90 percent of land animals lose the enzyme lactase after infancy.

There are a number of other reasons for not drinking milk. First of all, after our teeth erupt they provide a number of functions along with their role in mastication. During chewing, several of the enzymes contained in saliva are mixed with the food and start the first stage of the digestive process.

The main salivary enzyme amylase (ptyalin) begins dividing carbohydrates into the utilizable fractions that can be used by our cells. This action continues on in the food for some 20 minutes or so after food enters the stomach. When we consume foods as a beverage we by-pass this first important step of the digestive process, thereby creating a deficiency situation.

In addition, the protein contained in cows’ milk is three times higher than that found in human milk and it has some different characteristics that make it responsible for the occurrence of infant diarrhea and bloating. 

Also, one should be aware of the high amount of growth hormone that is necessary in the milk of cows in order for a calf to grow into a cow in one year’s time. The excess tallness of some of our young people, as well as possible other problems, are thought to be related to this large amount of growth hormone. To compound the problem, there is now a push going on to inject cows with an artificial growth hormone in order to stimulate milk production to an even greater extent than already exists.

Those with lactose intolerance don’t find it too hard to give up drinking milk. What is really difficult for them is trying to avoid all the foods that contain dairy products.

Dairy products that can usually be used by those who can’t tolerate milk are yogurt, buttermilk, hard cheeses (cheddar and cheshire) and cottage cheese. The lacto-bacillus bacteria in “soured” milk products reduce the lactose to an amount that can be tolerated by most people. However, some companies add milk and cream to these products during their fabrication, making them unfit for use by lactase deficient individuals.

A supplement of the enzyme lactase is available and can be purchased in health food stores and pharmacies under a variety of names. A common one that has been around for quite a while is called Lact-aid. When the enzyme is allowed to act on the milk for the period specified, it has about a 70 percent efficiency of converting the milk sugar. If it is allowed to act on the milk for the period specified, it has about a 70 percent efficiency of converting the milk sugar. If it is allowed to sit for two or three days, 90 percent of the lactose is converted. The resulting product will be sweet to the taste.

You can understand why I wouldn’t suggest using this means to enable one to continue using milk as a beverage, but those who lack the enzyme could find the purchase of the lactase enzyme helpful when milk is desired for cooking and for cereals.