Milk Allergies and Dairy Allergies: Dealing with Lactose Intolerance in a Milk-Saturated World

It’s one of the cruelest ironies in food consumption today. Milk allergies and dairy allergies are probably the most common food allergies in the world, yet everywhere you look, delicious products are full of milk and dairy ingredients. Avoiding a milk allergy and dairy allergy is not as simple as shunning ice cream and cheese. A person can feel the effects of milk allergies and dairy allergies after eating butter, pastries, chocolate, pudding, salad dressing, scrambled eggs, and mashed potatoes. It simply seems unfair.

To compound the problem, milk and dairy products may make you feel more congested if you have a cold, respiratory infection, or seasonal allergy. While milk and dairy products do not make your body to produce more mucus, these foods do cause mucus to be thicker and more irritating to your throat. This is why many people with respiratory congestion avoid milk and dairy products.

Milk allergies and dairy allergies in themselves, however, are another story. These allergies are caused by two different reactions: a milk allergy or lactose intolerance. Technically speaking, a milk allergy is a reaction of the immune system to milk proteins. Symptoms of milk allergy are more common in childhood and include vomiting, diarrhea, hives, runny nose, and ear infections.

On the other hand, lactose intolerance is a completely different ailment. Lactose intolerance is caused by the inability to break down lactose, the sugar in milk. What causes this failure? To digest lactose, the body needs a digestive enzyme called lactase. Many people do not produce enough of the lactase enzyme to digest milk and dairy products. A person with lactose intolerance experiences symptoms like stomach pain, bloating, vomiting, and diarrhea.

People with milk allergies and dairy allergies are usually interested in alternatives to cow’s milk products and other ways to achieve natural allergy relief. Supermarkets and health food stores are overflowing with products for milk allergies and dairy allergies, for example, soy milk, rice milk, oat milk, and coconut milk. For those concerned about their calcium intake, it’s advised that they find alternative calcium sources like salmon, kidney beans, sunflower seeds, green leafy vegetables, almonds, spinach, and broccoli.