As Good As Milk

Everyone knows that milk not only tastes good, it is also good for you. Milk is among the richest natural food sources of calcium, which is essential for healthy bones and teeth.

Besides being a natural and appetizing calcium source, milk has Vitamin D, crucial for calcium absorption as well as for protection against rickets (a Vitamin D deficiency that causes bone deformities in children). It also contains a whole ensemble of other nutrients, including zinc, iodine, iron and riboflavin, a B-complex vitamin. Simply put, milk plays a vital role in the mental and physical growth of children.

Regrettably, all the goodness of milk is of little use if your child cannot tolerate it. In the Philippines, studies have shown that up to 50 percent of Filipinos are lactose-intolerant.

Lactose intolerance is the intestine’s inability to digest the milk sugar "lactose." In other words, the body cannot readily absorb lactose in milk.

Ordinarily, everyone has an enzyme in the digestive system called lactase, which breaks lactose down into simple sugars that the intestine can absorb. In cases of lactose intolerance, the lactase enzyme is either absent or reduced, leaving the person unable to properly break the lactose down and digest it.

The undigested lactose then remains in the intestine, causing the typical symptoms of lactose intolerance, which include excess gas, bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

Fortunately, you can put your child on a lactose-free formula and not miss out on anything nutritionally. Mead Johnson’s lactose-free milk formulas are the simplest solutions to the nutrition needs of lactose-intolerant children.

Enfalac Lactofree (above 12 months) contains glucose polymers instead of lactose for easier digestion. Glucose polymers enhance the absorption of minerals at a rate comparable to lactose.

Unlike lactose, however, which can only be metabolized by the enzyme lactase, glucose polymers can be metabolized by five different enzymes.

The Enfa Lactofree line, based on cow’s milk, contains total milk protein for optimum physical growth. Protein is important because it helps in muscle building and in tissue repair.

Sixty percent of the brain is made up of fat, which makes up the structural and functional composition of the brain. Fat also aids in the absorption and transport of fat-soluble vitamins.

Essential fatty acids are also present in the Enfa Lactofree line to support and advance mental and body development, along with DHA brain builders – recognized as the building block of the brain and retinal tissue.

Mead Johnson’s Enfa Lactofree range is the only lactose-free line in the Philippines that can provide complete brain-building nutrition without the stomach discomforts caused by lactose. It‘s just as good as milk – in fact, for your lactose-intolerant child, it’s even better.