Say cheese!!

Cheese!! It’s one of those foods that can make appearances at every meal of the day and can even sneak its way into mid-morning and afternoon snacks. Whether it’s melted over scrambled eggs, piled atop a burger or layered into a lasagana, cheese seems to be everywhere in the American diet. In fact, the average American consumes nearly 31 pounds of cheese each year according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, placing the United States in the top 10 of cheese-consuming countries. Yet not everyone considers cheese to be the darling of the table. For many people suffering from lactose intolerance, cheese is just one more dairy product to avoid.

Made primarily from milk, cheese can contain lactose, the sugar that lactose-intolerant people cannot digest. As with other lactose-containing foods, the consumption of certain cheeses can prompt unwelcome digestive turmoil. According to a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the main symptoms people experience after eating certain cheeses are bloating and flatulence. It is little wonder, then, that cheese often receives the red light from those with lactose intolerance. There is hope, however, for the die-hard cheese-lover. Fortunately, like other fermented dairy foods such as cultured yogurt, many cheeses are actually highly tolerable. Thanks to the multistep process of making cheese, much of the lactose form the milk is eventually removed. In the beginning stages of making cheese, a starter culture is added to acidify the milk. This culture consumes some of the lactose, thereby reducing the amount of lactose in the final product.

The amount of whey (water and lactose) that is separated from the curd also helps to reduce the amount of lactose. If only a small portion of the whey is removed, the cheese will be soft and smooth in texture, like brie or ricatta. However, if most of the whey is removed, a hard cheese, like cheddar or Swiss, will result. In the final stage of cheese-making, aging, the last bit of lactose can be reduced. If the cheese is allowed to age for several weeks or months, natural microbes hatch within the cheese and feed off of the lactose. The longer the cheese ages, the harder the final product.

So what cheeses are your safest bets? According to the National Dairy Council, hard cheeses like cheddar, Swiss, Gouda and parmesan contain little to no lactose. Softer cheeses like brie, ricotta and cottage contain a higher percentage of lactose and may produce gassy results. We agree that hard cheeses are preferable. People with lactose intolerance can eat cheeses that have to be scraped or sliced but might find soft cheeses, such as cottage or cream, to cause symptoms.

Even if you’re craving a heaping spread of brie or a spoonful of ricotta, you’ll likely be able to tolerate smaller quantities of soft cheeses when you consume them with lactose tablets or other non-dairy foods. Any cheese containing lactose can be better tolerated when taken with other foods that delay gastric emptying, for example, foods containing fats. So the next time you’re craving a slice of pizza or a helping of lasagna, dive right in!! As long as you enjoy the harder selections of cheese or use lactose tablets, unwanted symptoms should remain at bay.