A nutritionist explains the difference between a marketing and genuine diagnosis of lactose intolerance

Natalya Gridina, a dietitian at the Budu online health management service, said that doctors often determine the diagnosis of lactase deficiency based on marketing considerations, but it has nothing to do with real milk sugar intolerance. About it writes Life.

“Now lactase deficiency, one might say, is a trend in the field of medicine and near-medical communities, but it does not quite correlate with real lactose intolerance, because in our country only 20% of people have this diagnosis,” said Gridina.

According to her, there is a genetic lactase deficiency. In this case, the human body from childhood reacts even to the minimum amount of milk: fermentation, diarrhea appear, and health worsens.

Such intolerance to milk sugar can be detected by passing the test, the specialist noted.

There is also constitutional lactase deficiency – when, with age, the amount of an enzyme that breaks down lactose decreases in a person. Such patients can consume dairy and sour-milk products in small volumes.

The real lactose intolerance is detected immediately. According to the doctor, such patients feel worse immediately after eating products with lactose and this happens almost every time.

To make sure that this is indeed lactose intolerance, you need to consult a gastroenterologist and take a test: genetic, endoscopic, respiratory or blood sampling, the nutritionist recommends.

Gridina also said that she “noted the connection between the increase in the production of vegetable milk in our country and the coverage of the issue of lactase deficiency.”

In her opinion, “this is a marketing ploy, because the diagnosis of true lactase deficiency in Russia has <...> only 20% of the citizens.

At the same time, she noted that in Germany people with such a diagnosis are “about 90%, since northern people really do not tolerate milk very well.”