Babies, at birth, drink breast milk. If not, failing that, they take artificial milk, both lactose milks. Come on Babies, as a general rule, tolerate lactose without any problem. They grow up drinking their milk and when they reach 12 months the pediatrician and / or nurse explain that since they are one year old they can already drink any milk from the market, recommending whole milk (as recommended by the Spanish Association of Pediatrics and the WHO) .
For not knowing what reason, perhaps because supermarkets are full of lactose-free milk and it reads "easy digestion" or perhaps because someone is doing a very good, but false, marketing campaign, I find many mothers giving milk without Lactose to children who are not lactose intolerant, basically, because as of the year most children continue to tolerate lactose. Then I tell them that it is a mistake (for those who do not know me, I am a pediatric nurse in a primary care center) and I discover something they do not know: giving children lactose-free milk without being intolerant can cause lactose intolerance (at least temporarily).
How does this work on lactose and intolerance
Lactose is a type of sugar present in the milk of mammalian females formed by galactose and glucose. It is a sugar that, to be digested, must be broken down in the intestine (in galactose and glucose) by the action of an enzyme called lactase. The intestine is not capable of absorbing lactose, but it is capable of absorbing galactose and glucose, and that is why it is necessary for the breakdown that I comment to occur.
If it does not occur, or if a person produces little lactase and is insufficient to break down all the lactose that reaches the intestine, the whole lactose passes into the colon, where the bacteria ferment it, causing diarrhea, cramping, gas, bloating and nausea. . These, as you can imagine, are the symptoms of lactose intolerance, which is the way to say that someone does not produce enough lactase to take milk with lactose happily.
Babies produce enough lactase to tolerate the dairy they drink, but by 3 years of age they begin to produce less and less lactase and become lactose intolerant. Well, this is what has happened for millions of years, because 7,500 years ago it occurred an evolutionary adaptation in which many children could continue to drink milk without problems. That adaptation has lasted over time and depending on the area where you live it is more possible that you are tolerant, or more possible that you are intolerant.
In Spain, most children tolerate lactose perfectly, except for a minority who begin to develop symptoms from 3 to 5 years. These children are considered lactose intolerant and, to avoid having a bad time, they are recommended to drink lactose-free milk.
The triumph of marketing
What do manufacturers do to sell you their products? Well on most occasions, lie to you, or say half truths, or explain things in a way that seems to be better than something that doesn't really bring any benefits. They have been lying for years with many foods that promise, almost, almost, eternal life and now it seems that those in milk want to join the car.
Not happy to make versions enriched with calcium, vitamins and I don't know how many more things we can receive from a normal diet, not happy to make us think that fat is poison (when it turns out they should be part of a balanced diet), now they have decided Go for lactose, speaking of it as if it were the cause, it seems, of all evil.
You just have to see the supermarkets, full of lactose free products with a slogan (some) promising, but unreal: "Better digestion", "Light mornings" and things like that, aimed not only at intolerant people, but also at tolerant ones. And apparently the play is going well, because as I say, every time I see more children and more adults consuming lactose-free milk, as if that were a benefit.
It is not a benefit and can be detrimental
What happens if a lactose tolerant person drinks lactose-free milk? Nothing happens. That is to say, will not suffer any improvement because the fact of consuming lactose is not a problem. Lactose reaches your intestine, your lactase breaks it down, the intestine absorbs the resulting products and all so happy. Even the consumer, who is buying normal milk, cheaper than lactose-free milk.
But saying "nothing" is not quite true either, because Lactase production depends on lactose. If a child stops taking lactose because his mother thinks it will be better, what can happen is that he begins to produce less and less lactase. It is not that you stop producing completely and that you drink some milk it becomes very bad, but you can reduce your levels to the point of drinking a glass of normal milk (with lactose) one day at grandma's house and start to experience the symptoms Then, as you take lactose again it is possible that everything returns to its course, that is, that gradually increase lactase production, but of course, the symptoms will be there until I tolerate the amount it took time ago.
So please, don't do "healthy" experiments with your children and less if they have no foundation. In this case, as you can see, not giving lactose is harmful because you cause intolerance. In the event that a child is lactose intolerant, then yes, he should drink lactose-free milk on most occasions, and I say in the majority, because intolerant people do produce lactase.
The question, then, is to know how much lactase is produced, or what is the same, how much lactose is digested. There are children who can drink half a glass of milk with lactose, others almost a whole glass and others cannot even try it. Ideally, what is the limit to know how to take it or where not to. Why? Well, because intolerant people who drink lactose milk they absorb calcium from milk much better than if they only take lactose free and, attention to the data, better than the tolerant who drink lactose milk.
Photos | Thinkstock
In Babies and more | Pregnancy and lactose intolerance, Allergies in babies: Allergy to cow's milk proteins
