The Causes Of Milk Indigestion and Their Solutions!
Many people cannot tolerate milk and milk products.
They develop varying degrees of abdominal discomfort, pain, bloating, gases, diarrhoea when they consume milk.
The commonest cause of this is lactose intolerance.
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Lactose intolerance:
Lactose is the major sugar present in milk.
It is composed of two sugars namely glucose and galactose.
Our body needs an enzyme called lactase to digest lactose.
Lactase is an enzyme that is produced in the what is called as the brush border of the epithelial lining of the small intestines of humans and other mammals.
A large number of people lack adequate amounts of lactase and are unable to digest lactose fully and hence suffer from bloating, gases, diarrhoea and abdominal discomfort when they have milk.
Lactase is also available as a food supplement and is added to milk to produce ‘lactose free’ milk products.
People with lactose intolerance can take lactase supplements before consuming milk and milk products or add it to them before consuming them.
A few people may have difficulty digesting a protein in milk.
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Curds and buttermilk:
Can lactose intolerant people consume curds and buttermilk?
What happens to lactose on converting milk to curds and buttermilk?
Curds are prepared by adding a spoonful of previously made curds to warm milk and allowing it to stand for a few hours.
Milk develops lactic acid bacteria, majorly Lactobacillus and Streptococcus thermophilus) when previously made curds are added to it.
These bacilli ferment lactose present in the milk into lactic acid over several hours.
They partially digest lactose, breaking it down first into glucose and galactose and then to lactic acid, that is, they partially ferment lactose to lactic acid, converting milk to curds and also gives curds the sour taste.
This process reduces lactose content in the curd by 20 to 50 per cent depending on how long the curds are allowed to stand before consumption.
The longer the curds stand, the lower is its lactose content and greater is its lactic acid content, and the sourer it gets.
Buttermilk is made by adding water to the curds.
Can lactose-intolerant people tolerate curds and buttermilk?
The bacteria have already done part of the digestion for them.
Live bacteria in the curd continue breaking down lactose inside the gut after eating.
So mildly lactose intolerant people can tolerate homemade curd well.
Moderately intolerant people can tolerate it in small amounts, especially with other food.
Severely intolerant people will still suffer from lactose intolerance on consuming curds and buttermilk.
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Gulab jam, pedha, burfi and kalakand.
Sweets made from khava or mava or khoya
Can lactose intolerant people eat sweets like gulab jam, pedha, burfi and kalakand made from khava or mava or khoya?
Khava or mava or khoya is made by slowly evaporating whole milk over low heat until most of the water content is evaporated and only the milk solids remain.
It’s an essentially a concentrated, thick mass of milk solids, not a curdled product.
Fat, lactose, and milk proteins all concentrate together in khava.
It forms the base of many popular Indian sweets such as gulab jamun, pedha, burfi, and kalakand.
Since all lactose in milk is retained in a concentrated form in khava, sweets made from it can cause maximum discomfort in intolerant people.
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Bengali mithai
Bengali sweets are made by adding lemon juice or vinegar or rennet to milk. This causes the casein, the major protein in milk to coagulate or clump together as a solid mass and the other protein, the whey in milk separates out as a liquid.
Most of the lactose drains out in the whey, only a small amount stays trapped in the casein mass.
Bengali sweets are made from this solid mass.
Thus lactose intolerant people can handle Bengali sweets better than sweets made from khava or mava.
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Paneer
To make paneer, lime juice or vinegar is added to milk, similar to how it is done when making Bengali mithai.
This causes the casein to coagulate and form a solid mass, separating it from the whey protein in liquid form, carrying with it major portions of lactose in milk.
The resultant mass of casein is immediately pressed to further remove more of the whey protein and lactose.
But unlike in case of the Bengali sweet making process, the casein mass in paneer making process is not washed in water repeatedly.
So about 2 to 3 gm percent lactose still remains in paneer.
So paneer can trouble people lactose intolerance more than Bengali sweets.
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Cheese
The cheese making process is more sophisticated and complex.
In this process first lactobacilli and then rennet are added to standardised, pasteurised milk heated to specific temperature.
These bacteria begin to digest the lactose in milk.
Some cheeses are ripened or aged in controlled conditions (temperature and humidity) for between a few months to three years.
So these bacteria get ample time to digest most of the lactose in the cheeses, retaining only 0.1 to 0.5 gm percent lactose.
People with lactose intolerance can eat and digest these aged or ripened cheeses more easily.
Cheddar, Parmesan, Gouda are some of the examples of these kind of cheeses.
On the other hand Mozzarella is a cheese that is consumed immediately or in a few days.
The lactobacilli in this cheese do not get much time to digest much of the lactose in it.
So 1 to 3 gm percent lactose is retained in this cheese.
So lactose intolerant people will find it difficult to tolerate this milk.
Amul cheese comes in three variants, processed Cheddar cheese, Cheddar cheese and Mozzarella cheese.
If have lactose intolerance but still love to eat cheese, eating the actual Cheddar cheese will be much safer, not the processed Cheddar or the Mozzarella cheeses.
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Milk proteins:
Milk majorly has two proteins, casein and whey proteins, the former contributing nearly eighty per cent while the latter makes up most of the balance twenty per cent of milk protein.
Casein has two major components, the A1 beta casein and and A2 beta casein proteins.
Most buffalo and cow milk have both A1 and A2 variants of the beta casein proteins.
The milk from Indian breed cows, Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, etc. is mostly A2 β-casein type, while milk from all breeds of buffaloes is also mostly A2 β-casein type.
Most large Indian dairies have hybrid cows.
The milk from hybrid cows is majorly of the A1 β-casein type.
The Western breed cows in the US and Europe is also majorly of the A1 β-casein type.
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Milk protein intolerance:
It is this A1 beta casein that a few people have difficulty in digesting fully.
These people may have some abdominal discomfort when they have milk having both the A1 and A2 variants of the beta casein proteins.
But their number is much smaller than the people having lactose intolerance.
Sixty five to seventy per cent of the world population has varying degrees of lactose intolerance while much fewer people possibly suffer from milk protein intolerance.
Some milk variants of both buffalo and cow milk have only the A2 variant and not the A1 variant of the beta casein proteins.
The A2 milk is marketed at a special premium as a milk that is easier to digest and does not cause discomfort like gases and bloating which regular milk causes in some people.
Although there is not enough scientific evidence to support it, the findings are mixed, some people may experience less discomfort with the A2 milk, whether cow or buffalo, than the regular milk.
Other than that there is no special nutritional advantage of the A2 milk over the regular milk.
But if you like it, are more comfortable drinking it and don’t mind paying the premium for it, you can continue to use it.
The A1 variant of beta-casein can be found in cow’s milk from certain breeds like Holstein, while the A2 variant is found in milk from other breeds like Guernsey and Jersey cows.
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The Gir cow:
Currently the Gir cow milk is touted as a highly superior milk and is sold at a considerable premium.
Not only Gir, but milk from all other indigenous breeds like the Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, etc. is mostly A2 β-casein type.
It is quite likely that buying the more expensive Gir cow milk is getting fashionable amongst our urban affluent, not unlike the use of olive oil!
Gir cow milk does have more A2 proteins than A1 proteins.
Some Gir cow milk may have only the A2 variant proteins but there is no guarantee that all Gir cow milk has only the A2 β-casein proteins and no A1 β-casein proteins at all, unless you have it tested in a specialised laboratory.
The milk of all the Indian buffalo breeds is also almost entirely A2 β-casein type.
Plus the buffalo milk is much more nutrient dense than any cow milk and has more proteins, calcium and vitamins than any cow milk.
And small local dairies and ‘gavlis’ may illegally use the banned hormone rBGH to increase the milk production of these cows.
Drinking milk from these cows can marginally increase the circulating hormone IGF-1 and some epidemiological studies have linked higher levels of IGF-1 to increased risk of breast, pancreas and colon cancers.
Cows injected with this hormone develop mastitis more often and may receive more antibiotics which are carried in their milk.
This hormone does not work well on buffaloes, hence they are not used even illegally on buffaloes and thus the risk of having more IGF-1 and antibiotics in your milk is also eliminated.
So, if you want A2 β-casein type milk, buffalo milk is a much better option than buying Gir milk at exorbitant cost!
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What matters more is that the milk you get comes from buffaloes or cows those graze in open natural pastures, on grass that is free of harmful chemicals and pesticides and the animals are not injected with hormones and antibiotics.
But it is difficult in the current scenario to ensure this.
And buffalo milk is definitely superior to cow milk, you can look for A2 buffalo milk if you like it, tolerate it better or are very keen on buying A2 milk only.
Read more about the nutrition of milk on the link ‘Magical Health Benefits Of Milk’ on this website.