Why Are So Many People Lactose Intolerant?
Humans are the only mammals who eat dairy into adulthood.
When I was a junior in college, I thought I’d developed an ulcer. I would get gnawing gut pains, sometimes accompanied by burping or bloating. I looked up the symptoms in a textbook (there was no internet in those days), and all signs pointed to acid reflux. It made sense, what with all the stress I was dealing with in my pre-med classes and work-study. I could almost feel the acid burning a hole through my stomach.
The remedy, I had read, was to eat a lot of dairy. It was thought to “neutralize” acid. That sounded great to me. My favorite meal was ice cream. On really bad nights, I would scarf down an oversized chocolate peanut butter cone in place of dinner and try to convince myself I felt better. To my surprise, my symptoms got worse. I even started getting diarrhea. And the gas–so noxious it would have knocked out Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Terminator 2 was super popular back then.)
One day, I asked the medical student in my research lab what she thought.
“Lactose intolerance,” she diagnosed, confidently.
“What’s the treatment?” I asked.
In the days before Lactaid, her answer was funereal. “Stop eating dairy.”
