Foods with lactose: detailed overview

If you suffer from an intolerance to lactose, you have to choose your food carefully. Because not everything is tolerated. We give you an overview of the foods that contain lactose.

Many foods contain lactose

Lactose is the sugar in milk. It provides energy and is involved in various metabolic processes. In this way it promotes calcium absorption and favors the intestinal flora. If there is an intolerance, however, lactose is not completely broken down during digestion. This leads to complaints such as abdominal pain and cramps, bloating or diarrhea. How well or badly you tolerate a food with a lactose intolerance depends primarily on the concentration in the respective product. But your individual situation also plays a role.

• Dairy products and milk have the highest lactose content. These include whole milk powder, skimmed milk powder, whey powder, condensed milk and breast milk. These products are not tolerated in case of intolerance. A little less lactose is found in cow's milk, sheep's milk, goat's milk, buttermilk, thick milk, whey, yogurt, low-fat curd cheese, sour cream, cream and kefir. This depends on your personal tolerance limit, which must be tested in each individual case. Butter is generally tolerated, and margarine is also not a problem.
• Caution is generally required when it comes to confectionery. Milk chocolate, nougat, chocolates, ice cream and semolina porridge contain milk sugar in a high concentration. Ready-made desserts also contain lactose.
• Cheese also contains lactose. The longer the ripening process, the higher the tolerance. Common varieties such as Gouda, Edam, Leerdamer and Parmesan are unproblematic. They contain very little lactose. Feta, Camembert, Emmentaler or Appenzeller have only a little more lactose and are well tolerated. Mascarpone, mozzarella, cottage cheese and cream cheese are individually digestible. Processed cheese contains a lot of lactose and is considered to be intolerant of intolerance.
• Especially with processed products, the lactose content is not always obvious. Here you have to study the contents carefully. Bread and baked goods made with milk or milk powder are an example of this. You should be careful with cakes, milk rolls, waffles but also with crispbread and biscuits.
• Many sausage products also contain lactose. This affects mainly reduced-fat goods, but also ham, liver sausage, cooked sausages and canned sausage.
• The numerous industrially produced ready meals and instant products can also be problematic. From frozen pizza to canned fish, meat and vegetables to fast food, you can count on lactose everywhere. This also applies to fixed products, instant soups, instant creams and mashed potatoes in powder form for self-mixing. Here, too, a look at the list of ingredients helps before eating. At this point, ready-made sauces, dressings, mayonnaise, pesto, mustard and ketchup are all mentioned, all of which contain milk sugar.
• Dietary supplements can also contain lactose. Lactose can even be found in muesli, spices and medication. Many additives such as thickeners or binders used in the food industry can contain lactose.

In the next article, you will read all the important facts about e-substances in food.