is my upset stomach absorbing all those nutrients?
 

I'm lactose intolerant, incurably addicted to dairy products, and cheap: a bad combination for my stomach because I refuse to either stop eating dairy or pay for lactaid pills. I've learned to live with the stomach aches, but when I started monitoring my diet to make sure I was getting enough calcium (being high risk for osteoporosis) and other vitals everyday, I started to wonder if I should be getting lactaid pills after all. Here the question I hope somebody will be able to answer:

Does the inability to digest lactose affect the absorption of other things you eat at the same time as the dairy products that upset your stomach? :confused:

my guess would be no. or, not significantly.

essentially, lactose is gonna work on you like fiber (well, i really have no idea, but i think it's a good guess).

i say this because fiber is from the cellulose of plants, which is a plant carbohydrate. and when you break cellulose down to its monosacharride form, it's just B-glucose. so cellulose is just a long chain of B-glucose.

lactose is a disacharride made up of two a-glucose molecules bonded together. since you lack the enzyme to digest it lactose should just work like mini-chains of cellulose, like fiber.

fiber can block some fat absorption and i beleive some vitamin absorption when you have a lot of fiber with a meal. but fibers a lot longer than these little 2 glucose molecules bound together.
so they may block a little, but probably not much.

Here's an article where they studied the impact of lactose intolerance on calcium absorbtion. As well as I understood - it does not. It also mentioned that eating yogurt and other things with live cultures in it can help the person digest the milk better.

http://www.osteo.org/newfile.asp?doc...TML+Fact+Sheet

I am guessing on this one. I take acidophilous tablets to avoid yeast problems but that is the bacteria found in yogurt. It may help in the digestion of the milk and prevent some of the discomfort. Lactobacilous acidophilous or at least a form of it is some of the natural flora in the digestive tract and getting it in the tablet form is a pretty cheap tablet. Granted you can just get the lactaid pills but I think it would be still cheaper than that.

Thanks guys! It seems like you're both right, from the way that article sounded. Plus, there's good news: osteo.org also tells me that my problem is more one of lactose maldigestion than intolerance. I'm going to run out and pick up some yogurt for that active culture action today!