Around one in 10 Australians suffers from lactose intolerance, here’s a little insight into lactose intolerance.

Sufferers lack an enzyme that enables them to break down and digest the lactose sugar that naturally occurs in dairy foods. “If people with this problem drink too much milk, they end up with pain, bloating, wind and even diarrhoea,” nutrition expert and author Catherine Saxelby.

Saxelby says. It’s more common in Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Aboriginal and Maori populations than those of northern European descent and can be triggered by a bout of gastroenteritis or conditions such as coeliac disease.”

Main offenders 

Dairy intolerance doesn’t automatically mandate abstinence from all dairy foods. “Research shows that most people with low enzyme levels can have up to two glasses of milk daily, with meals, without symptoms,” Saxelby says. Hard cheeses and other matured or ‘ripened’ cheeses (such as brie, camembert and feta cheese) also tend to be well tolerated as they’re low in lactose or lactose free.

Learn more about what it means to be gluten intolerant.