#lactase

[unbfacts]

Most mammals stop digesting milk well after childhood, and early humans were the same. But some human groups, especially herding communities in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South Asia, evolved lactase persistence, meaning they kept digesting milk as adults.

[torturing-characters-101]

So. I understand the body produces the enzyme, lactase, to help break down milk sugars. I also understand that people who are lactose intolerant don't produce/produce enough of this enzyme to comfortably consume many milk products. What I don't know is if there's a limit on how much lactose an average person with average lactose tolerance can intake in, say, an hour. Like the whole milk chugging challenge from the 90's? I distinctly remember reading that the reason people couldn't consume the entire gallon was because of the lactose, not the volume. Yet I can't find anything like that posted anywhere now.

Am I remembering this incorrectly? I mean, can my average character produce enough lactase to eat a metric ton of ice cream in one sitting? I imagine they would have some amount of gastric distress from reflux alone... but what about lactase?

(I realize this question is all kinds of jumbled. I hope you understand what I'm asking. 😭)

So first I would say it is unlikely that throwing up after doing the milk challenge had anything to do with lactase.

Lactase is expressed in the small intestine, not the stomach, which means that the main effect of consuming lactose with inadequate lactase would be gas and diarrhea, not vomiting. The vomiting was because of the volume and fat/protein content of the milk, not the lactose.

About 70% of adults do not produce enough lactase to consume normal dairy comfortably. HOWEVER, we have another way of consuming delicious lactose- bacteria in our colon.

Colonic gut bacteria can also break down lactose. While the amount of lactase we produce remains consistent no matter what, the amounts of these lactose-consuming bacteria change with the amount of lactose we consistently eat. This means we can functionally "train" for lactose consumption by eating progressively more of it over time.

If your character had "trained" for this lactose-consuming feat, and ate slowly enough that their stomach never over-filled, then sure, they could eat as much ice cream as they wanted without ill effect.

[er-cryptid]

[juuls]

Guess who thought they had lactose intolerance only to find out it’s a full-on case of intolerance towards any dairy protein? Not just the sugars that make up lactose?

Hah. Yeah. Me, that’s who. Don’t do dairy, kids. :P

But yeah all jokes aside, it really sucks when you find out you have a neurological condition that causes you to throw up constantly, only to then go on and screw things up even more, when you were just figuring out how to live again, with a Venti Sweet Cream Cold Brew (iced coffee) from Starbucks instead of your usual vanilla iced coffee with almond/soy milk. It has not been fun.

So now I gotta learn myself up on some of this knowledge thingamajig about total dairy intolerance/allergy. Anyone else have experience? Happy to listen to anyone who is not my parents joking cruelly about all the things I can never have again because Lactaid only targets lactose, not all dairy. From more than just cows. Uuuuugh.

Not like I haven’t already been living on only baking soda-heavy tea biscuits for the last 8 months or anything, y’know.

But first, sleep. It was a long damn night.

[kissthehydra]

[vampireslug]

look at this beautiful tin box my lactase pills came ^^

[umamiplant]

A lac-tragedy

[frognecromancer]

joke that i said earlier today that i'm proud of

lactose intolerant person with a thing for edging, call that a lactease