6 Dairy Foods That are Naturally Low in Lactose

• Butter:

Butter is low in lactose. For example;-14g of butter contains less than 1% of lactose which is easily well-tolerated by lactose intolerant patient. If you are still concerned by the lactose amount in butter, you can replace it with clarified butter or butter made from fermented milk. These both products contain less lactose even than regular yogurt.

• Goat milk:

Goat milk also low in lactose than regular cow’s milk. But they both have same nutritional profile. It contain less than 10% lactose than cow milk. For e.g;- one cup of goat milk contains 9g of lactose while cow milk contain 12g of lactose.

• Probiotic Greek Yogurt:

Greek yogurt is strained yogurt, tend to have low lactose It contains 8.5g  of  lactose per serving. So people with lactose intolerance much find easier to digest the full fat/strained yogurt than regular milk.

• Aged Hard cheese:

Aged hard cheeses included those cheeses(swiss, cheddar and parmesan cheese), which are being aged for at least 6 months. Enzyme breaks lactose more and more over time, so very lactose remain left after 6 month of cheese aging process. That’s why the longer the cheese is aged, the more the lactose break down. Due to these reasons, hard cheeses are often very low in lactose which makes them tolerable for lactose intolerant patient. For e.g;- 100g of cheddar cheese include trace amount of lactose in it.

• Heavy cream:

Heavy cream is made by skimming the fatty liquid which contains high lactose. So, there is low lactose and high fat remain in heavy cream which makes it tolerable for lactose intolerant patient. A 15ml of heavy cream only contains 0.5g of lactose.

• Kefir:

Kefir is cultured beverage made by adding kefir grains in milk. It is somewhat similar to yogurt and has tart and creamy flavor.  It is 100% lactose free because it can be also be made by non-dairy alternatives such as coconut milk, fruit juices etc. A study shows that fermented dairy products like yogurt and kefir reduce the symptoms of lactose intolerance by 54-71%.