I am lactose intolerant to milk, so what about oat milk?

Milk is a drink called white blood. As a natural gift, milk is rich in nutrients and complete nutrition. Therefore, this drink suitable for all ages has become an indispensable food in daily life. Basically, many countries have included milk in the basic dietary guidelines, and this is also the case in my country.

However, this milk seems to be incompatible with us Chinese people. If you don’t believe me, go and ask around. I guess many adults have problems like bloating, nausea, and diarrhea after drinking milk.

What is going on? It turns out that this is due to the high rate of lactose intolerance in our country. Today, let’s talk about why lactose intolerance occurs and how to solve the problem of lactose intolerance.

01. Why are East Asians generally lactose intolerant?

Lactose intolerance, also known as lactose indigestion or lactose malabsorption, refers to the inability of the human body to break down lactose.

However, the distribution of lactose intolerance in the population is not uniform. For example, the lactose intolerance rate in European and American countries is very low, while the lactose intolerance rate in East Asian countries is quite high. Especially in my country, the vast majority of people have lactose intolerance problems. Therefore, when we drink milk containing lactose, we will inevitably encounter lactose difficulty in digestion, resulting in diarrhea and the like.

Why do East Asians have a high rate of lactose intolerance? The problem is actually genetics.

The important enzyme responsible for the breakdown of lactose in the human body is lactase, which is encoded by the MCM6 gene [1]. Mutations at the rs4988235 site on this gene result in three types of lactose breakdown abilities.

AA: can break down lactose

AG: can break down lactose tolerance

GG: Cannot break down lactose

As a result, for our country, this site is mostly GG, and the result is also GG.

Of course, if you ask why we Chinese have this genotype, there are many reasons. For example, our ancestors had this genotype, which is the founder effect in genetics. Another example is that our history of drinking milk is too short and there is a lack of screening (there is no way, dairy cows are not produced in East Asia, our local products are cattle and buffaloes).

However, many of us find it difficult to consume such a nutritious food as milk. Is there a solution?

02. How to solve lactose intolerance?

Changing genes is unrealistic. In fact, it is difficult for us to fundamentally reverse this situation every few hundred or thousand years, not to mention that this is not a strong evolutionary selection pressure, so it is estimated that it will be difficult in the end.

Of course, there are some strategies at present, such as hydrolyzing lactose in milk, but due to the increased technical difficulty, it is difficult to apply them universally.

In fact, there is no need to despair, because there is an alternative to milk, that is: oat milk. Oat milk is a drink made mainly from oats, and oats naturally do not contain lactose, so it can fundamentally avoid lactose intolerance.

Some people may be curious, can oat milk replace milk in terms of nutrition? The answer is yes.

As a widely planted cereal crop, oats are rich in nutrients. Let's take protein, which is of great concern to everyone, as an example. Oat milk is rich in protein. The protein content of raw oats alone is as high as 11/2-19/9%. In oat bran, the protein content can be as high as 30%.

Oat milk contains albumin, globulin, alcohol-soluble protein and gluten in relatively high levels.

As for the essential amino acids found in protein, oats are particularly complete[2].

Because of this, oat milk can be a good source of protein.

Of course, in addition to protein, oats are also rich in carbohydrates, fats, proteins, trace elements, dietary fiber and other ingredients[2].

Therefore, as a daily drink, oat milk provides nutrition that is no less than that of milk. It is a good alternative for many of us who are lactose intolerant.

03. How to choose oat milk?

In recent years, the market for oat milk has been growing, which also reflects the efforts of alternative milks in the face of lactose intolerance. There are already many brands of oat milk on the market. What should you pay attention to when buying oat milk?

Many nutritionists believe that calcium supplementation is the most important thing for foods like dairy products, because many other nutrients can be obtained from food. However, for Chinese people, due to factors such as dietary structure, our calcium intake is seriously insufficient. For example, studies have found that the calcium intake of the vast majority of people in my country is insufficient, and is even less than half of the standard calcium intake [3].

Compared with adult men, women's intake is even lower, mostly at 400 mg or less, which is only about half of the recommended adequate intake (AI).

Calcium is mainly found in bones in the human body and is used to maintain the basic physiological functions of bones. However, calcium has more than just this function, it is also involved in other physiological and biochemical processes. For example, calcium ions themselves are components of many enzymes, and calcium ions are also one of the basic components of important proteins in the human signaling pathway. In addition, calcium is also involved in the maintenance of nerve, muscle and other activities. Once these physiological activities lack calcium, they will cause huge problems in the body. Therefore, the body will give priority to maintaining the calcium needs of these tissues.

Milk often contains high calcium, which can be a good supplement of calcium. When choosing oat milk, try to choose those marked with calcium ingredients.

Oat milk has made great progress now. For people who are lactose intolerant, it is a good way to supplement their daily nutrition.

1 Arroyo, Marta AS, et al. "Perspectives for Early Genetic Screening of Lactose Intolerance:-13910C/T Polymorphism Traking in the MCM6 Gene." The Open Biology Journal 3 (2010): 66-71.

2 FAO. FAO/INFOODS Food Composition Database for Biodiversity Version 3.0 –BioFoodComp3.0. FAO, Rome. 2016

3 Liu Aidong, Zhang Bing, Wang Huijun, Du Wenwen, Su Chang, Zhai Fengying. Dietary nutrient intake and changing trends in nine provinces and autonomous regions of China from 1991 to 2009 (VI) Dietary calcium intake and changing trends of adults aged 18 to 49 years [J]. Acta Nutrimenta Sinica, 2012, 34(01): 10-14.