Think you’re lactose-intolerant? Maybe, maybe not. Think being lactose-intolerant means you can’t eat cheese? Maybe you can.

In this episode, we talk about the various forms of dairy sensitivities, how the cheesemaking process transforms milk to make it more digestible, and what options you may have when dairy doesn’t love you back.

Sources and resources for this episode:

• The Science of Cheese on geographic distribution of the lactase persistence gene
• I discuss the simple answer to Mongolian dairy consumption in the podcast. The more complicated answer has to do with the microbiome of our environment and food system, and how that affects our own digestive systems. This article gives a nice overview of a very active area of scientific research.
• Food allergy vs. food intolerance: What’s the difference?
• Systematic Review of the Gastrointestinal Effects of A1 Compared with A2 β-Casein (Note that this paper only looks at liquid milk, since the effect of “the presence of cultures in fermented and aged products…are sufficiently complex to warrant a separate review.” However, it can give you some understanding of the likely effects of the respective proteins, even when they’re modulated by the cheesemaking process.)

Post image and sound effects from Wikimedia