Dude, where’s my lactose? II

A couple of emails over the weekend from readers who asked that I clarify the fact that yogurt is not 100% lactose free. Indeed that’s true. The most you can say about yogurt is that, like cheese, it’s a dairy product in which the lactose has been drastically reduced (usually by half, frequently by 60% or more). It’s this significant reduction in lactose that makes yogurt acceptable to the majority of lactose intolerant people. The reason — at least as I understand it — is because lactose intolerance is more about a threshold of tolerance than an allergy-like sensitivity. Many doctors maintain that even a lactose intolerant person can digest about a cup of milk per day, or the equivalent amount of lactose in the form of cheese or yogurt. Some people are more sensitive even than that, in which case they can’t eat yogurt, either.