Lactose

Today I went for my lactose intollerance test. I'd had to eat a very restricted diet over the last few days, fast overnight and then head to the hospital for 8:30am. Basically the test involves drinking a disgusting warm sugary solution which is made from disolving a dose of lactose in hot water then every 30 minutes you blow in to a little machine that measures the amount of hydrogen (a by-product of undigested lactose) in your breath. If it comes out positive you can often solve the problems you have eating dairy by taking a few tablets containing the lactase enzyme before you eat dairy, also cheese (oh how I miss you cheese), yoghurt and goat/sheep milk is more tolerated due to the decreased lactose.

It turns out my problems with dairy lie in an intolerance to the proteins in milk rather than the sugars. They can't do anything to help you with this and it explains why the lactase tablets never seemed to work when I'd accidentally poison myself.