LTC3 - lactose in goats milk?
 

On page 15 on Low-Tech Companion 3, it says this:
However, as far as I can tell, it isn't true. Goat's milk at least seems to contain roughly as much lactose as cow's milk.

I only noticed it because I've recently lost my lactose tolerance and I'm really missing dairy products, so my first reaction when I read that was to start checking to see if I could eat goat's cheese. Sadly, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Re: LTC3 - lactose in goats milk?
 

I concur with this; I've been lactose intolerant for about 10 years now, and AFAIK there is no animal's milk that is lactose free. Even treated milk in the form of Lactaid still has a small amount of lactose in it. I can't tolerate even that.

Soy and rice-based milk substitutes are the only way to go to be completely lactose free. And watch out for anything that uses whey as a sweetener (at least based on the labelling laws here in Canada; may differ elsewhere).

I'm curious to know where the authors found this information; even a quick Google/Wikipedia search shows me the lactose content in goat's and sheep's milk, and it's roughly comparable to cow's milk.

Re: LTC3 - lactose in goats milk?
 

This seems a common myth. I've heard it from every doctor trained in the FSU. Of course all milk contains lactose.

Re: LTC3 - lactose in goats milk?
 

Well, I've read that for many people with lactose intolerance milk from goats / sheeps shows a better compatibleness, though it is not without problems, too. Of course it also contains lactose (but normally less than milk from cows). The same is true for cheese made from goats or sheeps and in that case I know it from first hand experience that it makes no problems for some people in comparison to cheese made out of conventional milk.

Re: LTC3 - lactose in goats milk?
 

Another option is supliments you can add to the milk to predigest the lactose. We get drops we add to our milk because one of my daughters and I are lactose intolerant and it works well. The milk ends up sweeter, but that's not a problem.

Re: LTC3 - lactose in goats milk?
 

Oops - GURPS better issue an apology to cover against being sued for publishing misleading information likely to result in injury or death:)
Or is that covered by "it's a game - Do Not try this for real!"

PS: I switched to goat but the cost & smell aren't worth it. On soya milk and goat cheese.

Re: LTC3 - lactose in goats milk?
 

IIRC, its just a bit less. As I understand it, there are a couple other reasons why Goat's milk appears to be better for "lactose intolerant" people:

1. Some symptoms that are misinterpreted as "lactose intolerance" actually result from a mild allergy to particular proteins in milk, since goat's milk has a different mix of proteins, it is sometimes the case that when these symptoms result from an allergy to proteins in cow's milk they are not present when drinking goat's milk.
2. Goat's milk appears to have certain digestive advantages which result in it being generally easier to digest, which can result in reduced symptoms of lactose intolerance.

Because goat's milk is often easier (often to the point of no symptoms at serving sizes that produce quite noticeable symptoms from cow's milk) for people to drink with either actual or misperceived "lactose intolerance", it is sometimes misunderstood to be "lactose free", which is, as you note, not at all the case.

Re: LTC3 - lactose in goats milk?
 

It's a standard incorrect statement from people who don't understand what lactose tolerance is, it's a pretty common point of ignorance.

With infants who are allergic to cow's milk, something like a third to half of those infants aren't allergic to goat or sheep's milk, this has nothing to do with lactose intolerance and everything to do with an allergic reaction to cow milk protein, beta-lactoglobulin. That allergy is often incorrectly referred to as lactose intolerance, which is incorrect.

When we Europeans lose our lactose tolerance we tend to really lose it, which means our tolerances go from almost total tolerance to an end point much lower than those of peoples across the world who don't have much lactose tolerance to begin with. Those people can eat goat's cheese, those of us who became lactose intolerant later in life can't.

Personally I carry lactaid pills (fast-acting lactase enzyme)* with me when I can, and keep an eye on ingredients to make sure I'm not getting any dairy without meaning to.
Still amazes me that cheap breads, tuna and sausages end up with whey in them as a binding agent, makes all those crappy products things I don't buy, so I'm eating less junk. I also end up only eating good dark chocolate with no milk in it, like Lindt's 70% cocoa.

*For heavy lactose food meals, like pizza or lasagna, (or desserts like ice cream), I take one pill as I start, one in the middle, and one at the end of the meal.

Re: LTC3 - lactose in goats milk?
 

Another trick for the truely lactose intolerant, rather than cows-milk intolerant, is eating heavy food that slows the evacuation of the stomach before having the dairy product. The stomach is what secretes the lactase, and even for us poor failed western stomach there's usually a bit of lactase being secreted - but it's at a very very low rate. The longer the dairy sits in your stomach, the more lactase gets applied to it - and if your rate of lactase production is low, you need every advantage you can get.

My lactose tolerance failed over a number of years after I hit puberty, despite regularly consuming dairy. But while it was still mid-plummet, I could get away with eating ice cream after a heavy meal of pasta. The main course would slow my stomach, and then the cold ice cream would slow it even further. I'd feel very logy and sort of overfilled for almost an hour after dinner, but I wouldn't suffer from the dairy at least.

Re: LTC3 - lactose in goats milk?
 

This is clearly errata. Perfect Organism (or anyone else), have you submitted it?