Note: I am not a doctor. Read my medical disclaimer.
2024 was a terrible year for me health wise.
I got my stomach upset over and over again and I could not figure out why.
At first I thought it was from all the traveling I was doing, so I took some time off and stayed home. No difference.
Then I though it was something wrong with the water, so I started eating foods cooked in mineral water. That didn’t solve it.
It was very perplexing because every 2 days I would basically feel like my stomach was getting destroyed.
As it so happened that the wife was reading a book called The Elimination Diet (USA, India) to help me out and asked me to try it. I had no better option so I just agreed.
First I removed wheat from my diet. No real difference. I was still getting sick every other day.
Then I added the wheat back and removed dairy products from my diet.
BOOM.
All my stomach issues were gone. I hadn’t felt so great all year.
It was amazing. I had finally figured out what the problem was after almost a full year of having an upset stomach over and over again.
The problem was I had become lactose intolerant. Apparently it can just happen to people as they age.
The body stops producing lactase (an enzyme that breaks lactose down) which makes it impossible for you to digest the lactose in milk so it ends up in your large intestine and is fermented by the bacteria there which is what makes you gassy and sick.
Anyone who’s been reading me for a while knows how much I like milk and milk products and used to get in a lot of milk products to increase my protein intake.
So becoming lactose intolerant was a huge bummer.
For some time I avoided all milk products altogether (my stomach was thankful) but later I started consuming some milk products with a lactase enzyme supplement because diary is just too hard to avoid especially when you travel as much as me.
Even the lactase enzyme only helps so much. It doesn’t work all the time and you still need to keep your lactose consumption low. But it does allow you to eat that ice cream and other creamy foods on occasion.
For whey protein, I moved to whey protein isolate which barely has any lactose.
Anyway, I looked into it further and found that I can somewhat improve my lactose tolerance by improving my gut bacteria with probiotics.
I went to see a specialist and got a prescription (although he was very dubious that it would work).
I took this pre-biotic and pro-biotic pill called Velgut for a few months 2 times a day.
The end result was that I am much less lactose intolerant than I used to be (or more lactose tolerant, whatever is the right way to put it).
Again: This is not an ad / I haven’t been paid to say this / I am not a doctor. Read my medical disclaimer.
Earlier I would start feeling sick even if I ate even a single slice of Amul cheese. Now I can eat 4 slices with no symptoms (I haven’t tested with higher).
Previously I would need lactase enzyme no matter what milk product I ate. Now I only need the lactase enzyme tablets if I’m eating foods that contain straight milk or just large quantities of milk products.
I don’t need to worry about small amounts of lactose anymore and that’s significantly improved my quality of life (especially when traveling).
Now this is not like any of my usual articles. The motivation behind publishing this is that statistically, since so many people read this website, there are many lactose intolerant people among you who might benefit from this.
If that’s you, you can give this a shot and see if it works for you. For legal reasons, I must tell you to consult your doctor before you try anything out.
Hope that helps.
– Harsh Strongman
