Comment by jonsno56 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jonsno56 | Hacker News Reader

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I’m gonna drop my $.02 in here because I am SEVERELY lactose intolerant and would like to discuss with someone else who is lactose intolerant. (This comment is unrelated to the video)

I usually use 2-4 lactaid capsules when eating dairy and sometimes 8 when it’s some super cheesy pizza or something. I live in the United States. I visited Italy last year, and I ate a lot of ice cream, cheesy pastas, and pizzas without any problems. Same with my father and uncle who are lactose intolerant. Do you know if there’s anything different about Italian dairy vs American dairy? I recognize my experience is super anecdotal, but it’s quite funny as my uncle, my father, and I got cocky about our ability to eat US dairy after coming home from Italy and immediately regretted it! So yeah, we’re definitely lactose intolerant

Here’s also this silly link I just got off of google: https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/living-with-lactose-intole...

Some differences that might play a role, but I have no real idea.

In the Netherlands cheap supermarket pizzas often have more fake cheese than real cheese. I can imagine that might mean less lactose, but maybe something in the fake cheese is giving you problems.

In the Netherlands most milk is pasteurized. I can imagine this is the case in the US too. In the Netherlands there is a special protected branding of cheese that is not pasteurized (boerenkaas). Pasteurizing milk reduces the calcium level. I can imagine Italians might prefer using unpasteurized milk products more than people in other countries.

This is enlightening. I didn't know you could take more than 2 lactaid capsules to increase effectiveness. I am also severely lactose intolerant and never took more than two assuming that they each pill was so packed full of lactase that it wouldn't help. This has resulted in me basically never eating dairy because 1 pill rarely helps.

But as to your question, from what I understand, preparation can have a great effect on amount of lactose so the traditional Italian methods likely prepare cheeses in a way that reduces lactose.

Italian methods for cheesemaking are nearly identical to US methods (including, in most cases, pasteurization). I can't think of any cheese preparation differences that would have the slightest effect on lactose. It is the case that Italians eat more sheep milk cheese (pecorino) than Americans, and sheep milk has a bit less lactose. And Italians also eat more aged cheeses. But I don't think this is nearly enough to explain any differences you may have seen.

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