# Does raw milk have lactase in it or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2003, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590 "2003-01-04T11:04:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2003, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/21 "2003-01-05T18:25:45Z")
From Carper’s book (p. 116) > [@](#): > > The lactase produced by a related fungus known as _Aspergillis oryzae_ proved to have an optimum pH of 4.5-5.5 and a stable range of 3.0-7.0, as well as an optimum temperature of 37 [degrees]. When taken with food, this form of lactase readily withstands the buffering it takes in the stomach and survives to digest lactose in the small intestine. Today all major brands of lactase pills use _A. oryzae_ lactase. ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/22 "2003-01-06T08:08:56Z")
**PosterChild** wrote, > [@](#): > > … lactase **is** an enzyme … Quite right, that part I knew. It was just their claim that lactase was somehow “killed” that didn’t sit right. **Duck Duck Goose** wrote, > [@](#): > > ??? I’m not getting this. Your friends are saying that raw milk has both lactose–the milk sugar that gives you gas–and lactase–the enzyme that digests the milk sugar–in it, at the same time? My friends are very sweet but they are sometimes a bit less … rigorously analytical than I would like. I shouldn’t talk though, they did have me doubting. I was kind of looking for a grain of truth in what they were saying, like maybe raw milk had some ingredient that jump-started our guts to produce lactase on our own…? Okay, I admit I have no idea where they got this idea but there are certainly others laboring under the same misconception. **barbitu8** , I’ve never heard of kefir. I’ll look it up. If it’s much like yogurt I’ll probably like it. If someone named **yogurt** suggested I tried barbiturates as a milk substitute I would say no, though. **Shoshana** , I think my friends are just being enthusiastic. I know calcium is important so I drink fortified orange juice … I’m not actually looking too hard for a milk substitute. I have had some pretty nasty soy-based ones but I don’t think I’ve tried Silk. I’ll by a carton next time I get one of those inexplicable Rice Krispies cravings. (One important note: some non-dairy creamers are very tasty, and they look really low in calories and fat until you figure out that the serving size for a creamer is about a teaspoon! Not surprising for a product made mostly of soybean oil and corn syrup. It makes for a pretty rich bowl of cereal, I can tell you that.) That’s a great list, **Qadgop the Mercotan**. I take it the second group (Fulani, Danes, Punjabis) is the lactose tolerant group? ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/23 "2003-01-06T22:19:02Z")
Kefir is similar to a liquid yogurt. Health food stores primarily carry it, but our local Harris-Teeter also has it in its health food dairy case. However, it is the only one of the regular grocery stores to carry it. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/24 "2003-01-06T22:22:33Z")
I forgot to note that it is absolutely delicious. I can drink a whole carton in one sitting, but I rarely get to be seated as I usually drink it standing up at the refrig. ---
**Author:** ![Yeah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/dbc845/32.png) [@Yeah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeah)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/25 "2003-01-06T22:56:34Z")
I take it the second group (Fulani, Danes, Punjabis) is the lactose tolerant group? Yes. I don’t know about the Punjabis, but the Fulani (also known as the Peul) and the Danes make some dynamite cheeses. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/26 "2003-01-06T23:05:06Z")
just skipped in to do a happy dance, cause Qadgop agreed with me! i feel so proud! ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/27 "2003-01-06T23:49:16Z")
That would be a jig, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/28 "2003-01-09T21:55:24Z")
Well, the Rice Krispies craving didn’t come up, but a Lucky Charms craving did. (Okay, I’m over 30 and I love Lucky Charms. Be real gentle when you point and laugh.) So I went out and got some Silk at **Shoshana** ’s suggestion. It is great! Actually, it’s odd to call it “great” since it doesn’t have much taste, but it’s pretty darn milky and doesn’t have the nasty flavor that other soy milks have IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/29 "2003-01-09T23:12:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > \*\*Cow’s milk is designed to be drunk by baby cows, remember, so it’s designed to be nutritious, and it seems counter-productive to have it busy removing its own nutritious milk-sugar components while it’s waiting in the udder to be drunk. > > It’s totally illogical. \*\* Actually, it’s not that illogical. Lactase doesn’t destroy the nutritional value of lactose in any way. Lactose is a dimer of glucose and galactose. Lactase just breaks the bond between the two. The resulting glucose and galactose are as nutritious as the lactose was. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/30 "2003-01-10T00:34:51Z")
> [@](#): > > the study found that except for a few rare instances, the only populations with a majority of people who were tolerant to lactose as adults were those descended from northern white Europeans. The vast majority of Asians, Africans, and Native populations were LI as adults. Those around the Mediterranean Sea were about 50/50 and this faded to 5-15% LI as you looked north into Europe. I do not belive this. I can guarantee that LI does not affect anywhere close 50% of people in Southern Europe. Even in China, milk is not consumed mostly for cultural reasons, but most of my Chinese friends drink milk and eat cheese with no problem. Maybe LI is a matter of degree and some people could not consume large quantities of milk but can sonsume smaller amounts with no problem. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/31 "2003-01-10T02:33:39Z")
You get to the heart of the question of what the phrase “lactose intolerance” means. Oddly, there is no general agreement on this. See [this](http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stevecarper/linames.htm) page for a discussion of the many terms that are used for the general condition, inside the medical community and out. Medical studies tend to use a comparatively huge lactose load. This will trigger a reaction in the vast majority of people who have any decrease in the amount of lactase they produce. This practice has been criticized as not being representative of milk tolerance in the real world. This is one of the reasons I posted above that newer and more accurate tests need to be done. Of course LI is a matter of degree. Virtually all studies have found that most people who consider themselves to be LI can still have some milk. But the consistency of all the tests done worldwide indicates that on the genetic level, the world’s population is divided into two alleles, one whose genetic makeup dictates that lactase production will be reduced at some point in their lives, and a mutation that has become recently widespread that allows lactase production to be continued unabated throughout life. There’s really not much question that if you define LI on the genetic level, the percentages I quoted will be pretty much accurate. (But only within fairly homogenous ethnic populations. Intermarriage tends to spread lactose tolerance, since that version of the gene is dominant.) Whether any individual of any ethnic background can have some dairy products at a meal is an entirely different matter. ---
**Author:** ![mightyaphrodite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@mightyaphrodite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mightyaphrodite)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/32 "2003-01-10T03:37:59Z")
Raw milk is actually better for you, but you won’t be able to buy it (at least, not in Canada; I don’t know about the US). In Canada, it’s illegal to sell milk that has not been pasteurised, but organic farmers who have cows will often drink raw milk at home. Overall, you really do NOT need milk in your diet, so I wouldn’t worry about it. If you want to drink milk, then go to your local pharmaceudical store (in Canada, our equivalenet would be Shoppers Drug Mart) and find a bottle of lactase enzyme pills. If you can’t find any, ask your doctor to prescribe you some. Otherwise, you could always buy Lact-eze, a lactose-free milk beverage. ---
**Author:** ![pud\_lumpkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@pud\_lumpkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pud_lumpkins)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590/33 "2003-01-10T04:01:44Z")
you know, milk actually has about 1.3% sperm in it? haha, just kidding [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-raw-milk-have-lactase-in-it-or-not/146590.md?page=1)