Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Now Available at Grafton Village Cheese in Brattleboro, VT. It just came in last Thursday and is fabulous.

yuuuummm..

Thanks for this info, I always suspected it would be hard to get glutened via blue cheese, but am happy to now know that I really don't have to worry. I am allergic to penicillin tho and have never had a prob with blue cheese, but don't over indulge. Good question to research...

Thanks again for the post!
Ginger

Try eating a couple ounces of natural yoguert daily, with breakfast. The kind with all the live cultures. Gradually increase the yogurt intake over a month or so. Before you know it the lactose intolerance should be gone. You need to rebuild your stomach's lactose friendly bacteria.
Here's to more cheese!

I have learned that dairy with the least amount of fat, ex: skim milk,
low fat milk and buttermilk have the most lactose.
So many products contain dairy. Whey is also a dairy by product and it
is in many foods. Pretzels contain whey.

Dear Jamie,
(I apologize ahead of time for this long post, but I'm talking about a cure here)
Have you ever heard of Kefir? I'm talking about home-brewed Kefir, not about the sterile glorified yoghurt that is sold in supermarkets and health food stores under the same name. Real Kefir is brewed from Kefir grains which are popcorn-sized colonies of about 20 different bacteria and yeasts, lactobacillus included of course. A typical serving of home brew delivers a billion or more vital, active cultures, complete with their own fuel source, which over time out-compete and replace undesirables, completely changing the microorganism profile in your gut . I started home brewing because I read that Kefir can reverse sudden-onset lactose intolerance, and for me at least it has (most importantly naturally and cheaply, with a host of other health benefits to boot!). A colony of live Kefir grains costs less than $20, can be purchased from many different sources all easily found on google, and since they technically can never die, when properly cared for can be willed to your great-great-great-great grandchildren... they're just that awesome. A serving size is about 8oz and will require about 10-12oz of milk to brew (the grains will use some volume of milk to grow and replicate), so considering the cost of the materials this works out to a dollar or under per day for a lasting solution. All of this can be maintained in under five minutes per day. Start out brewing with un-homogenized goat milk (no lactose and a different whey protein structure which may help more immediately with your symptoms) and after a couple weeks drinking this, try brewing from whole, UN-HOMOGENIZED (preferably raw) cow's milk and see if you can tolerate it. If not, back to a couple weeks more on the goat's milk kefir then repeat the process. Once you can handle full servings of cow's milk kefir, then move on to DUH-DUH-DUH... uncultured dairy. Can you eat the inoculated yogurt sold under zippy brand names in the stores? Sure, if you want to waste time and money. Those brands contain very impotent "live" cultures held in stasis from the cold which are dispatched by your stomach acids before they even reach your intestines... some brands are even pasteurized AFTER the cultures are added, completely negating the purpose of adding them in the first place! HOME BREWED KEFIR is the BEST! Good luck and hope this helps.

There's no lactose in cheese. Cheese is made from milk protein, and any remaining lactose that contaminates the protein is the first thing to be degraded by the Lactobacillus that ferments the milk.

You may have a milk allergy. But it t'ain't lactose intolerance.

I also take Digestive Advantage on the recommendation of my gastroenterologist and find that it helps tremendously.
You can be lactose intolerant and still eat some cheeses. Parmesan cheese and bleu cheese are not a problem for me. I can also eat most feta cheeses. Some feta is made with cow's milk and others are made with goat's milk. Go for the goat's milk varieties.
Sour cream is a killer. I had one tiny taste of the cheesecake my husband ordered for dessert and paid the consequences.
My son, also lactose intolerant, can't tolerate chocolate, either. Poor boy.
I can't eat quality ice cream. But, when I crave a little treat, I have ice cream from McDonald's. It never bothers me. I assume that it must be soy-based.

Yes, get tested.
Most GI disorders present the same symptoms so it's very easy to jump to conclusions.
We assumed the same thing (lactose intolerance) with my husband, turns out he had a parasite which caused such irritation and inflamation which in turn developed into an infection in his intestines, which could only be verified by a colonoscopy, but there was a trip to the ER first and two CT scans. After about $9000 in medical bills, largely covered by insurance, but we were still out almost $3000 out of pocket (thanks to yearly deductibles and bc hubby got sick in Dec and Jan, so two different insurance years).
The infection and parasite were easy to clear up with anitbiotics, but recovering from a ravaged digestive tract took several weeks of restricted diet as we tried to ease back into eating, suffer a set back, ease back into it, change how/what we ate, etc. Feared the worst (cancer, crohns, celiac, ibs, etc). All tests are neg. thank god.
Anyway, it's a very long story, but if you haven't confirmed LI, you might want to. Just to rule out anything else.

like previous posts, check the gallbladder! i used to get excrutiatingly sick after eating dairy or moderately rich/fatty foods.. turns out the little guy shut down. they took it out, and (while it took a little while) I can now eat all the cheese and cream in the world! yay!

My daughter takes a supplement once a day for her lactose intollerance and can have all the dairy she wants. It's called Digestive Advantage, and it's sold at most drugstores. Here's a link to their website: http://www.digestiveadvantage.com/

I personally think that a good serrated knife, particularly a tomato knife like this one featured on amazon http://tinyurl.com/mgteoy work great for hard cheeses.

I like to use the one-handed test - if you can't cut and dispense the cheese onto your handy cracker, you don't have the correct tool.

My husband is lactose intolerant and finds that the best way to handle it is to use the lactaid chewables (they work a lot faster than the pills you swallow) and to use not just one pill, but more like 3 spaced out during the meal. Yes, that little chalky vanilla chew can be a tad disruptive mid-meal, but it beats suffering the consequences.