I have lactose intolerance (and perhaps a milk allergy), and in the UK I cannot have anything with milk in it without a horrible response from my stomach as well as headaches and pretty severe acne as a result. A couple months into living in Japan, I ran out of the lactase tablets I had brought with me and found myself tempted by an ice cream sundae. I decided I would just eat it and suffer, but to my surprise I was completely fine?
Since then I discovered through some trial and error that I can have up to a whole box of chocolates or a cup of coffee and feel pretty much okay. Not entirely symptom free, but minor enough that I’m happy to occasionally eat foods with dairy here in moderation. I had some dairy when I came back to the UK for the holidays and immediately the symptoms were as awful as they used to be. Had some of the Japanese chocolate I brought home with me a few days later, and sure enough I was fine again. So it’s definitely specifically the dairy in Japanese foods that I’m okay with.
I’ve tried looking into this and cant seem to find any info on what would make Japanese milk any better for me to consume than milk in the UK or any other country where I have also suffered. I can only assume there’s less lactose in whichever popular Japanese brands of milk gets used for most products but I cant find evidence for that. So I’m just curious if anyone else has had this experience and/or knows why?
3 comments
sometimes. i think it has something to do with how the milk is processed
Exact opposite for me. In the US, I could eat things with milk no problem. I couldn’t drink too much milk by itself, but products made with milk were fine.
Now, I can’t eat anything that even touched dairy. Nothing cooked with butter, no chocolate, etc. It’s been a huge challenge and it gradually became worse and worse since I came here.
If you are referring to the cheap yellow stuff Japan calls cheese. Its not cheese.