ved nutritional intake, yet they receive no nutritional return from it. Not being aware of this situation can lead to malnutrition. Women in this group are particularly at risk because of their high calcium requirement. There is evidence that malabsorbers not only do not absorb the component sugars of lactose, but the important calcium content of milk as well (Finkenstedt et al. 162). I first became aware of LI a couple of years ago. From that time, until I worked on this report, I did not correctly understand the problem. I had heard that it affected all non- infants, regardless of their race. Since my original source of information was unreliable, I believed LI to be just another unsubstantiated rumor. Furthermore, I confused LI with lactose malabsorption, or the inability to derive nutrition from milk. I thought that everyone who was lactose intolerant could still drink milk, but that water would be the only nutrient they received from it. I had no idea that most people who are lactose intolerant experience varying degrees of discomfort when they consume milk products. I find it interesting and plausible that LI is genetically based rather than being caused by diet or other factors, although there is some dispute on this issue (Seakins et al. 878). Since milk products are currently important to American diets, and increasingly so to third-world populations, I believe further education, food industry advancements and study of LI should be encouraged. Education will help people learn of the potential nutritional issues of LI and will help lactose intolerant people discover the reason they get sick every time they consume too much lactose. The food industry should be encouraged to provide better package labeling so people can easily determine lactose levels. Maybe a lactose quotient could be developed and printed on lactose based products to indicate their relative impact on lactose intolerant people. I think this would be a valuable se...
