Ice cream, lactose, and food science

Not that an excuse is really necessary, but the weather has gotten my wife and I to thinkin' about ice cream makers again. Her lactose intolerance be damned, we want to finally get one.

My question: has anybody had any experience using reduced-lactose milk to make their own? Do any adjustments need to be made for traditional recipes?

Lactaid and the like taste a little sweeter than the lactose-ridden stuff (I s'pose from the glucose/galactose), but other than that, I don't notice much difference. Before we buy the machine and test out a batch, anybody have any warnings?

Thanks much,
Zee

Welcome to LTHForum.

I checked Lactaid's website and they have recipies for homemade ice cream. I'd just start with one of those and modify to suit your taste.

On a similar note, my fiancee has genetically high cholesterol and she's also an ice-cream lover. We bought some Soy Delicious (www.turtlemountain.com) to try out some completely non-dairy dessert at home. What I've found is that when you top a scoop with some berries and/or a carmelized banana, some toasted nuts, and a little hershey's syrup, you get a pretty satisfying quick dessert at home without any dairy at all. Granted, this is no replacement for real ice cream, or possibly even homemade ice-Lactaid, but it's not a half-bad option to have on-hand.

Best,
Michael / EC

Here's one of Lactaid's recipes:

http://www.lactaid.com/recipes/detail.j ... ecream.inc

Bryer's makes a lactose free vanilla that I finally get to enjoy!

You can get Lacteze drops from Canada that apparantly convert dairy. They worked for me several times. But I stick to enriched rice milk, lactose free ice cream (!) and occasional stinkiness... (sorry).

Thank God I Can Eat Cheese (man those triple creams... they taunt.)

When I worked at Dean Foods we played around a bit with reduced-lactose ice cream. A few thoughts:

If you're only using the Lactaid milk, make sure it has as high a butterfat content as possible, and you'll need additional fat to offset the lack of cream (I don't know of a source of reduced-lactose cream ... you could probably make it, but that's a whole 'nuther conversation). Egg yolks would work especially well, since the lecithin also has emulsifying properties.

Also, as noted above, since the lactose reduced into its constituent monosaccharides increases the sweetness of the milk, you may want to cut back on the sugar.

A different approach might be to start with a cultured product (e.g sour cream - make sure it's not acid-cultured), or a blend of various cultured products (such as creme fraiche and yougurt), rather than the Lactaid, since the culturing agents feed on the lactose.

Excuse me if I'm completely off base, but isn't Lactaid just milk with added lactase enzyme, and the "lactose free" Bryers just ice cream with lactase? Could not the same thing be accomplished by eating regular ice cream and taking lactase pills?

I speak with some personal experience. I went through a period where I could tolerate no dairy including the products mentioned above. Likewise, lactase (and all the pills marketed for dairy sensitivity) did not seem to help. The hell of it all was that I craved dairy like never before.

I finally cleaned up my act, a little and also started including active culture yoghurts and aged cheeses into my diet (yoghurt and aged cheeses naturally lose their lactose). I started back on dairy slow. Now I can eat ice cream, or anything else for that matter.

The key for me has been to watch the portions and take the enzyme. If I'm going to have a pizza tomorrow I may abstain from dairy the day before (and maybe even the day after). I'll also take plenty of lactase pills (the generic kind) -- perhaps more than listed on the label.

Results may vary -- this is just one man's experience. With all the wacky and serious food sensitivities manifesting themselves with ever more variance and frequency, I don't think anyone knows what they're talking about.

Ramon wrote:Excuse me if I'm completely off base, but isn't Lactaid just milk with added lactase enzyme, and the "lactose free" Bryers just ice cream with lactase? Could not the same thing be accomplished by eating regular ice cream and taking lactase pills?

That's exactly right - they're just regular milk products with lactase added to split the disaccharide lactose into two monosaccharides - glucose and galactose (as I think someone mentioned further upthread). Babies produce lactase naturally in their bodies, but in many people, the ability to produce lactase declines young (i.e. by 5 or 6 years). In general, with many exceptions, the closer your ancestors' origins were to Northern Europe, the more likely you are to produce lactase throughout your lifetime. Many with lactose intolerance can consume dairy products easily by taking lactase tablets - available at virtually any drug store.

Two caveats:

1) A small number of people are allergic to the proteins in milk. But it's a very small number, and symptoms tend to be different than the gastrointestinal distress that people with true lactose intolerance suffer.

2) To quote Jeffery Steingarten in "It Must've Been Something I Ate,"
Fear of lactose seems to be the fashionable phobia of the 1990s.
<snip>
Many people who believe they are lactose intolerant really aren't, and most people can easily tolerate the amount of lactose in a glass of milk before they get sick."

He goes on to describe a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, in which people who self-identified as lactose intolerant drank a glass of milk with breakfast every day for a week. Over the two weeks of the study, each participant got regular milk one week, lactose-reduced the other, and were asked to rate their discomfort. Both types of milk were rated very low on discomfort, and there was no significant difference between the milks re: discomfort.

Further comment on this one: if there's true lactose intolerance, it'll be far less likely to show up if the milk is consumed with meals, if the milk has higher fat content (e.g. whole milk), or if the milk is cultured. With the relatively high fat content of ice cream, which is frequently consumed after a meal, it would be extremely rare to have a reaction that could be specifically traced to the lactose.

2) To quote Jeffery Steingarten in "It Must've Been Something I Ate,"
Fear of lactose seems to be the fashionable phobia of the 1990s.
<snip>
Many people who believe they are lactose intolerant really aren't, and most people can easily tolerate the amount of lactose in a glass of milk before they get sick."

He goes on to describe a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, in which people who self-identified as lactose intolerant drank a glass of milk with breakfast every day for a week.

Maybe part of the problem is the term "intolerance." I looked up the NEJM article, which highlighted the fact that *severe* intolerance reactions were unlikely to occur with small quantities of milk. My better half has something more akin to "lactose annoyance." It doesn't meet criteria for Steingarten's "fashionable phobia;" it's just one of those life hassles for her.

The pills work, but (thankfully) she's too much of a hedonist to take them religiously. We've decided to go ahead and try to make our own ice cream with lactase-treated milk and regular cream (final product will be lactose-reduced) and/or try the Lactaid recipe. And if the end product doesn't suit her, well....I guess it'll be up to me to rid the house of the failed experiment.

Thanks for the suggestions/input. I'll report back after the first round.

chicagofoodies wrote:You can get Lacteze drops from Canada that apparantly convert dairy. They worked for me several times. But I stick to enriched rice milk, lactose free ice cream (!) and occasional stinkiness... (sorry).

Rice... milk? Where are... the...

I get "gastric disturbances" from milk products, but definitely would not call it getting sick. I am mildly uncomfortable, but I suspect those around me are more so The lactase pills work really well for me, most of the time.

So I make sure to have lactase pills with me all the time. I have them stashed in pockets and purses and bags and my desk. So whenever the desire to eat dairy strikes, I can pop a pill and be happy!

I get doubled over with cramps... but amazingly enough those lactaid pills work great. I LOVED the promotion where they gave you a free carton of ice cream when you bought those pills...

Was actually looking for something else, but thought I'd bump this thread as we have considerable experience with this - the 'spouse was diagnosed with lactose intolerance back before it was in, and Sparky is equally intolerant. Myself, I'm just unpleasant milk-drinking company...

At any rate, the lactose pills work but you have to be disciplined to use them. If you're only intolerant of liquid milk products, I second the use of Lacteeze, which we buy by the case; lasts us about a year. It's less expensive than lactose-reduced milk, and you can add the enzyme to all kinds of dairy products like cream or half-and-half or whatever. We also found that Almond Milk is an excellent and rich milk substitute; I liked it much better than soy, oat, or rice milk.

We found this bit of anectotal information to be true for us: chocolate milk seems to be easier to digest. Don't know why.

Mhays wrote:We found this bit of anectotal information to be true for us: chocolate milk seems to be easier to digest. Don't know why.

Not just anecdotal. Here's a report on research I found:

Researchers at the University of Rhode Island found that adding 1 1/2 teaspoons of cocoa to 1 cup of milk blocked cramping, bloating and other signs of lactose intolerance in half of 35 subjects. Cocoa stimulates lactase enzyme activity, they found.

Bumping to see if anyone has suggestions on restaurants where to find good options for dairy-free items. My lactose intolerance has gotten completely out of control, even with the pills. Cutting out milk products entirely has made a world of difference for me. Unfortunately it seems like many places just aren't interested in even trying to accommodate beyond "leave off the cheese" - can't/won't sautee in oil instead of butter, or sub a different veggie or starch, etc.

Hi,

I bought some Jewel Signature Select ice cream, which says ice cream on the label. It was their Extreme Moose Tracks.

I also bought two cartons of Breyer 'ice cream,' except nowhere on the carton is 'ice cream' mention. It is referred to as a 'frozen dairy dessert.' I know well enough those words are chosen carefully, because it does not meet the standards for ice cream. One container was fudge ripple and the other was chocolate.

While the containers both indicated 1.5 quarts, the Signature was larger and Breyers was decisively smaller. I know sometimes ice creams may be over churned to increase their volume, but at what stage is this measured?

So what did I buy?

No worries, we ate it all despite our curiosity.

Regards,
Cathy2