Lactose Sensitivity: Why Milk Gives You Gas and How to Stop Farting

Lactose sensitivity is a very common cause of digestive problems, such as bloating, intestinal cramps and excessive gassiness.

A person who is sensitive to lactose (the sugar in milk) will often experience gastrointestinal issues soon after consuming dairy products, or one of the many other hidden sources of it.

Ahead is what causes lactose sensitivity and intolerance, how to know if it’s affecting you, why milk makes you fart, and a list of foods and drinks that are high in lactose.

Also learn how to greatly reduce gassiness from dairy products, using the simple tips and healthy substitutes ahead.

What Is Lactose Sensitivity?

Lactose is a type of sugar found in cow’s milk and other dairy products. It is made of a glucose and a galactose molecule.

Lactose should be broken down in your upper intestine by the enzyme lactase. As infants, most of us produce a lot of lactase in our digestive systems and usually have no problems digesting milk.

As we get older though, usually around adolescence, the amount of the lactase enzyme that our bodies produce to break down lactose diminishes.

This is quite normal, as milk is for infants and humans are the only mammal that continues to drink it beyond infancy. 

Just how sensitive you are to lactose, and how well you tolerate dairy products, depends on just how much lactase enzyme your digestive system is still producing.

Some adults can drink a glass of milk without any obvious side effects. Others may be able to have half a glass without discomfort, but any more than that will trigger symptoms like bloating and gassiness.

For even more lactose sensitive people, even a splash of cream in their coffee can cause gastrointestinal distress.

At this level, a person is considered lactose intolerant. Virtually any dairy products or ingestion of milk sugar found in various other foods will quickly make them gassy and cause intestinal problems.

Someone who is intolerant usually knows it, as they experience belly bloat, cramps, flatulence and even diarrhea soon after having dairy products.

More commonly, people have varying degrees of lactose sensitivity, making it difficult to pinpoint it, as the cause of their intestinal issues.

Yet without supplemental lactase, they will continue to suffer from digestive issues, such as stomach cramps, bloating and farting from dairy.

How Many People are Lactose Sensitive or Intolerant?

It’s estimated that around one third of Americans would be recognized as lactose intolerant. This figure can be misleading though as it depends greatly on your ethnic background.

Virtually all Native Americans and those of Asian descent have problems digesting lactose. Around 75% of people of African and Caribbean descent have milk intolerance. And around half of Americans with Mediterranean heritage also show signs of intolerance.

Only Americans of northern European descent have commonly developed the genetic mutation to deal with lactose and can consume dairy products regularly without bloating, abdominal pain and gassiness. It’s estimated that only between 5% and 15% of these people would be considered truly intolerant.

So while your family background definitely plays a part in just how much dairy you can tolerate, the majority of adults do have a reduced ability to digest lactose.

Unfortunately, despite all the potential digestive problems with lactose, food manufacturers find milk sugar a cheap and useful ingredient. As such, it is added to a wide variety of processed food and drink products, as you’ll see ahead.

But first, why exactly do dairy products and their lactose make you gassy?

Why Does Milk Make You Fart?

When your body isn’t producing enough of the lactase enzyme in your small intestine, any lactose in the food you eat or the beverages you drink pass through to your large intestine undigested.

Certain bacteria in your colon love milk sugar and will quickly go to work fermenting it. This process creates a lot of gassiness and, due to the high levels of protein in dairy, it’s usually much smellier flatulence than that produced by the fermentation of the raffinose in beans.

These extra gases in the gastrointestinal system can cause all sorts of problems and discomfort, from tummy bloating and intestinal cramps and spasms, to diarrhea when pressure from flatus gas interferes with water absorption in the colon, and of course lots of farting.

In some respects, passing wind after drinking milk, and getting the gas out before it causes any more problems is the best thing that can happen. Not very comforting I know if it comes on during an office meeting or on a date.

This process usually happens quite quickly and some individuals can experience bloating and flatulence after drinking milk in as little as 15 to 20 minutes.

If they are going to have symptoms, most people will usually experience them within an hour of having dairy if they are sensitive to lactose.

Which makes you wonder why, if it’s such an obvious cause of bloating and flatulence and it happens so quickly, why are dairy products and other sources of lactose still so popular? Why haven’t we worked out on a larger scale that milk makes you fart?

It’s likely many people can get away with a small amount of milk, perhaps the amount they splash on their cereal in the morning.

But then, with their lactase enzyme stores depleted, any one of the many other sources of milk sugar we’ll cover next, have the potential to cause digestive problems and gastrointestinal issues.

Since food containing lactose travels through the digestive tract much slower than liquid, it can be many hours before symptoms appear.

Someone who has milk in the morning without obvious problems, but then ends up gassy in the evening from the lactose-rich lunch he ate, may never make the connection between the two.

What Foods and Drinks Contain Lactose?

Here’s a list of foods and drinks that contain lactose. You definitely want to avoid the products on this list if you are intolerant or highly sensitive.

While dairy products are the most obvious source, there are many other potential culprits behind excessive gas, bloating and other intestinal problems caused by undigested milk sugar.

The majority of us, with varying levels of lactose sensitivity, would do well to reduce our consumption of the following where possible to prevent bloating, abdominal cramps, flatulence and other symptoms caused by not breaking down the sugar in milk.

A List of Foods and Drinks High in Lactose

• All dairy milk, especially the skim version which has even higher levels of sugars, but all milks derived from cows or goats will contain lactose in some of the highest levels.

• Protein powders made with whey can be a concentrated source of lactose and cause excessive gas problems for many people.

• Butter and all forms of cream contain far less lactose than milk, but still enough to cause problems for highly sensitive individuals.

• Cheese will generally contain less lactose the harder it is. So hard aged cheeses like Romano, parmesan or cheddar will be less likely to make you gassy than soft cheeses like Camembert or mozzarella, which are generally higher.

• Ice cream can unfortunately be particularly bad. Not only is it made from milk, but manufacturers have incentive to sweeten it even further with added lactose or sugar alcohols like sorbitol.

• Yogurt, in theory should be lower in lactose as the beneficial bacteria predigests the milk sugar. Unfortunately, what passes for yogurt in the supermarket fridges these days is usually nothing more than sweetened, thickened milk with very little probiotic content. Traditional Greek or cultured yogurt will likely be much lower, but these can be difficult to find.

• Canned soup is a less obvious source of lactose, but often quite a high one. Check the labels for any milk-based ingredients, but generally any cream-based soup is a potential source of bloating and gassiness.

• Savory snacks often contain milk powder which is full of lactose and anything cheese flavored will usually be especially high in it.

• Sweets like light chocolate (dark chocolate is much lower and healthier), cakes, puddings, cookies and particularly doughnuts are all potentially significant sources.

• Sauces, gravies and salad dressings like mayonnaise can all contain lactose. You can check the labels for milk solids, milk powder, anything starting with whey.

• Breakfast cereals are also sometimes made with milk powder or solids, though of course this pales into insignificance if you’re already eating them with a big bowl of cow’s milk.

• Bread is another commonly eaten food that can contain lactose. The amount on its own may not cause problems, but as you can see with all the different products containing milk sugar, it’s all the more to ferment in the lower intestine.

• Processed meats like sausages and luncheon meat can have lactose in them, as can breaded or battered meats. Of course pizza with its combination of soft cheese, bread and often processed meats will be a triple whammy and usually high on the scale.

• Even birth control tablets, headache tablets and some prescriptions and supplements contain milk sugars as an ingredient for some strange reason. Alone they are unlikely to have an effect, but if your body cannot produce any more lactase enzyme then it all adds up.

As you can see it’s a fairly extensive list of products with lactose in them. 

If you’re looking on food labels trying to avoid it you want to watch out for anything that says: milk powder or solids, milk protein, whey solids, nonfat dried milk, casein, sodium caseinate and obviously lactose itself.

If there are foods and drinks on there that you simply can’t see yourself living without, then taking a high strength lactase enzyme right before eating or drinking them is a simple solution.

Intolerance Versus Sensitivity

For someone who is truly lactose intolerant it’s important to avoid as many foods as possible on the above list to prevent gastrointestinal problems.

It’s much more serious than just cramps, bloating and gassiness. Constantly dealing with the fermentation of milk sugar can leave your digestive system in a weakened state and lead to harmful bacterial overgrowth and lowered immunity.

For a person who is only slightly lactose sensitive, just avoiding dairy products may be enough to prevent all but occasional problems.

Those with moderate dairy sensitivity (and I’d include myself in this group) would want to avoid milk and generally some of the higher lactose containing foods like soft cheese, ice cream, supermarket yogurt, snacks with milk solids, pizza, doughnuts and creamy soups, sauces and gravies.

If you’d like to check for sure if you are intolerant or on the higher scale of sensitive then there is a simple test available from your GP called the ‘Lactose Intolerance Breath Test’.

How to Drink Milk Without Farting

If you really can’t bear the thought of a life without flavored milk, ice cream and Camembert on crackers, there are supplemental lactase that you can take. These products replace the digestive enzymes that your body is no longer making in large enough quantities.

Lactaid is the most well known of these, but others are available. They should contain at least 9000 FCC (Food Chemical Codex) units of lactase per capsule or tablet to be effective.

I take them at the same time as an occasional ice cream or pizza and there’s none of the usual bloating, tummy rumbling or gassiness in the hours afterwards.

It’s a good idea to take supplemental lactase with you if you think you could be having foods or drinks containing a lot of lactose. Have them either just before or with your meal or dairy-based drink.

Beware of cheap lactase enzyme caplets or chewables that only contain 1000 or 2000 FCC units. This won’t be enough for all but the lowest of lactose sensitivity and definitely not enough if you are truly intolerant.

Millions of people in America have problems with the lactose in dairy but don’t know it and needlessly suffer with abdominal cramps, bloating, farting and other gastrointestinal issues. Please share this page with your friends and let people know there is a simple solution if milk makes you gassy.