Assuming that the reason most people have issues with dairy is the lactose, wouldn’t buying lactose free yogurt be more beneficial than plant based yogurt?
My Dad was lactose intolerant, which got worse as he got older. But he loved dairy, and worried about getting enough of the nutritional value milk supplies. I told him to try yogurt, since completely fermented yogurt doesn’t have significant quantities of lactose (its been converted to lactic acid). He ate yogurt for the rest of his life and never had a problem with it.
Lactose in yogurt is more easily digested to begin with.
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Lactose digestion from yogurt: mechanism and relevance
Dennis A Savaiano 1
Affiliations expand
PMID: 24695892 DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.113.073023
Abstract
Yogurt is traditionally consumed throughout the world among populations who are seemingly unable to digest lactose. This review provides a historical overview of the studies that show lactose digestion and tolerance from yogurt by lactose-intolerant people. The lactose in yogurt is digested more efficiently than other dairy sources of lactose because the bacteria inherent in yogurt assist with its digestion. The bacterial lactase survives the acidic conditions of the stomach, apparently being physically protected within the bacterial cells and facilitated by the buffering capacity of yogurt. The increasing pH as the yogurt enters the small intestine and a slower gastrointestinal transit time allow the bacterial lactase to be active, digesting lactose from yogurt sufficiently to prevent symptoms in lactose-intolerant people. There is little difference in the lactase capability of different commercial yogurts, because they apparently contain Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus in sufficient quantities (10(8) bacteria/mL). However, Lactobacillus acidophilus appears to require cell membrane disruption to physically release the lactase. Compared with unflavored yogurts, flavored yogurts appear to exhibit somewhat reduced lactase activity but are still well tolerated.
Because lactose is not my problem. Casein (the protein found in milk) is. Luckily, though, I have found A2 yogurt (slight difference in protein structure makes it non-poisonous to me). Because of allergies, I can’t eat most plant-based yogurts.
Some people also mind the saturated fat, trans-fats, cholesterol and hormones, and not all of these are eliminated by going lactose free and fat free.
Then of course there are those who mind the maltreatment of dairy cows.
Depends on what concerns you.
It depends. Are you concerned about consuming sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone? How about the possible side effects of long term exposure?
Exposure to exogenous estrogen through intake of commercial milk produced from pregnant cows - PubMedhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19496976/
Hormones in Dairy Foods and Their Impact on Public Health - A Narrative Review Articlehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4524299/
I’m lactose intolerant and, as others have already pointed out, yoghurt actually has very small amounts of lactose so I find it tolerable.
Having said that, some people choose plant-based milk/dairy for more than their nutritional values (e.g. animal abuse, effect on climate change, etc).