Sheri Updike - The Lactose-Free Cookbook

E veryone should have a fairy godmother mine is Amy Einhorn! With a whisk of her magical wand, she made my dream an exciting reality. For this I will be eternally grateful. Thank you, Amy, for having the faith in me I wasnt sure I had. You are a wonderful friend, aside from being the best editor!

To my special friend Sandy Hoevel, thank you for your never-ending words of wisdom and encouragement, for knowing me better than I know myself, and for the hours of laughter that we continue to find in ourselves. A friend like you is one in a million and Im glad youre mine.

In memory of my dad, Hugh Rawdon, who taught me that the impossible wasnt. His love lives in the faces of my children, and hell always be in my heart.

And finally, to the two women in my life I couldnt have lived without: my mother-in-law, Elaine Updike, who taught me everything she knows about cooking with patience and love. You never laughed when I measured your dashes, pinches, and sprinkles; you gave me wonderftd memories of frantic holiday baking late into the nights, laughing ourselves silly. And of course to my mom, Eileen Duffy, who raised me to believe in myself, to make a difference and be proud of who I am. Thank you, Mom, for encouraging my creativity, for teaching me the importance of family and for being there. I love you.

If this book helps one person, I know Ive made a difference one I couldnt have made without these people. Thank you all.

M ilk. How could it be bad for you? Didnt your mother drill it into your head to drink your milk? Television, magazines, billboards everywhere you look, there are white mustaches reciting the virtues of milk. Milk and cookies are part of the American image. After all, how could you eat a cookie without MILK?

Well, hold on to your cookies approximately 80% of the worlds population can not drink milk without experiencing some digestive problems. And some accounts state that one in five Americans have these problems. What those commercials and wonderful ad campaigns should say is, Got Lactose Intolerance? because that is the normthose white mustaches arent. You need to realize that you do have choices, and you can enjoy your favorite foods without experiencing the embarrassing discomfort and pain.

Whats the big deal? So Ill give up drinking milk, you may say. Unfortunately, its not that easy. While lactose exists in foods that are easy to identifylike ice cream, cottage cheese, and margarineit also exists in many foods you never dreamed oflike cold cuts, breads, and chips.

To be Lactose Intolerant is to lack the enzyme necessary to properly digest the lactose, or milk sugar, in a simple glass of milk. This enzyme is called the lactase enzyme, and it exists in the cells on the surface of the small intestine. Sufficient amounts of this enzyme change the lactose into two sugars: galactose and glucose. Then the lactose enzyme moves through your body, fueling your cells with energy. But if you lack sufficient levels of lactase to break down the lactose, then it remains in your small intestine for an extended period of time. Eventually it will be carried to your colon, where bacteria will cause it to ferment. This fermentation is what causes you to have diarrhea, cramping, bloating, excessive gas, stomach distension, etc. The degree of severity of these symptoms is as individual as people are. It all depends on the level of the lactase enzyme you possess. You can just experience mild discomfort or you can suffer severe diarrhea or pain. But one thing is very clear: for people who have Lactose Intolerance the problem is as traumatic as most diseases, because it changes your life.

Lactose Intolerance is a difficult problem to diagnose. The reason is its symptoms are very embarrassing, and the patient can find a million reasons to attribute his discomfort tothe flu, a virus going around, stress (these days when arent people stressed!), and so forthrather than seek a medical diagnosis for his or her excessive diarrhea, gas, or bloating.