Lactose Intolerant - English Version

This is the English version, with some modifications, of my post in Iban of the same name.


What does being Lactose Intolerant mean?

One is said to be lactose intolerant when one cannot ingest dairy products without suffering the effects which are gas and bloating. That means eating food containing dairy products like cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and cheese cake will result in gas and bloating much like the gas and bloating one suffers from eating onions, garlic or beans if one is sensitive to those foods.

When I was younger I drank a lot of canned powered milk like Everyday and Nespray and I did not suffer and adverse effect from it. I guess as one gets older one experience some changes in one's digestive system. My mother-in-law is also lactose intolerant and she never was when she was younger.

Last Sunday Doug and I took the kids to an ice cream and yogurt place. The kids ordered vanilla ice cream, Doug ordered a chocolate flavored yogurt and I ordered a coconut flavored yogurt. And last night I made a 3-cheese ravioli topped with Parmesan cheese and roasted garlic sauce for dinner. Mmmmmm!

Did I mention that I was lactose intolerant?!

Ahhhh. Let me tell you the secret!


I take three of these wonderful tablets before I take any food containing dairy products. This tablet contains an enzyme that helps break down the lactose so your system is able to digest the lactose and thereby helps prevent the gas and bloating that usually accompanies the eating of dairy products if one is sensitive to lactose.



I am able to enjoy my cold cereal and milk again because of the 100% lactose free milk that is available at our supermarket. When I stay up late at night, and my tummy gets hungry I always enjoy a bowl of cold cereal before bed time. That is, if I am not drinking my mug of Milo and four pieces of cream crackers.

When I was in Miri last summer, I wasn't able to enjoy my bowl of cereal because there was no lactose free milk available. If it was available, I did not know where to get it.

I am also not able to take onions, garlic and beans, but that fact does not stop me from enjoying them! There are products like Beano that you can take with your food so that you do not suffer from gas and bloating. Every time I pass gas I would ask the question of my children, "Who farted?" The response is always, "You farted, Mommy!" Of course I pretended it wasn't me!

We love to go shopping after a meal at a restaurant and when I am in the store, I will stay as far away from people as possible because I will be polluting the air with my farts! Chinese food is the worse because of all the garlic in their cooking! No, I do not want the other shoppers to gag from the "fragance" that I emit! Kekekekeke!

Food Supplements for a friend and family

Yesterday I ordered about a hundred dollars worth of products from my favorite online food supplement store to bring back to Malaysia.

I ordered a bottle of borage oil for my mother to add to the two I'd ordered earlier, and the rest of the stuff was mainly for diabetic care. I want to give one of my friends, who was recently diagnosed with diabetes, something to help her better control her blood sugar, something like gymnema sylvestre and banaba. I bought a bottle each of the two products.

Previously, I love to give away Vitamin C and Vitamin E to friends in Malaysia, but this time since those bottles of stuff for my mother and friend already weigh a few pounds, I think I'll skip the gift giving to the others!

Hey, have you read one of my latest entries on my health blog? You should read about how diabetes could be the result of intestinal dysfunction and how diabetics who went through gastric bypass procedures had experienced remission in their diabetes! Great news!

You know, all these remind me of how priceless our health is, and how we should take good care of our health because when it is gone, no amount of money is going to be able to get it back for us!

Benefits of Boiled Peanuts

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - For lovers of boiled peanuts, there's some good news from the health front. A new study by a group of Huntsville researchers found that boiled peanuts bring out up to four times more chemicals that help protect against disease than raw, dry or oil-roasted nuts.

Lloyd Walker, chair of Alabama A&M University's Department of Food and Animal Sciences who co-authored the study, said these phytochemicals have antioxidant qualities that protect cells against the risk of degenerative diseases, including cancers, diabetes and heart disease.

Full story here.

This is wonderful news because I love boiled peanuts! The last time I had boiled peanuts was a few weeks ago when I bought about 1.5 pounds worth of peanuts at the Galt Flea market. I hope next week on market day, they still have peanuts for sale. Three weeks ago I also found jujubes at the Flea Market, something I'd not had since I left Vietnam more than 10 years ago.

Ok, back to the peanut story. A lot of the time whatever health benefit a food has is almost totally gone by the time it is cooked. Boiled peanuts instead bring out the phytochemicals. Too bad that raw peanuts in the shell are not available all year round. Peanuts are so much better tasting when boiled still in the shell.

I wonder if the raw peanuts that are sold in the packets still have the same benefits? The news story does not say if the boiled peanuts are those that are still in the shells or had the shells removed.

Laughter Yoga?

When you think about yoga what comes to your mind? Meditation. Contortionist-like positions. Those are two things that come to MY mind. But laughter?

Today, as I was browsing the titles of some of the videos on google video, I came across Laughter Yoga. Laughter Yoga was started by Dr Madan and Madhuri Kataria. We all know that laughter is the best medicine, right? Normally we don't laugh for no reason. If we did, people would think we were crazy! We laugh because there is something funny that makes us laugh.

But in the Laughter Yoga class, participants do not need any reason to laugh. I watched a video of one of the Laughter Yoga classes. Just watching at the participants laugh was enough to make me laugh along with them. :-) In fact I am still laughing as I write this because the video I just watched is still very fresh in my mind. Yes, laughter is very contagious!

I didn't realize that Laughter Yoga is a serious business, not a laughing matter in fact. Dr Kataria is so serious about spreading the laughter movement that he is even conducting Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher training courses. You know what, I know I can do this course, and pass with flying colors, unlike the OTHER yoga where I have to contort my body to an impossible position! Haha.

According to Laughter Yoga, laughing exercises need to be combined with yoga breathing to give you the health benefits of hearty laughter. How does laughter benefit our well-being? When we laugh our bodies release a cocktail of hormones & chemicals that have startling positive effects on our system. Stress is reduced, blood pressure drops, depression is lifted, your immune system is boosted & more. Western science is just starting to discover the great effects of laughter. (Source: LaughterYoga.org)

Laughter Club, Sydney Australia. Picture Credit: http://www.laughternews.org/gallery.htm

People are forming laughter clubs all over the world, maybe you and I should join one if we can find a club to join, or form one ourselves! Heheh. But I guess before we can call it a Laughter Yoga club, we ought to get ourselves certified first.

There's a whole list of Laughter Yoga videos on YouTube. If you want to feel good today maybe you should watch one or two of the videos. I can guarantee that you will laugh along with them .. no need for any reason to laugh. :-)

No More Shots!

This morning I took my kids back to the clinic so that the nurse/doctor there could take a look at the result of the TB skin test that was done on both of them last Tuesday.

When we did not take the usual route to school this morning, the kids started asking me where we were going. "We're going to the clinic," I told them.

"No more shots, Mommy!"

"No, no more shots for you today. The doctor wants to see if the shots you got last Tuesday are ok," I told them.

I can't blame them for screaming, "No more shots!" Last Tuesday they each got three shots and on top of that a blood drawing, for some haemoglobin test or other. The poor things screamed and cried, "It hurts, Mommy." Only when they were each given lots of stickers by the clinic staff that they stopped crying.

The shots were part of their well check visit to the doctor. They turned four last May and July. The way schools are today, you have to be up to date with your childhood vaccinations or you will not be accepted for school.

Well, the kids are going to be in for a surprise when I take them back to the clinic next week for their flu shots! My poor babies.