How to deal with lactose intolerance during pregnancy
When we talk about lactose intolerance, we essentially mean the inability that a lot of people face when it comes digesting lactose, which is essentially a sugar found in milk and milk products as well. It is lactase, an enzyme found in our bodies that helps in the breaking up of lactose to make it more digestible. If a person’s body does not produce enough lactase or has a lack of it, then the chances of them developing lactose intolerance is there.
But because lactose intolerance is so common, it can easily be managed with the right kind of diet and supplements if need be.
Here are a few ways that you can deal with lactose intolerance during pregnancy.
Pre-natal vitamins:
As we have mentioned plenty of times already, prenatal vitamins are absolutely brilliant when it comes to helping expecting women get all the nutrients effectively. In case of pregnant women who are suffering from lactose intolerance, then too the prenatal vitamins have proven to be brilliant at providing the necessary nutrients to the body.
When taking your pick of prenatal vitamins, ensure that you pick out one that contains both Vitamin D and calcium together. If that seems difficult to come by, then apart from the usual prenatal vitamins, you should also include calcium and vitamin D supplements to get the benefits that dairy products usually give.
If you know or want to know whether you are lactose intolerant or not, the best and safest would be to consult your doctor and follow the course of action that they suggest to you according to the diagnosis.
Diet:
Food can truly prove to be medicinal in the truest sense of the word when it comes to dealing with a number of health issues and even allergies. The case of lactose intolerance is merely one of the many that a proper diet can help maintain.
Apart from the dairy products, there are plenty of foods items out there that prove to be chockful of calcium and vitamin D. Think about including food products like salmon, broccoli, kale and even okra in your diet on a daily basis. These in particular happen to have a ton of calcium in them.
When it comes to talking about Vitamin D, then eggs happen to be an amazing source of that as well. Other than this, you can also soak up some much-needed sunlight to gain access to Vitamin D. But for this, you have to make sure that you are in direct reach of the sunlight and you sit there for over a particular stretch of time.
By simply keeping these two things in mind, you can ensure that you get your daily dose of both Calcium and Vitamin D even when you are lactose intolerant.