Monday, May. 27, 1974

Milk Without Misery

Rich in nutrients--protein, minerals, vitamins and calories (150 per 8-oz. glass)--milk is considered one of the most essential foods. But not everyone benefits from drinking it. Surprisingly many people--including perhaps as many as 75% of American blacks--lack the enzyme that enables others to digest one of the most important ingredients of milk: lactose, or milk sugar.

Milk gives many of these people severe diarrhea.

Researchers have attempted to remove the lactose from milk. That solution is both expensive and self-defeating because it lowers the milk's vitamin content. Two University of Rhode Island researchers have announced a more practical recipe. Dr. Arthur Rand, a professor of food chemistry, and James Hourigan, a graduate assistant, have developed a process for changing lactose into glucose and galactose, two simple sugars that most people can digest. The process could enable millions to drink milk without misery.

The Rhode Island researchers add small quantities of the enzyme lactase to milk. The result is a low-lactose milk that can be consumed directly, converted to yogurt or cheese, or dried to make other milk-based food products. The new product is slightly sweeter than unprocessed whole milk, which may make it unpalatable to some. But it offers important advantages over earlier lactose-free milk products: it has the same caloric and nutritive values as whole milk and is cheap to produce. Because the enzyme they used is already available commercially, the researchers believe that their process could be performed simultaneously with pasteurization--at a cost of less than a penny a quart.

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