Lactose intolerance can range from a bothersome inconvenience to a full force gastrointestinal attack, and although it is a very common problem for adults, it can be a difficult problem to manage since dairy products and byproducts are simply everywhere. Some choose to avoid dairy altogether while others try to moderate their dairy consumption along with the use of lactase, an enzyme tablet that can help you digest lactose. Lactase works for some, but not all people and sometimes it can stop working for you when it worked previously.

There are a few things that you can try at home that may help you to better digest dairy for those days when you just have to have that glass of milk or bowl of ice cream. Cocoa has been found to reduce the symptoms of lactose intolerance, it is thought that cocoa will slow the stomachs emptying reducing the rate at which lactose reaches the colon. Non fat chocolate or cocoa is best, as the high fat content can aggravate the symptoms.

If you do not like chocolate milk you can try adding powdered lactase directly to your milk, let it sit overnight and in the morning your milk will have half the lactose it had the day before and your milk will have a pleasant sweet taste to it, since the lactase will break the lactose down into glucose.

Many people find that if they consume their dairy with a meal that there are little or no symptoms. Doctors believe one of the key factors in lactose intolerance is the rate at which the stomach empties; a full meal will slow that rate of emptying and thus slow the rate at which lactose enters the small intestine giving your intestine more time to digest the lactose.

Consuming fermented dairy products such as yogurt, buttermilk and hard cheese tends to be much easier on the intestines than milk is, making it possible for the lactose intolerant to consume these dairy products. A good example is yogurt, since the organisms in yogurt produce lactase, they be much better tolerated by those that are lactose intolerant.