Recognition of Lactose Intolerance

Abstract

Evidence has been accumulating that except where dairying has been carried on for centuries, postweaning inability to digest milk is the norm for humans as well as other land mammals. Given the ethnic diversity of the U. S., there may well be 30 million Americans who cannot drink milk without developing symptoms and many instinctively learn to avoid it. A simple lactose tolerance test is described that establishes the diagnosis.