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   Basics

What is lactose?

   January 21, 2019 | Green Valley Creamery
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   Lactose is the name of naturally-occurring milk sugar. The name comes
   from lac or lactis, the Latin word for milk, plus the ‘-ose’ ending to
   name sugars. Lactose is found in milk from mammals: from human
   breastmilk to cow's milk and every kind of milk in between. Since
   lactose is found in milk, it's also naturally present in a variety of
   milk-derived dairy products, though the amount of it varies by the
   method of production and processing.

   Lactose is a type of sugar called a "disaccharide," meaning it’s
   composed of two simple sugar molecules chemically bound together –
   glucose and galactose. Humans cannot absorb this double sugar when it's
   intact, so in order for us to digest lactose, our bodies need to break
   that bond between the single sugar molecules so that they can be
   absorbed individually.

   The lactose disaccharide molecule is naturally broken into their simple
   sugar parts by an enzyme called lactase, present in the digestive
   system of people who are tolerant to lactose. Once the enzyme breaks
   the bond of the double-sugar lactose molecule, glucose and galactose
   are easily absorbed.

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   undigested as it enters the large intestine. Here it interacts with
   natural bacteria and ferments, creating the uncomfortable symptoms of
   lactose intolerance.

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