Can dietary habits cause inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)?
There aren't any foods that cause inflammatory bowel disease but sometimes the foods that people eat, or the eating habits that people have, can make symptoms worse. If people eat too quickly or eat too much, or if they just eat certain types of foods and not others, it can cause them to not feel well.
What effect do dairy products have on IBD symptoms?
A lot of times when people are diagnosed with IBD, they're told that they can't have any dairy foods at all. And dairy products can be a problem if someone with IBD has lactose intolerance. Lactose is the sugar that's found in dairy foods, and it's added to other foods. If it doesn't digest well, if it doesn't break down well, people can have a lot of symptoms with it.
If people want to consume dairy products, they should cut back on the amount. Not having a full glass of milk or not eating a whole block of cheese can really help. Instead, people should have about a quarter of a glass of milk, or a slice of cheese that is about an eighth of an inch thick.
Some people use lactase tablets, which contain the enzyme that helps break down lactose. You can get this in a tablet form, and you have to take it before you eat the food because otherwise it doesn't work.
The good news is there are also good substitutes for dairy products. For instance, somebody might opt to use milk that's been pre-treated with lactase. So instead of having regular milk, you could have Lactaid milk. Or some people might opt to use soy milk. Soy milk is sometimes even a little higher than cow's milk in terms of nutritional value.
