Milk nutrition and milk intolerance

Let us consider specific examples of different solutions to some important nutrition problems in the light of classical and new theories. One of these problems is associated with milk nutrition, the other - with intolerance to milk.

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Milk nutrition and milk intolerance

Milk nutrition is not an exclusive characteristic of mammals. Milk as a food for newborns was "invented" also by other groups of organisms. Milk of mammals has a remarkable property to support g-meostasis in newborn organisms, especially in the first time after birth. It is at this time that the penetration of the macromolecules of the mother's milk into the internal environment of the newborn organism occurs almost unhindered. This is due to the fact that in most newborn mammals, thin skin is not an immune barrier and unsplit components of milk (including protein) penetrate into their internal environment by endocytosis. Recently, the presence in the milk of significant amounts of enzymes and hormones, which under these conditions ensures the maintenance of the hormonal status of the newborn. Nutrition of the newborn with another type of milk from this point of view is inadequate, since foreign antigens enter the bloodstream.

The main differences between milk and usual definitive food are in the composition of carbohydrates. Milk contains a specific carbohydrate - lactose, while the definitive food is predominantly sucrose and starch. The latter, during hydrolytic cleavage, is mainly converted to disaccharides, such as maltose and isomaltose (but not lactose).

To understand the biological role of milk, it is important to keep in mind that the presence of lactose in it, combined with the presence of a corresponding enzyme (lactase) in the mucous membrane of the small intestine, ensures control of the trophic connection of the mother and offspring. Such a trophic connection is broken when the growing organism reaches a certain degree of maturity and lactase in its intestines is repressed. The result is a rapid decrease in the tolerance of milk and a rejection of its consumption. Thus, and this can not but be admired by the wisdom of nature, one of the most perfect food products - milk - also contains a "limiter", which in natural conditions, as soon as milk ceases to be vital for matured offspring, is interrupted by a mechanism that depletes the mother feeding offspring. It has now been established that the repression of lactase is controlled by the hypothalamic-thyroid axis, the disruption of its functions prevents the repression of this enzyme.

Intolerance to milk

This problem is a particular case of food intolerance, or intolerance. However, unlike other types of intolerance, hundreds of millions of people suffer from this. So, milk intolerance (lactose intolerance, lactose malabsorption, lactase deficiency) in the population of Europe and America is 6-12%. Among the inhabitants of the Middle East, it reaches 70% or more. Similar data were obtained for the Cypriots, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Eskimos of Greenland, the Indians of America, Africans, Sri Lankans, and others.

With aging of the body, as a rule, intolerance to milk and a number of other foods increases. This is due not only to the age-related decrease in the rate of synthesis of various enzymes, including lactase, but especially to weakening the functions of the hepatic barrier. In many cases, the therapeutic effect on the liver leads to the restoration of food tolerance. Suppressing the bacterial flora of the intestine always prevents lactose intolerance. It is interesting that in people with the same lactase deficiency, milk intolerance can be expressed or absent. This is often determined by differences in the composition of the bacterial flora of the intestine (in some individuals it does not produce toxic metabolites, in others it produces them in large quantities) and the state of the barrier functions of the liver.

In recent years, attempts have been made to create milk that could be used by people with lactose intolerance. There are two ways for this:

1. preliminary hydrolysis of lactose before consumption of milk for food;
2. the addition of a lactose-digesting enzyme into the milk.

When lactase deficiency is used milk with split lactose, as well as dairy products with a low content of this disaccharide - kefir, sour milk, cheese, etc.