New Method Discovered: the Secrets of Lactose Digestion Revealed

Around two-thirds of the global adult population cannot digest lactose - milk sugar - due to a deficiency in lactase, the enzyme that is required for lactose digestion in humans. Generally, consumers are unaware of whether they are able to digest the lactose contained in dairy products. However, Agroscope and Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) researchers have now discovered a new method to measure the presence of lactase in the human body, and consequently determine an individual's ability to digest lactose. The patent for the discovery is pending. In a study recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , Agroscope and the CHUV have shed light on the ability of the human body to digest lactose. The joint research paper was supervised by Guy Vergères, Head of Agroscope's Nutritional and Functional Biology Research Group, and his colleagues at the CHUV, François Pralong and Nathalie Vionnet. Lactose Tolerance - A resolved matter? Ten thousand years BCE, pastoral populations that consumed the milk of their livestock benefited from a genetic mutation, which resulted in the continued production of lactase - the enzyme required for the digestion of lactose in the body - beyond early childhood, the point at which production usually ceases.