Lactose Intolerant? Which Dairy Products Contain Lactose? How Much?

Milk, the starting point for all dairy products, basically has four components.

Two components that don't mix with water:
     • Casein – the protein used to make cheese.
     • Fat - the butter (Cheese is basically fat and casein)
Two components that do dissolve in water:
     • Whey Protein – the protein found in whey, the by-product from making cheese. (Remember Little Miss Muffet? Curds (cheese) and Whey.)
     • Lactose – the sugar in milk (from the Greek: lact=milk, ose=Sugar)

The amount of lactose in any given dairy product has to do with which and how much of these components is present. In order from the most lactose to the least:

1. Whey – 76%
     Remove the cheese (fat and casein) and you’re left w/ mostly lactose and some whey protein.
2. American (process) Cheese – 10%
     While cheese is low in lactose, process cheese often has lactose added back in as filler.
3. Whey Protein Powder – 7%
     The concentrated proteins for this product are actually made by removing lactose.
4. Soft Serve Ice cream – 7%
     Based on skim milk, which has more lactose.
5. Skim Milk – 5.8%
     Removing the fat doesn’t create any lactose, but lactose does become a higher percentage of the total as a result.
6. 2% Milk – 4.9%
     Same as skim, just less fat is removed, so lactose is a slightly less, as a percentage.
7. Buttermilk – 4.5%
     Butter milk is cream with the fat removed (the fat becomes butter) – so, as a result, the lactose level is higher than cream.
8. Whole Milk – 4%
     Less lactose as a percentage than 2% or skim because, in effect, the lactose is diluted down by the fat.
9. Yogurt – 4%
     Generally made with skim milk.
10. Ice Cream – 3.5%
     In general, the better the ice cream (i.e, higher fat content), the less lactose.
11. Half-and-Half – 3.3%
     The way to get cream is to take out the proteins and lactose (leaving the fat). The higher the fat content, the more lactose has been removed.
12. Cottage Cheese – 3.3%
13. Sour Cream – 3.3%
14. Cheese – 2.5%
     Most of the lactose goes with the whey, so cheese is low in lactose.
15. Cream – 2.5%
     Same idea as for half-and-half – just more extreme.
16. Whipped Cream – 2%
     Same as for cream, except the added sugar (sucrose in this case) reduces the % lactose.
17. Premium Ice Cream – 2%
     Recurring theme: more fat, less room for lactose.
18. Milk Chocolate – 1.5%
19. Aged or Sharp Cheese – 1%
     As cheese ages, the bacteria that give it the ‘sharp’ flavor do that by ‘eating’ the remaining lactose. Aged, strong, sharp, hard cheeses hardly contain any lactose.
20. Ranch Dressing – 1%
21. Dark Chocolate – near 0%
22. Butter – near 0%
     Butter is nearly all fat (plus a little water and a tiny bit of protein).
23. Eggs – 0%

Unlike allergies, which are not very dependent on amounts (what you are allergic to is either there, or it isn't), lactose intolerance has to do with your ability to digest lactose – so how much is a big factor. (You can be allergic to milk, but, in that case, it is the milk proteins that are of concern.)