7 Dairy Products Lactose-Intolerant People Will Love (2024)

There’s nothing like dipping a cookie into a tall, cold, glass of milk, whether you’re five years old or fifty. But for the more than one-third of all Americans (and 68% of the worldwide population!) who are lactose-intolerant, drinking or eating dairy products such as milk, ice cream and cream cheese can send them running to the bathroom with gas, diarrhea, bloating, abdominal pain and nausea.

Here’s why: milk naturally contains a complex sugar called lactose. “Lactose intolerance happens when the small intestine doesn't make enough lactase, which is the enzyme needed to digest and break down lactose into the simpler sugars glucose and galactose,” explains Amy Chow, RD, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Langley City, BC, who works with children and adults with food allergies and intolerances. Lactose intolerance can run in families, and is more common in the Asian-American, African-American, Hispanic/Latinx and Indigenous American populations.

The huge explosion in the market of plant-based milks has made life a lot easier for the lactose-intolerant, who can choose from a vast array of milk alternatives, including oat, almond, soy and coconut milk (plus frozen desserts made from all of the above). But still, there are benefits to drinking milk that comes from a cow, says Chow. “Milk alternatives can differ widely in nutrition profile,” she says. “For example, almond milk typically has 1g of protein compared to 8g of protein in cow’s milk.”

Thankfully, for the estimated 50 million Americans who can’t tolerate dairy, there are several tasty dairy products that come from a cow — and have the same nutrition profile as regular milk — but magically have the lactose removed (or try an all-new strategy for making the milk easier to digest). Here are a few faves:

Most cow milks marketed tothe lactose-intolerant have added lactase to break down the hard-to-digest sugar. But a new type of milkis taking a different approach. The folks behinda2 Milk claim it's not necessarily the lactose that causes tummy troubles, but a protein called A1, a genetic mutation that spread through dairy cattle 8,000 years ago. A2 uses milk from cows that produce only the easier-to-digestA2 protein. Our testers liked that it tastes clean and fresh without the extra sweetness of lactose-free milks.

With flavors like Peanut Butter Cup, Chocolate ChipCookie Dough,Mint Chip, andEspresso,Beckonconsiders itself the first premium-style lactose-free ice cream on the market — and it tastes as creamy and delicious as other high-end pints. Beckon uses natural ingredients including hormone-free milk and cream, egg yolks and pure cane sugar along with the all-importantlactase.

For your good old-fashioned, inexpensive, supermarket-brand ice cream, you can grab a box of Breyers Lactose-Free Ice Cream, which comes in Vanilla and Chocolate. Perfect for when you want to makea tummy-friendly milkshake.

The classic brand in lactose-free milk,Lactaid was developed back in the 1970sby a third-generation dairyman who realized that by adding lactase to the milk from his family farm, more people could enjoy it. The company now offers 9 kinds of milk, ice cream, cottage cheese, and even eggnog. Because the lactose has already been broken down into the simpler sugars, Lactaid has a slightly sweeter taste than regular milk.

Another increasingly common strategy for making milk lactose-free is to put cow's milk through afilter that removes all the sugars, but leaves all the important protein and calcium, Fairlife uses this ultra-filtering process to make lactose-free milk, ice cream and real-dairy creamer.

Yogurt in general is one of the dairy products that is naturally lower in lactose, making it easier for even the lactose-tolerant to digest. But for a totally lactose-free version of the fruity snack, you can try GoodBelly's yogurt, which is packed with gut-healthy probiotics and protein.

Green Valley adds lactase to all the dairy products produced at its creamery in California to create tummy-friendly organic cottage cheese, cream cheese, yogurt, butter and sour cream.