Managing intolerance through food
Tips from dietitian Georgie Rist
Suffer from lactose intolerance, fructose malabsorption or gluten intolerance?
Georgie Rist, accredited practising dietitian and spokesperson for the Dietitians Association of Australia, offers her top tips for dealing with food allergies.
Lactose intolerance
A deficiency in the enzyme lactase, which breaks down the sugar in milk products (i.e. lactose) in the small intestine and means the body is unable to properly digest many milk products.
Georgie’s management tips:
Swap cow’s milk for lactose-free or calcium fortified rice, oat, soy or almond milk
Swap cow’s milk yoghurt for soy, coconut or lactose free yoghurt
Gluten intolerance
Also known as ‘gluten sensitivity’, this is the body’s incapacity to digest products containing gluten, like bread. Not necessarily always indicative of coeliac disease.
Georgie’s management tips
- Swap wheat pasta for black bean pasta or wholegrain rice and quinoa pasta
Fructose malabsorption
Fructose malabsorption occurs in people whose bodies are unable to digest or fully digest the sugar present in many foods. There are often varying degrees of fructose malabsorption.
Georgie’s management tips
- Avoid onion, garlic, honey, high fructose corn syrup, apples, pears, mangoes and watermelon
- Swap apples for bananas
- Swap dried fruit for a handful of berries and almonds
- Swap honey for jam on cracker or toast
