Lactose Intolerance???????

If you find out that you are lactose-intolerant, you would join quite a few WLS patients, who have experienced the same thing.

Perform a search on OH, and you'll find quite a bit on it.

However I just wanted to interject something, and hope not to create a firestorm of opinion with it.

This is not an opinion, this is about scientific literature and proven evidence.
Drinking unpasteurized cow's milk may be delicious and may make you very strong - but it also leads to absolutely horrible diseases that thankfully haven't existed in Ontario for a very long time.
PLEASE don't do it. That's the last thing someone recovering from surgery and experiencing dietary upheaval needs.

Okay - all of you raw milk proponents can start lecturing me now.

I would *assume* should you even be able to find someone who would sell you raw cows milk, you would make sure the cow was healthy.   I drink raw goats milk all the time, have for years.  How many people on these boards drank raw cows milk on the farm?   Nothing wrong with it *if* you know your animals. 
Sorry, but I think you have to be in the business to understand.

Bonnie

You can actually buy raw cow's milk at many farmer's markets.....its just labelled as something like "milk for dogs" since, as Bonnie said, it is illegal to sell for human consumption.

That being said....I dont know the people selling it and am not advocating going out to a stranger's vending kiosk at an open market to buy unpasteurized milk to drink.

I do think though,  that if I lived on a farm, I would drink raw unpasteurized milk without any hesitation.

Just a bit of info if anyone's interested: Lactose is milk sugar. It requires an enzyme in order to break it down in the stomach for digestion as it is not, as Bonnie stated, naturally intended for human consumption. Most humans have this enzyme anyways so they have little to no trouble. Some of us do not. Cow's milk already has the enzyme in it and thats why it was good for mass human consumption simply because humans could tolerate it....at one point in history. What has happened is that the process of Pasteurization was invented to prevent bacteria and other nasties from making people sick....way back in the day when refridgeration capability was certainly not what it is today. Unfortunately, the process of pasteurization, kills this enzyme. But because most humans produce just enough of it to tolerate moderate amounts of milk, most people dont have any issues. Lactose-free milk isnt lactose free at all. It just already has the synthetic enzyme added to it so that it can be broken down by anyone whose body does not naturally produce it. Thats why lactose-free milk tastes slightly sweeter than regular milk...as the sugars have already started the process of being broken down. Lactaid pills....are just a pill version of the enzyme. Why goat's milk is different, I am not sure but I think it has something to do with there not being as much lactose in it to begin with.

Milk ALLERGY on the other hand....is completely different and has to do with the protein in milk and causes an histamine reaction.

Voila: my 2 cents.