Over the last couple of years Gluten Free has been the buzzword in food. And with good reason, according to Mintel, a leading marketing research company, sales of gluten free food and beverages is estimated to reach some $10.5B. Not only is it confirmed that 1 in 133 US consumers have Celiac disease (the main driver in adhering to a gluten free diet); having a gluten free diet is on trend with celebrities, with people who have family members with autism and other health and dietary concerns. However, when you look at the whole “free from” category, dairy free or “no dairy” dairy (meaning none cow’s milk dairy products); and more importantly lactose intolerance has an even bigger potential. Did you know that 33% of the total US population or 104.5M consumers are lactose intolerant? When you total up the 1 in 133 that equates to 2.3M consumers – lactose intolerance has more than 45 times the potential, yet it has not had the same spotlight shining on it. lACTOSe iNTOleRANT STATiSTiCS TOTAl % OF PeOPle WHO ARe lACTOSe iNTOleRANT iN THe US TOTAl % OF ADUlTS WHO HAVe A DeCReASe iN lACTASe ACTiViTy TOTAl % OF PeOPle WHO MAiNTAiN ABiliTy TO DiGeST lACTOSe AFTeR CHilDHOOD TOTAl NUMBeR OF AMeRiCANS WHO ARe CONFiRMeD AS lACTOSe iNTOleRANT POTenTially aS high aS 100M - Many cOnSuMerS are nOT yeT aware TOTAl % OF All AFRiCAN-AMeRiCAN, JeWiSH, MexiCANAMeRiCAN, AND NATiVe AMeRiCAN ADUlTS WHO ARe lACTOSe iNTOleRANT TOTAl % OF ASiAN-AMeRiCANS WHO ARe lACTOSe iNTOleRANT 75% 90% 33% 75% 40% 40M CeliAC DiSeASe AFFeCTS 1 OUT OF 133 OR 2.3M PeOPle 104,538,390 POTeNTiAl CUSTOMeRS! Dairy allergy vs. lactose intolerance As many as 50 million Americans suffer from a dairy intolerance while up to 3 percent of infants worldwide have an allergy to milk or other dairy products. Contrary to popular belief, these two conditions are vastly different. What is lactose intolerance? This condition (sometimes also called lactase deficiency) is an inability to fully digest lactose, or milk sugar, in dairy products. It's caused by a deficiency in lactase, an enzyme produced by your small intestine that breaks down lactose. While lactose intolerance is not exactly dangerous, it does cause painful and inconvenient symptoms anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours after eating a food that contains lactose. While some people are born being lactose intolerant, it's rare. More often the condition occurs as you age, when your body naturally decreases lactase production. Lactose intolerance can also occur along with other intestinal illnesses, such as celiac disease or Crohn's disease. What is a Dairy allergy (Milk intolerance)? An allergy to dairy, and milk in particular, is one of the most common food allergies in children. Though it was previously believed that most infants outgrow milk allergies by the age of 3, a recent study found that only 19 percent of the over 800 children in the study outgrew their allergy to milk by the age of 4. Unlike lactose intolerance, a milk allergy is caused by an immune system malfunction in which your immune system mistakenly recognizes milk proteins as being dangerous, and then produces a response against them. Both casein and whey, two proteins in milk, can cause an allergic response, and you can be allergic to one or both (most often it's both). The only way to prevent the symptoms of a milk allergy is to avoid all milk and milk proteins. May-July 2014 OnTREnD 83