Tangle,
Like Junky, I am lactose intolerant. As a teen and 20 something it was unbearable for me if I drank milk: cramps, diarrhea, gas.
Then I was SLOWLY able to add back lactose little by little over a decade or more- all was well (with a LITTLE milk). Then (now) I did a couple years following a lower carb regimen and thus spent a year without milk.
Adding it back, I've found that I am as intolerant as ever of lactose.
What happens to an intolerant person is that the enzyme lactase isn't produced by the body and thus the double sugar, lactose isn't cleaved to the simple sugars, glucose and galctose. The lactose passes through the gut where the normal flora in the intestines rapidly ferments the stuff producing carbon dioxide, alcohols, and lactates. When the intestines become a chemical plant- look out.
Any PRE-fermented product like yoghurt, kefir, and cheese is not likely to cause the same problems.
As far as "less efficient" goes...anything undigested will be a less "efficient."
With radiation poisoning from strontium-90, you're problems would be far worse than efficiency- more like cancer!
[This message has been edited by zip2play (edited 12-20-2002).]
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