Why does Lacdigest seem not to work for those of us who are lactose intolerant?

May 21, 2018 Lactosolution

If you search for the term Lacdigest on the popular social network Facebook, you will find results containing all kinds of comments, but most seem to suggest that this widely marketed product offers few benefits for those suffering from lactose intolerance.

Why do people make such claims? Let’s try to understand why.

From the commercial packaging of Lacdigest, we can gather the following data:

Active ingredient: Beta-D-galactosidase from Aspergillus oryzae
Enzyme quantity declared in “Units”: 2,250, equivalent to 2,250 FCC ALU
Enzyme quantity declared by weight: 22.5 mg
Concentration: 100,000 ALU/g

Let’s analyze the active ingredient: as defined in another of our articles, beta-galactosidase is not the most specific enzyme for lactose digestion, which is actually lactase. This leads to a loss of efficacy of the active ingredient itself, which will break down other molecular bonds that are of no interest to us.

Therefore, compared to some supplements on the market, Lacdigest does not have the best active ingredient overall, but we can note that beta-galactosidase is still the most commonly used enzyme for lactose digestion.

What can we say about the quantity?

I am lactose intolerant; fortunately, not severely, but I have a heavy bout of diarrhea exactly an hour and a half after a meal containing lactose if I don’t take supplements. Well, I had reached the point of taking 6 tablets of Lacdigest to digest a pizza or an ice cream before discovering the alternative. At that amount, I have to report that it seems to work well, and I can eat without major problems, but at what cost and at what effort?

The personal result I arrived at seems to be shared by the people who posted the comments reported above. The product actually works. But why so many tablets?

In fact, 2250 FCC ALU is a low amount, lower than the average amount contained in products on the market and almost half the value that the ministry indicates as “sufficient” to digest a dish containing lactose (4500). Taking 6 tablets is equivalent to arming yourself with 13,500 FCC ALU of enzyme. A value that seems to be recognized as valid by many users and by some recently formed manufacturers.

It is good to remember (we explained it here) that the ability to digest lactose is not the same for everyone; everyone has their own natural reserves of lactase produced within the body, and everyone’s body attacks the elements we ingest with its own strength.

This means we do not know in advance how much enzyme is present and how much introduced from the outside will be able to reach the small intestine, where the cleavage and therefore the digestion of lactose occurs, so even the ministerial estimate should be taken with a grain of salt.

That said, values above 12,000 FCC ALU seem to work for the vast majority of users. The experience of us lactose-intolerant people teaches us that to correctly digest 5 g of ingested lactose, at least 7-8000 FCC ALU are needed.

A content of 5 g of lactose is found, for example, in the following products (we always report the values for a standard package to facilitate understanding):

1 cheeseburger
100g of ricotta
150g of emmenthal cheese
125g of yogurt
200g of mozzarella

But we will need almost double that amount if we plan to eat the following foods (which do not have 5g of lactose but about 9g):

200g of panna cotta
250ml of chocolate milk

Back to us, Italchimici Spa, the manufacturer of Lacdigest, is aware of the fact and rightly suggests increasing the dose in case of persistent symptoms. The official dosage states: “adults and children over three years of age: 1 chewable tablet per 5 g of ingested lactose (corresponding to the amount contained in about 100 ml of milk). If symptoms persist, the dosage can be increased.”

Lacdigest is therefore right; lactose can be digested with this supplement, but in most cases, we have to take many tablets. It remains to be understood when it is economically advantageous to choose this product over others and whether we feel comfortable taking multiple tablets instead of just one.

On the other hand, in favor of Lacdigest, we can limit the intake of the enzyme if we are about to ingest a truly minimal amount of lactose... but who can be certain of how our body will react? You don’t mess around with the toilet!

Let’s do an economic calculation:

Lacdigest costs an average of €12.50 for the 50-tablet format, which is €0.25 per tablet.

If we need 6 tablets for a normal meal, we have:

6 * 0.25 = €1.50

So with Lacdigest, we end up spending €1.50 per meal and taking or chewing 6 tablets.

Do this analysis with your favorite supplement; we prefer the innovative LACTOSOLUTION 15000.

This supplement has 15,000 FCC ALU per tablet, so for a meal, we can take just one tablet and be confident in an efficacy equal to 7 tablets of Lacdigest. To be honest, the efficacy is more than 7 times greater thanks to the lactase active ingredient, which is more specific than beta-galactosidase, and thanks to the calcium content that helps the enzyme in its task.

LACTOSOLUTION 15000 is currently on sale for €14.99 and contains 15 tablets, which is €0.99 per tablet.

If, in this case, we need 1 tablet for a normal meal, we have:

1 * 0.99 = €0.99

So with LACTOSOLUTION 15000 in the basic pack, we end up spending €0.99 per meal and ingesting 1 tablet.

And what if we bought the Refill pack of LACTOSOLUTION 15000?

The 150-tablet pack is currently on sale for €54.99, which is €0.36 per tablet.

So with the LACTOSOLUTION 15000 savings pack, we end up spending only €0.36 per meal and ingesting 1 tablet!

In conclusion, in addition to the greater convenience of being able to take just one tablet, we save from 51 Euro cents to €1.14 per meal by choosing LACTOSOLUTION.