Lactaid & Vegemite

I am lactose intolerant. That means my body reacts to lactose. I therefore have not purposely eaten any dairy products for nearly 20 years. During that time my reaction has got progressively worse, going from problems with my sinuses moving up to mild headaches, graduating to really bad headaches and finally with the last time I accidentally encountered lactose, to debilitating, bright light flashing before my eyes migraine type headaches and vomiting. Al I all, not pleasant. As it turns out a non lactose diet can be very healthy as I avoid all the fattening, high cholesterol foods. But, I have missed pizza as I used to love it.

However, here in the US they have a thing called Lactaid. It is for people who are lactose intolerant. You take Lactaid just before you are going to eat something and it enables your body to digest it rapidly. My daughter got some for me and then bought pizza. I was more than a little tentative (she described me looking as if I was being fed poison!). However, I actually ate pizza! Tasted very strange I must admit as I had not eaten real pizza for a very long time. I have used this Lactaid stuff several times since and found that the next day I get mild symptoms but nothing like what I went through last year when I had a really bad experience.

Recently my daughter suggested I try the thing that has really got me intrigued, peanut butter ice cream. Once again I was a little cautious, but, I must admit it tasted good. It was ice cream that tasted of, peanut butter (strange as it may seem). Weird I must admit, but good. Quite why you cannot get this Lactaid stuff outside of the US I have no idea but I not carry some with me all the time so that if I am eating out and am not sure, I can use it and not worry (as opposed to just not eating which is what I used to do) . However, I must admit I have drawn the line at something called white chocolate peanut butter cheesecake pie. I have no idea what that is and don’t think I want to know….

Another thing that is different here, the bread. It is sweet because they use sugar when making it. Takes some getting used to I must admit. Mind you, try getting an American to eat Vegemite on bread???? My son in law tried it and said that it was, interesting but not something he thought he could EVER get used to. My daughter takes Vegemite into work and occasionally makes herself a snack using it. It seems her Vegemite tube is extremely safe as one or two co-workers tried it and “choked” on the taste. Disgusting was I gather one of the milder words used to describe it. Just goes to show, some people have no taste...

Having said that, I have also discovered that it is illegal to import the stuff (of course I did not know that when I brought in supplies for my daughter). Something to do with the Folate content I gather. Folate is a water-soluble B vitamin that occurs naturally in food. Folic acid is the synthetic form of Folate that is found in supplements and added to fortified foods and there in lies the problem. It is regarded as a food supplement and the FDA (Food & Drug Authority) regulates food supplements.

Mind you, given that there are probably something like 400,000 Aussies in the country, most (if not all) crave Vegemite at some point and no doubt get supplies sent in, say up to three tubes a year, that is anything up to million tubes of Vegemite a year. Sounds like it might be worth the manufacturers of Vegemite doing something about it! I am sure the Brits have similar views about Marmite (the UK equivalent) which I would imagine has the same problem as Vegemite.

Strange world we live in with surprises turning up where you would never expect them.