People can have lactose intolerance their whole life or they can develop “temporary” or “situational” lactose intolerance after an intense bout of gastro, due to a flare up of other health conditions such as coeliac disease or due to increased physical or mental stress.

The one thing I often find is that when clients avoiding lactose or dairy, they often struggle to meet their daily calcium requirements.

Here are a few tips on getting enough calcium in your diet, when you are lactose intolerant;

Lactose free milk often has the same amount of calcium as lactose containing milk and can make a great replacement.

However, if you prefer to avoid dairy all together, make sure you pick a soy or nut milk that has been fortified, as these products aren’t naturally high in calcium.

Ideally, you want a milk alternative that has more than 250mg per 250ml serve.

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Hard cheese such as Parmesan and cheddar actually contain very little lactose and are often well tolerated by those with lactose intolerance, plus they contain a good amount of calcium.

If you still find they cause you a few issues there is now lactose free cheese available in most supermarkets.

It is also important to noted that most vegan cheese don’t naturally contain a lot of calcium nor are they often fortified, so they may be great for re-creating your favourite dish with vegan ingredients, they wont give you the same boost of calcium dairy- based cheese will.

Yoghurt, just like cheese is often relatively well tolerated by those with lactose intolerance.

This is because yoghurt is packed full of healthy probiotics.

Again you have to be careful with non-dairy yoghurts such as coconut yoghurt and soy yoghurts as they don’t naturally have the same amounts of calcium as there dairy counterparts.

As a general rule avoid non-dairy yoghurts that don’t have the calcium content on the nutritional panel.

Calcium isn’t just from dairy. Here is a list of non-dairy source of calcium