Being Lactose Intolerant in Japan | Tokyo
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I'm allergic to milk and I live in a foreign country (Japan). But I think it's easier to live in Japan with my allergy than in America - because most traditional Japanese food doesn't use milk. Kind of the only things that actually DO use milk are "Western" (cake, pizza, cheese, etc) and are easy to avoid. The only downside, though, is that a lot of my Japanese friends have a hard time processing how I could actually have an allergy to milk. It's incredibly uncommon here. Useful words/phrases for if you are lactose intolerant in Japan: 豆乳 ("tonyu," soy milk) 牛乳, ミルク ("gyunyu" or "milk," milk) 牛乳入っていますか ("gyunyu haittei imasu ka?" Does this have milk in it?) Please excuse grammatical mistakes - Japanese isn't my first language (obviously) and grammar has always been my weakness. One-time donation (to support the creation of videos): http://howibecametexan.com/donate/ Monthly support via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TexaninTokyo ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Buy my comic books: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TexaninTokyo My comics (on Amazon): http://goo.gl/5SzZCr My comics (on my blog): http://howibecametexan.com/latest_blog_posts/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My blog: http://howibecametexan.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TexaninTokyo Twitter: https://twitter.com/texan_in_tokyo
Comments
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So you seem to be very lucky Grace by living in place like Japan, where soy milk seems to be big....like they have been making all sorts of products from soy (tofu, milk etc) since many many years I guess.
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99% of all kind of cheese doesn't contain lactose or almost no lactose. Maybe they use cheap crappy cheese in the USA but normally most cheese doesn't contain lactose because of the aging process where bacteria use the lactose for their own metabolism.
I am lactose intolerant and eat cheese everyday.
But many industrial produced stuff contain milk powder and crap light that. -
Does Japan have Almond Milk. It's so yummy.
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how about gluten? is it a problem there? how is it for gluten free people there if you know eny?
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Oh! I'm also allergic to milk (no poop issues, it sometimes stops me from breathing), AND my dad was allergic too!
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@ zzz ß see djidisrw ds a AZZo ds wade op
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I don't know if I'm intolerant but i drink much of that Stuff
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Holy 80's outfit!
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Imagine being vegan in Japan or America. Welcome to my nightmare.
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you look reallu cute with glasses
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I get the impression that Japanese people just don't have allergies. That can't be true, can it?
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Hmm
I live in Australia, and there is a brand of milk we usually buy called A2, so named for the the A2 protein found in cow's milk. All cow's milk naturally contains this protein, but A2 brand specifically does not contain the A1 protein, which is found in most other brands.
Supposedly the A1 protein is the bad protein that causes most health problems related to milk. A2 brand purports to use cows that don't produce A1.
Could that be what you're allergic to? -
Really really late, but one reason there isn't a lot of milk in Japanese food could be that Asians in general have a higher rate of lactose intolerance than europeans/americans.
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It casein that she's allergic to ( I don't think I spelled that right)
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Coconut milk and almond milk is much better for you than soy simply because of the hormones.
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My son and I used to drink soy milk, but my Dr told me to stop (especially my son) because of the estrogen. Soy is a phytoestrogen, or a plant based estrogen. It contains two isoflavones, genistein and daidzein, which act like estrogen (the female sex hormone) within the body. Because estrogen plays a role in everything from breast cancer to sexual reproduction, this is where most of the soy controversy stems.A
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what if you are allergic to soy milk and lactose intolerant? I drink rice or cashew milk and plan to visit Japan. I really don't want to be rude.
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Cows' milk was introduced on a larger scale in Japan after world war 2. It made some pretty significant changes in not only the Japanese nutrition but cultural differences, as well. If people stop drinking milk at an early age, they can loose the ability to digest it. Asians have a higher rate of intolerance for Cows' milk than other people. And although cows' milk is nearly a complete food for us, it does have some drawbacks.
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You might need to be a little more careful in Hokkaido where there is a bit more dairy used than most of the rest of Japan. Possibly Okinawa as well do to the American influence.
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I'm lactose intolerant but luckily I can handle small amounts of dairy without problem. So if something has a sprinkle of cheese or a dash of milk I'm fine but I can't drink a milkshake of have more than 1 or 2 slices of pizza(which is good because dairy heavy foods are usually terrible for you anyway!)