Its natural to stop making lactase, the enzyme that degrades lactose, and there are no enzymes in humans that can degrade cellulose. Cellulose is actually good for you and beneficial for your GI but milk is not.
I dont understand why cellulose is good for the GI despite humans not making the enzymes, and milk/dairy products upsets the GI despite being the same case.
In: 2
Cellulose forms much longer chains than lactose. Thing of it like a bowl of string. If you cut that string up it doesn’t get tangled. So the shorter lactose simply passes through. Secondly, the lactose that makes it into your intestines is the perfect food for the bacteria that lives there. So they will use as much of it as possible. In other words it begins to ferment. Producing gas and fluid as a byproduct. Where cellulose forms a net to grab other human waste, lactose is broken down into more fluids that won’t be absorbed by the body which creates looser stools.
If you have enough lactase, you break down the lactate in the small intestines and absorb the individual pieces. If you don’t have enough lactase, the lactose proceeds to your large intestines. The bacteria here go wild eating the lactose and creating waste products (mainly carbon dioxide and methane), which causes the bloating and discomfort associated with lactose intolerance.
Cellulose is mainly unaffected by any of the bacteria or enzymes in your gut, so it passes through, chewed and acid-bleached but otherwise intact.
Cellulose: neither digestible by humans nor our bacteria
Lactose: not digestible by lactose intolerant humans, but CAN be digested by bacteria.
And when bacteria eat lactose, they make a lot of gas which can be uncomfortable. Cellulose just draws in water to the intestines and makes the stool nice and soft while also providing bulk and lubrication.
Latest Answers