American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 52, 682-684, Copyright © 1990 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Lactose absorption and consumption in Curacao schoolchildren

KF Debrot
Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

As an initial step to evaluate the school additional-nourishment program, which provides milk to schoolchildren, a study was conducted in the fall of 1984 on 729 black schoolchildren (aged 8-10 y) in Curacao, for whom lactose consumption and absorption were determined. A food frequency questionnaire was used to determine lactose consumption, and a breath-hydrogen test was used to determine lactose absorption after a physiological load of 0.5 g lactose/kg body wt was administered in the form of standardized irradiated whole milk. An increase in breath-hydrogen of 20 ppm indicated lactose malabsorption; 14% of the children were malabsorbers of lactose. No relationship was found between lactose malabsorption and lactose consumption, as estimated from the questionnaire. Possible reasons for the lower-than-expected prevalence of lactose malabsorption in this population are the use of a physiological dose of lactose, and the fact that this population is well nourished and free from significant parasitism and other endemic diseases.