Using higher fat dairy products reduces the
amount of milk sugars, or lactose, and milk protein, or casein in the finished product.
The team's original ideas included keeping portion sizes small and eating them along with foods to slow the
passage of milk sugar through the gut.
Because of the relatively low fat content of the milk, the stomach empties quickly, and a large
load of milk sugar (lactose) arrives in the intestine all at once.
The researchers determined that more infants fed by secretor mothers had high levels of bifidobacteria — 60 percent of infants versus 37.5 percent at day 6 and 80 percent versus 50 percent at day 120 — and that infants who had more bifidobacteria had lower amounts
of milk sugars left over and higher amounts of lactate in their feces.
The relation between dairy products and ovarian cancer may be caused by the
breakdown of the milk sugar lactose into galactose, a sugar which may be toxic to ovarian cells.
Dairy products are a leading cause of excessive flatulence, due to poor
digestion of the milk sugar lactose, though even people who are lactose tolerant may suffer from dairy.
Most yogurts on the market have not been fully cultured and thus contain a fair
amount of milk sugar.
The differences are: the protein is partially hydrolysed,
some of the milk sugar (lactose) is replaced with starch and they have different fat blends.