Samenvatting

Lactose is a unique disaccharide, which occurs exclusively in the milk of mammals. It has wide applications as a food ingredient and in pharmaceutical preparations. Discouragement of milk consumption, because of the existence of lactase deficiency in the majority of the world population, is unjustified, because even in the complete absence of this enzyme, nutritionally significant volumes of milk, corresponding to about 11 g of lactose per day, are well tolerated, if the milk intake is distributed over the day and combined with meals.