Free counter
How much lactose is in your heaviest meal?
Most people with lactose intolerance handle about 12 g at one time, and more when it is spread through the day. Add up your meals, see which one is heaviest, and try the swaps that bring it down.
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Pick a meal, then tap what was in it. You can change every amount afterwards.
Milk and milky drinks
Yoghurt and cultured
Cheese
Cream and butter
Sweets and bakes
No or almost no lactose
Something else
Some labels list lactose under the sugars. If yours gives no figure, the sugar line is only an upper limit for a milky food, not its lactose.
Not sure dairy is what bothers you, or worried about calcium if you cut back?
Dr. Triveni can look at what you normally eat and help you find what fits your gut.
Book a consultationWhere the numbers come from
Lactose per serving: the food tables from Germany's Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG, InformedHealth.org, updated November 2024). Amounts scale in a straight line from those servings. Chai and milk on cereal are worked out from the milk in them, at 7.0 g in 150 ml. Dahi uses the yoghurt figure. Paneer, chaas, ghee and milk sweets have no reliable published figure and are marked as estimates. Lactose-free products are counted at 0.1 g per 100, a usual upper limit; labels differ.
The lines: the European Food Safety Authority (2010) found no universal threshold. The vast majority of people with lactose maldigestion have no or minor symptoms up to 12 g in one dose, more if it is spread through the day, and some react below 6 g. A review for the US National Institutes of Health (Shaukat and colleagues, 2010) reached a similar 12 to 15 g. IQWiG gives about 24 g, roughly 500 ml of milk, over a day.
The evidence, and how to find your own limit: Lactose intolerance: how much milk most people can actually tolerate, and which dairy is easiest. Cutting back on dairy? Check what it does to your day with the calcium counter.
General information, not medical advice. Lactose intolerance is not a milk allergy: if you get hives, swelling, wheezing or vomiting after dairy, this counter does not apply and even small amounts can matter, so see a doctor. Please also see a doctor about unexplained weight loss, blood in your stool, symptoms that persist, or gut symptoms in a child.