Intoleran (previously named Disolut) has a new lactase supplement: Lactase 20.000 tabs. Very strong lactase supplements with a strength of 20.000 FCC.

This is handy when you are very sensitive to lactose or when you want to eat foods that have a lot of lactose in it. In this blog, I review this supplement and explain what the difference is with supplements with a lower strength. 

This blog was written in collaboration with Intoleran. This review contains my own experiences with this product. The pictures in this article still feature the old packages of this product. Since Disolut has changed their name to Intoleran the packages have also changed.

What is FCC?

FCC is the unit that explains the strength of lactase supplements. Lactase supplements are available at different strengths.

Intoleran for example has lactase supplements with strengths of 2.500 FCC, 3.000 FCC, 10.000 FCC and now with the Lactase 20.000 tabs also 20.000 FCC. The FCC tells you how much active enzyme one unit of lactase contains. 

The higher the FCC, the more lactose can be broken down with the supplement. How much FCC you need to avoid getting symptoms when you eat a product with lactose in it depends on two things: 

• How much lactose the product that you eat contains
• How intolerant you are to lactose

The intolerance level can differ per person. The Dutch center for food states that people with a lactose intolerance can on average eat 10 to 15 gram of lactose without getting symptoms.

This is an average: so there will be people who can tolerate more lactose and people who can tolerate less. There are people who can drink an entire glass of milk without getting symptoms.

They will only get symptoms when they take a larger amount of lactose in one serving. There are also people who get symptoms when they only consume a small amount of lactose. Such as a splash of milk in their coffee. 

Intoleran Lactase 20.000 tabs

The Lactase 20.000 tabs are the strongest lactase supplements that Intoleran offers and this is also one of the strongest supplements on the market. Most supplements that you can find from other brands online often have strengths of 3.000, 5.000 or 9.000 FCC.

The Intoleran Lactase 20.000 tabs contain 20.000 FCC per tab and means they contain a high dose of lactase. This is great when you want to eat something that contains a lot of lactose or when you react very strongly to lactose. 

What I really like about these tabs is that you can break them in half. If you eat something that only contains a little bit of lactose, you can take half a tab (this is 10.000 FCC).

It is quite a shame if you have to take an entire tab when you don’t need such a high dose of lactase. For example when you eat something that only has a little bit of lactose in it. With these tabs, you can adapt the dose you take, to the amount of lactase that you need. 

How do you know which strength you need? 

You can find out which strength you need by trial & error. When I just found out that I was lactose intolerant, my dietician advised me lactase supplements with a strength of 2.500 FCC.

I kept having symptoms when I used these supplements because they were not strong enough for me. This made me believe that lactase supplements didn’t work for me.

When I started using the Intoleran Lactase 10.000 capsules, that have a strength of 10.000 FCC, I didn’t have symptoms anymore.

This showed that I simply needed to use a stronger supplement. For me, also a supplement of 10.000 FCC is not always strong enough.

For example: I kept having symptoms when I bought ice cream at the ice cream shop in summer. At first I thought I maybe just didn’t react to ice cream well because of my IBS and that it had too much sugar in it.

But my symptoms were really similar to the symptoms that I always get when I eat too much lactose (cramps and bloating).

One day I decided to take 2 capsules of 10.000 FCC when I bought an ice cream and guess what: no symptoms. I know now that I need to take a 20.000 FCC supplement when I eat larger amounts of lactose, such as ice cream.

When I just put a little bit of milk in my coffee or when I eat a sandwich with cream cheese, a smaller amount of lactase is sufficient. 

To find out which dose works best for you, you can best start taking lactase supplements with a high dose.

As the story above tells you, I always did this the other way around: I started with a low dosage and build it up to a higher one. This gave my quite some symptoms and therefore I don’t recommend that. 

Pick a dairy product that you would like to eat again, such as a bowl of yoghurt, a glass of milk or a scoop of ice cream and take a lactase tab of 20.000 FCC. No symptoms? Great, then this dose works for you. Next time you could try how you react when you take half a tab (10.000 FCC). Do you get symptoms now?

Then you know that 10.000 FCC is not enough for you and that you can better take 20.000 FCC. If you didn’t get symptoms again, you know that 10.000 FCC is enough for you for that amount of lactose. Like this, you can test for different amounts of lactose how much FCC you need to avoid getting symptoms. 

Conclusion

The Intoleran Lactase 20.000 tabs are great for you when you know that you react to lactose quickly and when supplements with a low dosage are not strong enough for you. Also when you have never tried lactase supplements before, these supplements are good to start out with.

You can test if your symptoms stay away when you take a high dosage of lactase. After that, you can test lower dosages to see how that works for you.

Intoleran offers sample packages of each supplement, so you can test it first without having to buy an entire package. You can order a sample package of the Lactase 20.000 tabs for €2.50. This package contains 5 tabs to test. 

A full package Lactase 20.000 tabs costs €24.95 and contains 50 tabs of 20.000 FCC. If you would break them all in half, you would have 100 half tabs of 10.000 FCC. 

Other reviews of FODMAP supplements

I have written more reviews about products that help your body to break down different FODMAP-groups and also an informative blog about lactose and the FODMAP diet. You can find them here: 

• FODMAP supplements review
• FAQ’s about FODMAP supplements
• Quatrase Forte review
• Fructase review
• Lactase pills: how to use them?
• Lactose and the FODMAP diet