To My Fellow Lactose Intolerant People,

The process of ordering a coffee always feels 10 times more complicated than it needs to be because I’m lactose intolerant. The first question I ask any coffee place is, “Do you have soy milk? Almond milk?” and hope that they do because I don’t feel like drinking black coffee again.

Everyone thinks that I’m being stuck up by ordering my latte with soy milk, but they do not realize that I need the soy milk to avoid terrible stomach pain just minutes after drinking my latte. People have come to think that soy and almond milk are fancier or healthier options, but for some of us, we just have no other option.

Don’t even get me started on the extra cost of my coffee because of my soy milk. Why should I have to pay up to an extra $1 because I’m lactose intolerant? Not fair ...

There was the lovely invention of lactose pills, which opens the ability of having dairy in my life again. When I first found out that I was lactose intolerant, I had to give up all dairy, which was so hard. Think about all those amazing foods with dairy like pizza, pastas, ice cream and so many more.

The lactose pills allowed me to be able to eat these foods again, but still with some caution.

However, those lactose pills only do the trick if you remember to bring them with you everywhere you go. My morning routine before leaving my room consists of checking for my phone, ID, keys and lactose pills.

All of my family and friends joke around about how I have lactose pills everywhere and some let me keep them at their houses so that I don’t have to think about bringing them every time I go over for a meal.

Everyone goes through the stage of thinking that they can still have small amounts of dairy without the lactose pills, but we each learn through much pain that we really cannot.

Don’t get me wrong, people have worse allergies and foods that they must be cautious of than us lactose intolerant people. Still, I would love to be able to order a coffee one day and not have to worry that the barista is going to forget my soy milk.