Hi,
  I spent about 3 years drinking milk to settle my stomach after I
developed lactose intolerance.

  It was not a productive technique.  :-)

  The doctor's diagnosis was Irritable Bowel Syndrome, with advice
to avoid stress. The symptoms vanished when I started avoiding the
milk and cheese that used to make up so much of my diet.

  The good news is that if you have a mild lactose intolerance you
can probably get by with the lactase enzyme pills like Dairy-Aid
or Lact-Aid.  I find that the store brand pills I get at discount
drug stores and K-Mart work fine, and cost a few bucks less.

  I take a pill with every meal, whether I think it has milk in
it or not.  If I know there is some milk, I take 2 or 3, and if
I know there is a lot of milk (like pizza or beef stroganoff),
I just don't eat it.

  For several years, I was religious about reading labels, but
as time has gone on, I only check when I suspect someone has
changed their ingredient list.

  Avoiding milk, cheese, ice-cream, etc is pretty obvious.

  Some of the foods that sometimes contain lactase (and you wouldn't
expect it) include:

  French Fries - Some fries (particularly the coated, seasoned ones)
     have lactase in the batter.  It browns nicely and looks good.

  Batter fried 'things' - A lot of the time the 'thing' is dipped
     in milk, and then in the batter.  Chicken-Fried steak sometimes
     falls into this category, and some of the fried seafoods.

  Some breads have milk in the dough.  Some don't.

  Watch for the butter and whipped cream frostings on cakes.
     I find I can handle a butter/sugar frosting with a couple
     extra pills.  Your mileage may vary.

  Milk chocolate.  Some is worse than other.  Dark is usually
     safer.  The Hershey's Special Dark used to be good, but
     they added some milk to the recipe a couple years ago
     (did they ever change back to the old recipe?).

  Clif