11.These are maltase, sucrase, and lactase, which break down the short chains of sugars called oligosaccharides into simple sugars, called monosaccharides.
12.Lactose is basically milk-sugar that can only be digested with the help of a special intestinal enzyme — lactase — which many adults do not produce enough of.
13.Those of us who can't produce the enzyme lactase in our small intestine simply let milk and cheese pass through the organ untouched, leaving the digestion to these bacteria in the large intestine.
14.Different enzymes help to break different linkages - for example amylases break down large polysaccharides like starch into smaller units, whereas lactase, sucrase, and maltase break down lactose, sucrose, and maltose into their monosaccharides.
15.Today nearly 90 percent of adult Britons and Scandinavians can chug all the milk they want, whereas down toward the Mediterranean, probably less than 40 percent have lactase persistence, and fewer than ten percent in Africa and Asia.