Why Paying for Lactose.help Is Smart

Recently, we received a negative comment from a user: "3 lousy scans and then you have to pay."

Who wants to pay, you might ask? Nobody.

The whole art is in making the value behind the price clear, and what the user actually gets out of it.

What is behind the book

Creating a book like "Better Living with Lactose Intolerance" means more than 5 months of intensive work, built on years of reading, research and experimentation.

I was supported by a writing coach, because writing is not one job but several. The coach acts like an orchestra conductor, coordinating every member of the team: the graphic designer, who imagines the cover concept, the title and the back cover for better readability, and all the other contributors who make a book a book.

Because being scientifically correct matters deeply to me, I also ran lab analyses in an accredited laboratory to validate the method, and had the manuscript reviewed by certified dietitians.

What is behind the app

In parallel, with Olivier Dubois of The AI App Factory, we built the mobile app that automates the method from the book. The goal: to let you find everyday products that are lactose-free, or that have a lactose concentration you can tolerate.

A mobile app involves a lot of things: development, testing, servers to pay for, AI engines, registration on the Google and Apple platforms, UX/UI, and so on.

All of that has a cost. Some players resell your private data, others run ads. Olivier and I hate both approaches. So we went for a freemium model: 3 free scans per day, so you can benefit from all this work without paying anything.

What you really gain

The most interesting part is the actual savings the app brings you.

Take a concrete example, with prices recorded at Colruyt, a supermarket in Belgium, in April 2026. A Gouda labeled "lactose-free" costs 29 euros per kilo. But thanks to Lactose.help, you can identify a budget Gouda that is also naturally lactose-free, at 6,38 euros per kilo. Or a more flavorful version at 5,95 euros per kilo. Or an organic version at 16,20 euros per kilo. You will recover the cost of the subscription quickly.

Also worth noting: product formulations change over time. A product that was lactose-free six months ago might not be today. Staying alert on this matters, and that is exactly what the app automates for you.

We have also introduced family sharing, which lets you extend your subscription to 5 of your loved ones. For them, who do not know as well as you which products pass or not, it is an immediate gain in peace of mind.

Not to mention the pleasure of rediscovering foods you thought were off-limits.

The real value: the best certainty possible

But beyond the savings, the core value of Lactose.help is to sell you the greatest possible certainty that the product you are buying is compatible with your lactose intolerance.

That is why everything else exists: the lab analyses, the validation by dietitians, the method in the book, the app that tracks formulation changes. You are not paying for scans. You are paying for peace of mind the moment you put a product in your cart, and peace of stomach when you sit down to eat.

In short

Paying for nothing in return is foolish. Paying to save money while supporting an ecosystem that changes daily life for the lactose-intolerant is smart. And paying to never doubt again every time you go grocery shopping is priceless.