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Él es intolerante a la lactosa, así que evita los lácteos.

Él es intolerante a la lactosa, así que evita los lácteos.
He is intolerant to lactose, so he avoids dairy products.
From Lesson 527:Dietary Restrictions·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Él es intolerante a la lactosa, así que evita los lácteos.

Why use es instead of está for a medical condition like lactose intolerance?
While temporary health states use estar (like está enfermo for 'he is sick'), allergies and intolerances are treated as permanent, defining characteristics of a person in Spanish. Therefore, you must use ser (es intolerante).
Why does the sentence say a la lactosa instead of just a lactosa?
In English, we drop the article for general substances (lactose), but Spanish requires the definite article when talking about a noun in a general or abstract sense. This is also why 'dairy products' is translated with the article as los lácteos.
Could así que ever trigger the subjunctive here, or is it always indicative?
In this sentence, it must be the indicative (evita) because así que (meaning 'so' or 'therefore') is stating a factual result or consequence. Así que only takes the subjunctive when it is used to express a command or strong suggestion, which doesn't apply here.
Why is 'dairy products' translated simply as los lácteos without a word for 'products'?
While lácteo is an adjective meaning 'dairy', it is heavily used as a standalone plural noun (los lácteos) to represent the entire category of dairy foods. Adding the word productos is grammatically fine but usually unnecessary.

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