Noir
08-07-2013, 10:13 AM
An interesting read for drinkers and non-drinkers alike, and especially so for lacto-intoerents, because they are in the vast majority, though you'd never think so...
"Whether you can digest milk comfortably after childhood is a genetic fluke. For many people, the ability to produce lactase—the enzyme that allows the body to break down lactase, the sugar in milk—disappears after childhood, when we no longer need to survive on our mother’s milk.
Lactase persistence—the gene that allows about a third of adults to drink milk without major digestive pains—tends to break down geographically, as you can see in this infographic from Nature’s history of milk tolerance. It’s largely a European phenomenon, evolving from a single genetic mutation that occurred less than 10,000 years ago.
As Nature explains:
During the most recent ice age, milk was essentially a toxin to adults because — unlike children — they could not produce the lactase enzyme required to break down lactose, the main sugar in milk. But as farming started to replace hunting and gathering in the Middle East around 11,000 years ago, cattle herders learned how to reduce lactose in dairy products to tolerable levels by fermenting milk to make cheese or yogurt. Several thousand years later, a genetic mutation spread through Europe that gave people the ability to produce lactase — and drink milk — throughout their lives.”
"Whether you can digest milk comfortably after childhood is a genetic fluke. For many people, the ability to produce lactase—the enzyme that allows the body to break down lactase, the sugar in milk—disappears after childhood, when we no longer need to survive on our mother’s milk.
Lactase persistence—the gene that allows about a third of adults to drink milk without major digestive pains—tends to break down geographically, as you can see in this infographic from Nature’s history of milk tolerance. It’s largely a European phenomenon, evolving from a single genetic mutation that occurred less than 10,000 years ago.
As Nature explains:
During the most recent ice age, milk was essentially a toxin to adults because — unlike children — they could not produce the lactase enzyme required to break down lactose, the main sugar in milk. But as farming started to replace hunting and gathering in the Middle East around 11,000 years ago, cattle herders learned how to reduce lactose in dairy products to tolerable levels by fermenting milk to make cheese or yogurt. Several thousand years later, a genetic mutation spread through Europe that gave people the ability to produce lactase — and drink milk — throughout their lives.”