how come a lot of people are lactose intolerant if everyone started off by drinking milk as a baby?
In: 327
I’m milk protein intolerant (different), and reacted badly to breast milk as a child. Took them a while to figure it out. So some children may be lactose intolerant at birth also.
Genetics factors into who can tolerate milk as an adult.
If your ancestry is to people’s who lived in temperate-to-cold climates, then you likely have the gene to digest milk.
This is because cows were an excellent way of converting vast barren lands (which cows feed off of) into meat and milk. People who lived closer to the equator could reap the land year round. In colder climates, cows make good use of otherwise less nourishing grasslands and steppe.
Not sure if anyone mentioned beta casein here? Cows produce a different beta casein then humans and its harder for many to digest. Animals like goats, donkeys and camels produce the same beta casein (A2) as humans and it’s easier for us to digest their dairy. There are now many small cow farms producing cows with A2 beta casein through genetic processes so that customers will be able to buy their cow milk products still.
Lactose intolerant people lack the enzyme lactase that breaks down the milk molecules and allow you to digest it adequately.
They lack it because the part of the DNA that tells the body to produce lactase gets “stored away” aka condensed over time.
The natural/normal thing is for animals (including humans) to become lactose intolerant when growing up, and to be able to easily digest lactose is the mutation.
Babies can also be lactose intolerant, and many babies drink their mothers milk, which is made for them and less likely to cause issues instead of another animal’s milk, which can be more likely to cause issues. However, some mothers and babies can’t do breastfeeding, so they have to use something else.
Adults are lactose intolerant. We develop an intolerance as we grow up. Some races deal with it better than others. Be wary of giving your adult cat some milk even though she’ll enjoy it.
We are not supposed to drink milk as adults, but we do because it’s delicious 🙂
Latest Answers