But we don’t start that way. If we kept drinking breast milk since infancy, we’d maintain our ability to digest it just fine. It’s a “use it or lose it” situation.
Comment on Helth
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 10 months agoThere’s only the tiny issue that most humans are lactose intolerant. Don’t believe me, look it up
Vespair@lemm.ee 10 months ago
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 10 months ago
That’s a theory… Definitely unverified
tryitout@infosec.pub 10 months ago
That’s cow’s milk.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I don’t think there’s a ton of difference actually. It’s a known phenomenon that all humans are born tolerating lactose but most lose it with time.
tryitout@infosec.pub 10 months ago
I guess I was misconstruing based on how the trait to tolerate lactose came about (domestication of dairy animals). But lactose is in all mammal milk so guess I’m incorrect.
OutsizedWalrus@lemmy.world 10 months ago
It’s all mammal milk
peopleproblems@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Man it was wild when my GI doc gave me the low-down on that. Like most everything in metabolic science its a “grey subject.”
Mammals naturally lose the ability to produce lactase as they wean off mother’s milk. However, humans, particularly Europeans and some areas of Africa have consumed dairy for long enough that we do maintain limited lactase production if it is introduced shortly after weaning. There is evidence in some areas of western Europe specifically, where life long production of lactase does appear to have evolved.
But for the majority of the world, yeah, they day we started weaning was the day we stopped being lactose tolerant.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Yep that’s similar to what I’ve heard about it. I’ve had so many people not believe me that most people globally are not lactose tolerant!