The long lists of food allergies some people claim to have can make it seem as if they're just finicky eaters trying to rationalize likes and dislikes. Not so. Eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish soy and gluten all can wreak havoc on the immune system of allergic individuals, even causing a deadly reaction called anaphylaxis.
But those allergic reactions are relatively rare, affecting an estimated 4% of adults.
Milk's different.
First off, most people who have bad reactions to milk aren't actually allergic to it, in that it's not their immune system that's reponding to the milk.
Instead, people who are lactose intolerant can't digest the main sugar —lactose— found in milk. In normal humans, the enzyme that does so —lactase— stops being produced when the person is between two and five years old. The undigested sugars end up in the colon, where they begin to ferment, producing gas that can cause cramping, bloating, nausea, flatulence and diarrhea.
If you're American or European it's hard to realize this, but being able to digest milk as an adult is one weird genetic adaptation.
It's not normal. Somewhat less than 40% of people in the world retain the ability to digest lactose after childhood. The numbers are often given as close to 0% of Native Americans, 5% of Asians, 25% of African and Caribbean peoples, 50% of Mediterranean peoples and 90% of northern Europeans. Sweden has one of the world's highest percentages of lactase tolerant people.
Being able to digest milk is so strange that scientists say we shouldn't really call lactose intolerance a disease, because that presumes it's abnormal. Instead, they call it lactase persistence, indicating what's really weird is the ability to continue to drink milk.
There's been a lot of research over the past decade looking at the genetic mutation that allows this subset of humanity to stay milk drinkers into adulthood.
A long-held theory was that the mutation showed up first in Northern Europe, where people got less vitamin D from the sun and therefore did better if they could also get the crucial hormone (it's not really a vitamin at all) from milk.
But now a group at University College London has shown that the mutation actually appeared about 7,500 years ago in dairy farmers who lived in a region between the central Balkans and central Europe, in what was known as the Funnel Beaker culture.
The paper was published this week in PLoS Computational Biology.
The researchers used a computer to model the spread of lactase persistence, dairy farming, other food gathering practices and genes in Europe.
Today, the highest proportion of people with lactase persistence live in Northwest Europe, especially the Netherlands, Ireland and Scandinavia. But the computer model suggests that dairy farmers carrying this gene variant probably originated in central Europe and then spread more widely and rapidly than non-dairying groups.
Author Mark Thomas of University College London's dept of Genetics, Evolution and Environment says: "In Europe, a single genetic change...is strongly associated with lactase persistence and appears to have given people with it a big survival advantage."
The European mutation is different from several lactase persistence genes associated with small populations of African peoples who historically have been cattle herders.
Researchers at the University of Maryland identified one such mutation among Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples in Kenya and Tanzania. That mutation seems to have arisen between 2,700 to 6,800 years ago. Two other mutations have been found among the Beja people of northeastern Sudan and tribes of the same language family in northern Kenya.
Articles Research Papers Health And Nutrition 60% Of Adults Can't Digest Milk
60% Of Adults Can't Digest Milk
No other species but humans can. And most humans can't either.
3 comments
-
Comment Link
Thursday, 10 September 2009 19:54
posted by
rawraj
Yet another American research.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
60% of American cannot digest milk because their milk is homogenized, Fat free and full of additives. It contains hormones and puss(due to machine over-milking) Also contains anti-biotics(all of which cause cancer.
Milk itself in its natural form is not bad for health at all and all humans can digest it. India is proof where even 90 year old men digest milk.
Before you get all ballistic on me let me tell I do not drink milk either.
I use Ghee and butter only from one place in the entire world.(i have not found another place till today).
It is a brahmins place. The only brahmins who do not milk the cow until a pooja is done in the temple. The pooja can be done only after 45 days.
That is why I love our Hindu rituals, what we call blind superstition.
This is a ritual to be followed when milking a cow.
I am sure you people will realise that why this ritual was made.
So that the calf get all the milk it needs in the first 45 days.
After that a brahmin is supposed to milk the cow only after the calf has had its full.
Normally they get only a liter or maximum two liter from one cow.
This Brahmin has a lot of cows and rears them just because it is such a nice animal and it creates such a positive energy in the surrounding areas.
The milk is actually the left over.
Many nearby houses consume this milk as they have huge number of cows.
They make ghee and butter the traditional Ayurveda way.
That way Ghee and butter are brain food.
I also remember I had visited a village in north Gujarat when I was small. There they would milk the cow in the evening
When I asked why they said no one drinks tea in the morning. The cow is left whole day with its calf and the calf is supposed to drink the milk. At the end of the day they milk what is remaining to make curds and butter or ghee.
There I had milk directly from the udder.
The cow itself will come and wait to be milked only by one person. The cow does not allow anyone else to milk it.
Surprisingly cow allowed be to go near it while it was getting milked and I got a spray of milk right into my mouth.
I think milk taken in this fashion is not cruel.
Yes I do not suggest anyone to drink non packaged milk also as today even brahmins are not following these rules and rituals which were laid out in the ancient Hindu texts.
I think it is very rare that anyone would follow this traditions while milking.
So I never drink milk.
I think milk should be consumed only if you have your own cow and you see to it that you only milk the leftover.
And always there is leftover milk Which maybe the reason why Cow is considered God. As if you see in Goats there is no leftover milk.
So Goats milk should never be drunk as no matter what you do a goatkid will always finish the milk. If the Mother Goat is not fed properly Blood comes instead of milk. I have seen it myself.
-
Comment Link
Friday, 04 September 2009 06:38
posted by
Shashank Dixit
@ Charu - very inspiring comment ! Here is my similar story :-
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
I converted to a Vegan diet once I realised the simple fact that cow's milk is for the calf and not for our consumption. Also, the cows go through unimaginable horror and the calves are usually seperated from their mothers at birth. The best part is that cow's milk can be completely substituted with cruelty-free plant based soy milk, which has the same benefits minus the negative effects of milk. and yeah...before hitting the sack everyday, I feel so much peaceful thinking that I haven't harmed a cow today
Question :- Which is the only animal that steals another animal's milk ?
Answer :- Humans
IF YOU DRINK COW'S MILK , YOU ARE SUPPORTING THE TORTURE AND CRUELTY ON COWS.
-
Comment Link
Wednesday, 02 September 2009 07:23
posted by Charu
I turned VEGAN six years ago! No milk or its products for me! This move was for my love for the species..calves...the young ones of cows...who were mercilessly killed and their skin stuffed and presented in front of the cow so that she produces milk while the milkman milked them...sad.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Why do we have to drink milk? I just don't understand...neither i want to! We can get calcium from other sources too. I have not lost any weight or have developed any weakness because of not drinking milk. I think this 'drinking milk makes one healthy' is all conditioning of human minds..and we can rise above it, so that the milk which is produced by a mother cow can be sufficiently provided to its own young ones...imagine human beings going thru the same fate.
On one hand everyone knows that new born (human) children should be breast-fed exclusively for six months to make them healthy for a life-time. Does this imply only to the human children?
I believe in the theory that even one person can bring about a change. Think twice when you drink milk...do you really have a right to drink it?
