From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Feb 03 2003 - 00:29:56 MST
avatar wrote:
> This is something that has been of interest to me for a while. Such traits
> as dairy farming and alcohol absorption have been alleged to take about
> 10,000 years to be transmitted to the general population after a suitable
> mutation arises.
The statistics regarding lactose intolerance are probably the best evidence
that humans are not yet adapted to dairy products. The National Institutes
of Health (NIH) estimates that about 25% of the adult Americans are "lactose
intolerant," which the NIH defines as the condition of having "low lactase
levels." (Lactase is the enzyme that metabolizes lactose, aka milk sugar).
In my view adult Americans do not have "low lactase levels." It is far more
accurate to state that we consume unnaturally high levels of lactose. Humans
normally and naturally reduce production of lactase around age two, at which
time we should be weaned of our mother's milk.
Certain ethnic and racial groups are even less adapted to dairy: as many as
75% of adult African Americans and adult Native Americans, and 90% of adult
Asian-Americans are "lactose intolerant." These differences in lactose
intolerance rates in different races and ethnic groups is easy to explain:
dairy farming first appeared in Europe, and the majority of North Americans
are of European descent. The fewer the number of European ancestors one has,
the greater is the probability that one suffers from this imaginary man-made
disease called "lactose intolerance."
Still the average person tends to think dairy consumption is perfectly
natural and healthy. Americans in particular seem to think that cow's milk
is as American as baseball and apple pie. No doubt this perception is the
result of tradition and mass-marketing by the dairy industry (Got Milk?).
Yet actually dairy consumption is a very unnatural behavior. Homo sapiens is
the only species on earth to consume milk in adulthood. We're also the only
species on earth that steals the milk of other species. From a naturalist's
perspective, human consumption of dairy is a bizarre and almost vampire-like
behavior. It's no wonder such a significant percentage of humans are
intolerant to dairy.
-gts
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