From the New York Times:Thousands of years ago, before cattle were domesticated, people didn't drink milk after being weaned from their mother's breast. Therefore, their ability to produce the lactase enzyme was programmed to switch itself off shortly thereafter. Our ancestors were 100% lactose intolerant.
As humans started keeping cattle, and drinking milk, the human body evolved so that the ability to produce the lactase enzyme remained turned on. The first people to domesticate cattle, the "Funnel-Beaker people" (I love the sound of that.) lived in an area of Northern Europe, where today lactose intolerance (a lack of ability to produce the lactase enzyme) is close to 0%.
In Africa, on the other hand, cultures developed the domestication of cattle many thousands of years later, and therefore today lactose intolerance among Africans is much higher. Therefore, this particularly evolutionary process in Africans lags behind their European counterparts.
This probably also explains why Thai people can pour battery acid and lava on their veggies and not get their mouths burned. I'm not nearly evolved enough for that.
1 comment:
What'd the study say about Asians? My whole family gets the runs after a half cup of milk. But I used to drink gallons of it when I was a kid (and I was okay), nowadays I resort to pills or lactose-free. So sad...
Post a Comment