• mvilain@fedia.io
    4·
    6 days ago

    I wonder if that’s been seen in infants. Lactose isn’t as complex molecule like wheat gluten, so it should be the same coming from Mom as from a goat or camel or a cow. If someone only reacts to cow milk, then they’re sensitive to dairy. Do they get the runs lactose-free milk?

    • takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      12·
      5 days ago

      So my understanding is that normally the enzymes to process lactose are available in newborns.

      If we follow the design Mother Nature intended, as soon as we start eating solid foods we stop drinking milk and or body stops producing those enzymes making us effectively lactose intolerant.

      But since humans do drink milk the body continues to produce those enzymes.

      Some people still lose that that ability and then there are also ones who never had them. That makes them lactose intolerant.

      Also being lactose intolerant doesn’t kill you, you just can’t break it up, so you will have upset stomach, fart etc.

      I believe there is a lactose free milk for newborns for those scenarios.

      My understanding is that there’s lactose in all milk so probably it applies too.

      Also besides being lactose intolerant, you can also be allergic to milk, which is much more serious, but that can vary on kind of a milk.

      • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
        5·
        5 days ago

        Yes, except that you don’t gain tolerance simply from continuing to drink milk. It’s a regional evolutionary change from many generations continuing to drink milk and the majority of adults across the globe are actually lactose intolerant.

        Worldwide, around 65% of adults are affected by lactose malabsorption. Other mammals usually lose the ability to digest lactose after weaning. Lactose intolerance is the ancestral state of all humans before the recent evolution of lactase persistence in some populations, which extends lactose tolerance into adulthood.

        (Lactase is the enzyme for breaking down lactose.)

        Map showing "An estimate of the percentage of adults that can digest lactose in the indigenous population of the Old World". Europe and parts of Africa as well as the Middle East have higher percentages of tolerance. Asia and Australia are largely intolerant.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance

        • PaniniEnglish
          1·
          4 days ago

          I’m surprised the middle east doesn’t have a higher concentration of lactase producers. I was under the impression that’s where the Aurochs was first domesticated into cattle.

          • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
            2·
            4 days ago

            Wikipedia has a decent summary in the History section here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk#History

            Key points, if I’m understanding things correctly:

            • Early domestication was for meat, leather and draft animals, not for milk.
            • Milk consumption started in South West Asia and later stuck around in Europe, because people there had already settled for agriculture. I think, Middle East was more nomadic?
            • The Middle East also had camels as an alternative milk source, and camel milk contains somewhat less lactose (4.6% vs. 3.5–4.5%), according to this: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8117040/
              So that might’ve also affected things somewhat? 🫠
    • FlexibleToast@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      5 days ago

      You made assumptions that are wrong. Goat milk is fine for the lactose intolerant. Heck even A2 dairy is fine for some. Lactaid milk, and others like it, are also fine because they add the lactase enzyme to it that breaks down the lactose. Hard cheeses are usually fine because the lactose has been broken down by the cheese aging process.

        • FlexibleToast@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          5 days ago

          As far as I’m aware that’s how they remove the lactose, but adding the lactase that breaks it down. That’s how those those two things interact.