5 ms·
I'm not seeing if they were able to definitively say whether the milk fats and proteins they found were cow's milk or goat's milk. Given that they found these
by thrower123 7y ago
I'm not seeing if they were able to definitively say whether the milk fats and proteins they found were cow's milk or goat's milk.
Given that they found these in Bavaria, it's probably moot, as that's squarely in the area you would expect to find lactose-tolerating people, but everything I've read says that goat's milk has lower lactose levels than cow's milk. And, weak evidence, I know, but just about every piece of fiction I've read that featured babies that needed to be kept alive in the absence of their mother or a wet nurse has gone to goat's milk first - off the top of my head, this features in Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth.
- pmjordan 7y agoI thought babies produced more lactase (lactose-digesting enzyme) anyway, even for people (and ethnic groups) with lactose intolerance in adulthood? Human breastmilk contains lactose - so the body expects to have to break it down at that age. (I'd have thought any preference for goat's milk over cow's would be connected to the protein it contains.)
- chithanh 7y agoIndeed, lactose tolerance declines between 2 and 5 years of age in most people. Natural age of weaning in humans is 3-4 years.
- logfromblammo 7y agoIt's not the lactose that gets you as a baby, but the casein. If they fed cow's milk to babies, they would have to separate the whey from the curds, and feed the whey. Goat's milk could be fed straight. From a modern eye, anyway. They might have given bovine milk straight, if it wasn't they baby's only food source.
- valarauko 7y agoWhat about bovine casein is a problem for babies?
- logfromblammo 7y agoToo much of it to digest while also getting sufficient water and nutrients. Possible allergic sensitivity reactions.
- ljf 7y agoLikely as goats are far easier to keep, own, feed and tend to than cows - especially for the poor. Goats can be kept on any land, can get pregnant/give birth multiple times per year (and therefore provide milk) and have a long weening time when they will give milk. I'd imagine the availability of goats was likely the defining factor in your evidence -but again just an assumption.