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Where did you get that idea? Milk is one of the 2-3 most nutritious foods on Earth. In fact, milk has been designed by evolution over millions of years to be

Where did you get that idea? Milk is one of the 2-3 most nutritious foods on Earth. In fact, milk has been designed by evolution over millions of years to be precisely what a mammal needs to thrive.

toomuchtodo 7y ago
Some humans have the necessary genes to digest milk, some do not. Can't lump all mammals together. > Milk contains a type of sugar called lactose, which is distinct from the sugars found in fruit and other sweet foods. When we are babies, our bodies make a special enzyme called lactase that allows us to digest the lactose in our mother’s milk. But after we are weaned in early childhood, for many people this stops. Without lactase, we cannot properly digest the lactose in milk. As a result, if an adult drinks a lot of milk they may experience flatulence, painful cramps and even diarrhoea. (It’s worth noting that in other mammals, there aren’t any lactase-persistent adults – adult cows don’t have active lactase, and neither do cats or dogs, for example). https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190218-when-did-humans-start-drinking-cows-milk https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190218-when-did-humans-...
- soperj 7y ago
  Then how do cats digest it?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - InvaderFizz 7y ago
    Poorly. Adult cats are generally lactose intolerant[0]. 0: https://www.prestigeanimalhospital.com/services/cats/blog/why-cats-and-cows-milk-dont-mix https://www.prestigeanimalhospital.com/services/cats/blog/wh...
  - xnyan 7y ago
    Cats drinking bowls of milk is a TV thing or people who don't know better. Almost all mammals, including humans, lose the ability to effectively process lactose at some point in their life. Keeping the ability to process lactose as an adult is somewhat unique to humans and even then most will stop producing lactase before they die.
- lawnchair_larry 7y ago
  Is there a test to determine if you do make lactase?
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    https://www.healthline.com/health/lactose-tolerance-tests#test-types https://www.healthline.com/health/lactose-tolerance-tests#te...
  - xnyan 7y ago
    Rapidly after drinking a glass of milk (or any of the many, many things that include lactose) it becomes very very clear that I am lactose intolerant to both myself and everyone around me.
- mcv 7y ago
  > "Some humans have the necessary genes to digest milk, some do not. Can't lump all mammals together." Note, adult mammals. Drinking milk as a baby is literally the definition of mammal. Even the platypus, which lays eggs and lacks teats, counts as mammal because they still produce milk to feed their children.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
JumpCrisscross 7y ago
> designed by evolution over millions of years to be precisely what a mammal needs to thrive Infant mammals. Adults consuming the milk of another species is recent. (About 10,000 years in humans.) We have mixed evidence for the benefits of milk. It was a rich source of calories when those were scarce. Today, it might promote obesity. And good advice for some is bad advice for others. For example, milk boosts iron at the expense of vitamin D; that makes it favorable for light-skinned people at high latitudes [1]. Milk's branding as a superfood essential for kids is a product of post-war propaganda [2]. (TL; DR The U.S. government boosted dairy demand to feed soldiers. After the war, that production was threatened. So civilian demand was boosted.) [1] https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/e144 https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/e144 [2] https://dairymarkets.org/pubPod/pubs/EB9505.pdf https://dairymarkets.org/pubPod/pubs/EB9505.pdf
- masonic 7y ago
  production was threatened. So civilian demand was boosted. That makes no sense. When production is "threatened", artificially boosting demand would be the exactly wrong thing to do.
  - JumpCrisscross 7y ago
    > When production is "threatened", artificially boosting demand would be the exactly wrong thing to do There was wartime demand. Dairy farmers invested to meet it. War ends. Demand goes down. That capital must now be written off, re-purposed, or the demand re-started. We chose the last option. Production as in productive capital or productive potential.

Where did you get that idea? Milk is one of the 2-3 most nutritious foods on Earth. In fact, milk has been designed by evolution over millions of years to be precisely what a mammal needs to thrive.

toomuchtodo 7y ago

Some humans have the necessary genes to digest milk, some do not. Can't lump all mammals together. > Milk contains a type of sugar called lactose, which is distinct from the sugars found in fruit and other sweet foods. When we are babies, our bodies make a special enzyme called lactase that allows us to digest the lactose in our mother’s milk. But after we are weaned in early childhood, for many people this stops. Without lactase, we cannot properly digest the lactose in milk. As a result, if an adult drinks a lot of milk they may experience flatulence, painful cramps and even diarrhoea. (It’s worth noting that in other mammals, there aren’t any lactase-persistent adults – adult cows don’t have active lactase, and neither do cats or dogs, for example). https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190218-when-did-humans-start-drinking-cows-milk https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190218-when-did-humans-...

soperj 7y ago
Then how do cats digest it?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- InvaderFizz 7y ago
  Poorly. Adult cats are generally lactose intolerant[0]. 0: https://www.prestigeanimalhospital.com/services/cats/blog/why-cats-and-cows-milk-dont-mix https://www.prestigeanimalhospital.com/services/cats/blog/wh...
- xnyan 7y ago
  Cats drinking bowls of milk is a TV thing or people who don't know better. Almost all mammals, including humans, lose the ability to effectively process lactose at some point in their life. Keeping the ability to process lactose as an adult is somewhat unique to humans and even then most will stop producing lactase before they die.
lawnchair_larry 7y ago
Is there a test to determine if you do make lactase?
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  https://www.healthline.com/health/lactose-tolerance-tests#test-types https://www.healthline.com/health/lactose-tolerance-tests#te...
- xnyan 7y ago
  Rapidly after drinking a glass of milk (or any of the many, many things that include lactose) it becomes very very clear that I am lactose intolerant to both myself and everyone around me.
mcv 7y ago
> "Some humans have the necessary genes to digest milk, some do not. Can't lump all mammals together." Note, adult mammals. Drinking milk as a baby is literally the definition of mammal. Even the platypus, which lays eggs and lacks teats, counts as mammal because they still produce milk to feed their children.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

JumpCrisscross 7y ago

> designed by evolution over millions of years to be precisely what a mammal needs to thrive Infant mammals. Adults consuming the milk of another species is recent. (About 10,000 years in humans.) We have mixed evidence for the benefits of milk. It was a rich source of calories when those were scarce. Today, it might promote obesity. And good advice for some is bad advice for others. For example, milk boosts iron at the expense of vitamin D; that makes it favorable for light-skinned people at high latitudes [1]. Milk's branding as a superfood essential for kids is a product of post-war propaganda [2]. (TL; DR The U.S. government boosted dairy demand to feed soldiers. After the war, that production was threatened. So civilian demand was boosted.) [1] https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/e144 https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/e144 [2] https://dairymarkets.org/pubPod/pubs/EB9505.pdf https://dairymarkets.org/pubPod/pubs/EB9505.pdf

masonic 7y ago
production was threatened. So civilian demand was boosted. That makes no sense. When production is "threatened", artificially boosting demand would be the exactly wrong thing to do.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago
  > When production is "threatened", artificially boosting demand would be the exactly wrong thing to do There was wartime demand. Dairy farmers invested to meet it. War ends. Demand goes down. That capital must now be written off, re-purposed, or the demand re-started. We chose the last option. Production as in productive capital or productive potential.