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The majority of humans are lactose intolerant and can't drink cow's milk. So clearly it's not essential for humans of any age.

tlarkworthy 7y ago
You are born un-abled to eat solids, so clearly drinking something for sustinence is essential for all humans at some point. Obviously breast milk is best, but not always possible, so then pick your substitute. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/drinks-and-cups-children/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/drinks-and-...
loeg 7y ago
Not the majority of newborns...
brabel 7y ago
Most people who are labeled lactose intolerant can still drink up to 100ml of milk per day without major problems. People who really cannot drink any amount of milk are allergic to it, but are extremely rare.
Broken_Hippo 7y ago
IIRC, most small children (toddlers and infants especially) are not lactose intolerant. In general, giving a breast milk substitute is a good thing if breast milk isn't available. In fact, at a young enough age, milk is vital to survival in most cases. But as folks grow older, they can stop making the enzymes that break down milk. This happens less often if milk is kept in the diet and more often if you have genes that increase your chances of intolerance. This usually happens more often where milk isn't a staple food source for the population. Edit: Forgot a sentence.
dragonwriter 7y ago
> The majority of humans are lactose intolerant and can't drink cow's milk The majority of adult mammals are lactose intolerant and can't drink any milk; this is true of humans too. Very young mammals generally are not lactose intolerant and generally initially rely on milk, usually from the same species but in most cases it can be substituted from other mammal species (the main problem being that often other-species suppliers are disinclined to cooperate, not any nutritional/digestive barriers.) This is, again, is as true of humans specifically as it is of mammals generally, and domestication addresses the cooperation problem. > So clearly it's not essential for humans of any age. Milk is essential for very young humans. Milk from humans (and especially their own mother) is ideal, but there are not-infrequently a variety of problems with that, and the general solutions we've found mostly rely on cow's milk as a key component. For somewhat older human children, it's not essential but still useful, and even for adults it has uses (even for lactose intolerant adults; e.g., in the form of milk/whey protein isolates.)
- cageface 7y ago
  Cow's milk is designed to get a calf to full size in a year. Its composition is very different from human milk, is loaded with bovine growth hormones, and there's a lot of evidence it's not very well suited for us. Rat milk is closer to human milk and would actually be a much better substitute. Maybe we should set up big rat dairies?
  - dragonwriter 7y ago
    > Cow's milk is designed No, it's not. > Rat milk is closer to human milk and would actually be a much better substitute. Maybe we should set up big rat dairies? Sure, when the automation has reached the point that number of animals you need to deal with per unit of milk production isn't a significant factor in the cost, that’ll probably be a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

tlarkworthy 7y ago

You are born un-abled to eat solids, so clearly drinking something for sustinence is essential for all humans at some point. Obviously breast milk is best, but not always possible, so then pick your substitute. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/drinks-and-cups-children/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/drinks-and-...

loeg 7y ago

Not the majority of newborns...

brabel 7y ago

Most people who are labeled lactose intolerant can still drink up to 100ml of milk per day without major problems. People who really cannot drink any amount of milk are allergic to it, but are extremely rare.

Broken_Hippo 7y ago

IIRC, most small children (toddlers and infants especially) are not lactose intolerant. In general, giving a breast milk substitute is a good thing if breast milk isn't available. In fact, at a young enough age, milk is vital to survival in most cases. But as folks grow older, they can stop making the enzymes that break down milk. This happens less often if milk is kept in the diet and more often if you have genes that increase your chances of intolerance. This usually happens more often where milk isn't a staple food source for the population. Edit: Forgot a sentence.

dragonwriter 7y ago

> The majority of humans are lactose intolerant and can't drink cow's milk The majority of adult mammals are lactose intolerant and can't drink any milk; this is true of humans too. Very young mammals generally are not lactose intolerant and generally initially rely on milk, usually from the same species but in most cases it can be substituted from other mammal species (the main problem being that often other-species suppliers are disinclined to cooperate, not any nutritional/digestive barriers.) This is, again, is as true of humans specifically as it is of mammals generally, and domestication addresses the cooperation problem. > So clearly it's not essential for humans of any age. Milk is essential for very young humans. Milk from humans (and especially their own mother) is ideal, but there are not-infrequently a variety of problems with that, and the general solutions we've found mostly rely on cow's milk as a key component. For somewhat older human children, it's not essential but still useful, and even for adults it has uses (even for lactose intolerant adults; e.g., in the form of milk/whey protein isolates.)

cageface 7y ago
Cow's milk is designed to get a calf to full size in a year. Its composition is very different from human milk, is loaded with bovine growth hormones, and there's a lot of evidence it's not very well suited for us. Rat milk is closer to human milk and would actually be a much better substitute. Maybe we should set up big rat dairies?
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  > Cow's milk is designed No, it's not. > Rat milk is closer to human milk and would actually be a much better substitute. Maybe we should set up big rat dairies? Sure, when the automation has reached the point that number of animals you need to deal with per unit of milk production isn't a significant factor in the cost, that’ll probably be a perfectly reasonable thing to do.