"Early" Europeans unable to disgest milk

Water buffallo has similar lactose content as cow milk AFAIK. Its what mozzarella cheese was traditionaly made from.

Originally posted by elenos I have heard of modern Asians and Africans being lactose intolerant, for the dairy cow is not a tropical animal and not native to the equatorial belt. They need cooler weather to survive. Now days, in the Philippines for instance, what is called the "Phillipino steers"  have been successfully introduced into cooler mountainous areas. The Asian buffalo is a different species, but must check that out.

The zebu or humped cattle prevalent in Africa and on the subcontinent are well adapted to tropical conditions being very heat tolerant and parasite resistant.  When Afrikaner settlers first moved into the interior of Africa, they were puzzled to find their European breeds succumbing to illness and heat exhaustion whilst Bantu farmers seemed to have no trouble raising and herding cattle right next to them.   Many of these breeds have been imported into warm New World climates like Brazil and the southern US in recent times to introduce those traits into local cattle populations. 

The water buffalo, if anything is even better adapted to hot, humid conditions.  It produces more milk than the average cow and the milk has a higher fat content.  I've heard anecdotally that its milk is considered to be 'harder on the stomach' perhaps pointing to the higher lactose content as was suggested. 

Originally posted by BRNRDSDJNG Hard to believe because all children received breast feeding.

The makeup of milk in domestic animals is different to that of humans.

We use to have a thread with a chart anyone rember that one?

with diffrent tolerances and how they spread geneticly

Hi Cwyr, I assume the Asians don't drink buffalo milk?I really have no idea even though I have been to Asia. Then the Sahara is sub-tropical? That makes the difference from the tropical. Even in the sub-tropics they have trouble with  the tsetse fly on cattle and other nasty bitey things that obviously evolved in tropical areas but spread to find a survival niche in other areas.

The trouble with studying Africa is the climate belts don't travel in straight lines like on the map and so the migration and settlement routes of different peoples becomes blurred. Would you say, like in this question of lactose intolerance, people tend to keep some internal traits of the areas their ancestors evolved in? 

you don't seem to uderstand that they lack the ability to diggest milk in great quantities because they are intolerant to lactose (ie do not produce lactase) they are incapable to drink any form of dairy be it human, cow, goat, camel whatever. It may be possible that some animal have a lower rate of lactose in their milk but it is merely an hypothesis.

Besides, some European population are still highly lactose intolerant (Ashkenazi, Italians). There is no doubt that the practice of drinking milk arose progressively but evidence are that in Europe too it took time (variation between countries indicate it).

I'm interested by any evidence of the contrary though.

Originally posted by malizai_ welcome to AE kashmiri   What do you mean by "we drink milk directly from cows ".

Kinky peeps them Indians, they wrote the kama sutra and like to do it cow style ;)

I assume the implication is that is consumed fresh, farmhouse style.

Though he brings up an overlooked point, there are probably more lactose tolerant people in the Indian sub-continent area than there are in Europe.
Likewise there a few cattle dependant tribes in Africa that display high rates of lactose tolerance.
So its a chicken and egg thing, did cattle grazing select lactose tolerance, or did lactose tolerance make cattle grazing viable and give them an edge over the old nuts and berries folk?

IIRC there are two main theories, the one that it evolved seperatly due to local pressures in different populations, and the other that it originated possibly in the Middle East and spread outwards from there possibly with the spred of certain forms of agriculture.
That it should be highest in Sweden could thus be that A it was settled by populations who already had a lifestyle based on herding (cattle, and reindeer for the Sami) and B that the more extreme climate made dependance on milk more important.

The question i have is, are Llama's any good for miulk production? And how do Andean people fair to other American populatons in th elactose tolerance department?
Could it be simply that cows milk (which is easiest for humans to digest AFAIK) made it easier for populations that had access to domesticated cows to embrace the lifestyle (and this gradualy select people with the tolerance trait)? This would would allow for multiple regional lactose tolerance development, on the othe rhand it could be a lifestyle spreading slowly outwards from the middle east or whatever.
Maybe it was a mix of both theories.

Interestingly, i've heard (but not entirely sure), that european domestic cat breeds are morely likely to be lactose tolerant, perhaps a shared lifestyle, or accepting a particular pattern of domestication made them more favourable to humans?


Edited by Cywr - 03-Apr-2007 at 16:00

As in...directly??...OK then. Has anyone tried camel's milk ice cream?

It is unsurprising so far as I am concerned. Just look at the ability of milk digestion in peoples who have traditionally never had a strong tradition in keeping livestock. A great many Africans lack the ability to digest milk.

welcome to AE kashmiri