On the Consumption of Animal Milk by Ancient Europeans

[Cat's Cradle]

I thought this article on a new and wide-ranging study of the development of the use of animal milk by neolithic/ancient Europeans was very interesting. Hope some of you will, too.
Published yesterday in the New York Times:

Early Europeans Could Not Tolerate Milk but Drank It Anyway, Study Finds

For thousands of years, Europeans consumed milk products despite lacking an enzyme needed to avoid gastrointestinal discomfort, according to a new study.

www.nytimes.com

 

[jd73]

As I understand it from Steven Pinker (this article is behind a login so I didn't read it...), tolerance of animal milk is an example of the environment shaping our genetics in a nifty sort of nature-nurture confluence. Intolerance being the default, the ability to tolerate it was initially overcome by constant consumption whereby the body became used to it (I guess it started producing the enzyme?). That ability was manifest on some "swtich" on a "gene" being "expressed" or something. That took care of the early European consuming the milk, but this gene expression then was passed down to their offspring, who could tolerate it from birth.

 

[Hugh]

[removed due to copyright]

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Oh, thanks so much, Hugh! Darn, I thought the article would be free-of-charge, sorry folks! But thank you for posting it, Hugh, CC

 

[farntfar]

A very interesting article.
I hadn't realised just how common adverse effects of milk ingestion is,(Although apparently cheese and butter are not a problem.), believing it was the exception rather than the rule. This article clearly states it's the other way round.
Having no problem with milk myself, I naturally assumed I was normal, at least in that respect.

 

[Montero]

There are two adverse effects of milk ingestion - lactose intolerance (so largely OK on yoghurt and cheese) and intolerance of the actual milk protein itself - the latter is not helped by lacto free milk and also then eating cheese is then a bad idea.

Other than that, I'd previously heard that dairying was one of the drivers for human success. Also, hanging out on the odd hobby farming forum and reading social history - if you had a house cow you were over the poverty line. I remember having a conversation with some UK emigrants to Eastern Europe who said their neighbours worried about them because they didn't have a house cow and used to bring them left-overs to make sure they had enough to eat.

 

[Hugh]

[removed due to copyright]

Ahh! apologies.
Sheer ignorance.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Oh, sorry about that! I probably shouldn't have posted this. Sorry, Hugh, and Moderators, CC

 

[Brian G Turner]

Posting links is fine, as is posting excerpts, but copying full content from another website is best avoided in case chrons gets chased with a legal claim for violation of copyright.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Here's coverage of the story that's free to read in full:

Famine and disease drove the evolution of lactose tolerance in Europe

Prehistoric people in Europe were consuming milk thousands of years before humans evolved the genetic trait allowing us to digest the milk sugar lactose as adults, finds a new study. The research, published in Nature, mapped pre-historic patterns of milk use over the last 9,000 years, offering...

phys.org

 

[Brian G Turner]

Here's coverage of the story that's free to read in full:

Famine and disease drove the evolution of lactose tolerance in Europe

Prehistoric people in Europe were consuming milk thousands of years before humans evolved the genetic trait allowing us to digest the milk sugar lactose as adults, finds a new study. The research, published in Nature, mapped pre-historic patterns of milk use over the last 9,000 years, offering...

phys.org

From that article:

"The lactase persistence genetic variant was pushed to high frequency by some sort of turbocharged natural selection. The problem is, such strong natural selection is hard to explain," added Professor Mark Thomas, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics and study co-author from University College London.

I wonder if the researchers were aware that the spread of Bronze Age cultures across Europe were also accompanied by bubonic plague, aka the Black Death:

How did the plague reshape Bronze Age Europe?

Europe changed dramatically during the Bronze Age, with huge population shifts generally ascribed to the rise of new metal technologies, trading and climate change. But scientists believe that there may have been another reason for this social upheaval—the plague, possibly transported by, or on...

phys.org