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Milk - Yes or No?
Opinions are fiercely divided. But nutrition is based on science, and according to research milk can offer some advantages.
Lactose, the sugar contained in milk, requires a chemical or enzyme called lactase to allow it to pass from the gut into the blood stream. When we are babies, we naturally produce lactase enzyme to absorb our mother’s milk. In populations where milk consumption has been historically low, such as Japan and China, most children will have stopped producing lactase soon after weaning. That’s why there are almost entire populations that may be unable to absorb the lactose in milk – the so called “lactose intolerance”.
In populations where milk consumption has always been high, such as in Europe, most adults continue to produce lactase for their whole lives and can digest milk quite happily with only around 5 per cent of the population being lactose intolerant.
The production of lactase into adulthood is actually an inherited genetic variation, which has become so common because being able to tolerate milk has a selective advantage. Milk is a useful source of protein, energy, calcium, phosphate, B vitamins and iodine, meaning that those with the mutation were generally healthier and produced more children than those who couldn’t tolerate milk, and so the presence of the mutation increased.
The symptoms of lactose intolerance include wind, bloating and diarrhoea so if you don’t experience any of those after drinking milk or eating ice cream then you’re fine.
Lactose, the sugar contained in milk, requires a chemical or enzyme called lactase to allow it to pass from the gut into the blood stream. When we are babies, we naturally produce lactase enzyme to absorb our mother’s milk. In populations where milk consumption has been historically low, such as Japan and China, most children will have stopped producing lactase soon after weaning. That’s why there are almost entire populations that may be unable to absorb the lactose in milk – the so called “lactose intolerance”.
In populations where milk consumption has always been high, such as in Europe, most adults continue to produce lactase for their whole lives and can digest milk quite happily with only around 5 per cent of the population being lactose intolerant.
The production of lactase into adulthood is actually an inherited genetic variation, which has become so common because being able to tolerate milk has a selective advantage. Milk is a useful source of protein, energy, calcium, phosphate, B vitamins and iodine, meaning that those with the mutation were generally healthier and produced more children than those who couldn’t tolerate milk, and so the presence of the mutation increased.
The symptoms of lactose intolerance include wind, bloating and diarrhoea so if you don’t experience any of those after drinking milk or eating ice cream then you’re fine.