More people who don't believe me...

[conuly]

Okay, honestly. Who here really thinks that drinking milk is natural? Because I mentioned this to somebody and she acted like I'd said it rains pennies.

Yes. Milk. Unnatural. Humans wean by 7 or so (usually earlier, the median weaning age worldwide is 4). After that point, any milk drinking is unnatural. And it is NEVER natural for one species to suckle at the teat of another. It never has been, it never will be, especially not when it comes to adults. There's an exception made for "fostering". We've all heard of baby tigers in a zoo being put with mama dogs because the mama tiger was out of the picture somehow. I've heard of somebody doing the same thing with a squirrel and a cat. That would almost certainly not happen in the wild, but it saves lives. HOWEVER. Pulling the milk from a cow to drink in a cup? That's different, and freakish. I mean, eeeeeeew!

Of course, I eat cheese, which is worse, it's rotten milk solids, but eh. At least I know it's bad.

Comments

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

This milk thing is pretty interesting really. This semester I am in Biochemistry in the University of Iceland, and I had a long chat with the teacher (who I think is on the spectrum) about all of this, and about different kinds of milk. It is well known that what causes most of the problems with milk is that the consumer lacks the enzyme that digests lactose, the sugar in milk, so when the lactose comes into the lower digestive tract the bacteria there digest it, producing waste products that the digestive system can't handle. Some people retain this enzyme into adulthood, whereas mose people loose it when they are weaned. The nordic nations are among those that retain this enzyme, because milk drinking here is a thing that reaches back for at least two thousand years, so those that tolerate drinking milk were the ones that survived, because it used to be a pretty essential part of the diet, in particular in Iceland, since there was not much to eat other than animal produce. I myself is a milk addict, and I can't say that I feel any bad effects from drinking it, but it is more than likely that someone of more southern stock would not feel good at all.

I also vaguely remember hearing about carnivores, lions or wolves, I think, competing for the right to consume the udders of lactating prey, so it might not be all that unnatural, just a part of the opportunistic omnivore heritage.

As for the rotten milk solids, that is a way of bypassing the lack of that enzyme, by specifically choosing bacteria that digest the lactose in a manner that is not harmful to humans. Pretty clever, really.