A lactating question.

greymare

greymare

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,141
Reaction score
3
Points
0
Location
Maryland. usa. FINALLY! LOL
I thought it might peak your interest. lol
I had a thought, I know its odd, not that I had a thought but the question is odd.............. Ill continue.......:eek:

Why are humans the only animals (?) that need to consume milk even as they are adults? And on that thought, why are we able to consume Cows milk rather than human.? I understand the "icky" thought of wet nurses mass producing milk for human consumption, but if you look at it objectively................. why?
a related question............... does that mean lactose intolerant humans are more "evolved" than the rest?....

Im posting this cos I know there are oodles of really smart people here. lol

Love the Grey:D
 
Namaste grey,

interestingly enough, as adults, most humans cannot drink milk.. it give us the explosive poopies! only a small group of humans from North Western Europe and part of Africa have the proper enzyme to digest lactose as adults.

as for non-humans:

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/6184/img46041wt.jpg you can see the bird drinking right from the teat of the nursing female. it's a Red-billed Oxpecker Red-billed Oxpecker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

in this article we see that cats on the Isle de Guadalupe have developed the habit of stealing milk straight from the teats of nursing elephant seals.

http://www.mastozoologiamexicana.org/therya/num3/14_Gallo.pdf

Knowledge is Power. Power Corrupts. Study Hard. Be Evil.

:cool:

metta,

~vajra
 
Another factoid: human breast milk contains much more lactose than cow's milk. (Enough to give most adults who can tolerate cow's milk the runs!) I think this is a protection to keep adults from stealing babies' food.
 
Grey,

Don't know how I missed this one but...

Why are humans the only animals (?) that need to consume milk even as they are adults?
Click to expand...
Humans don't 'need' to consume milk.
And on that thought, why are we able to consume Cows milk rather than human.?
Click to expand...
We are all able to drink milk cross species if one wished.

It is important for a human to drink cow's milk if they'd like to gain a few hundred pounds their first year...

Seriously, milk is detrimental to your health. It is actually a calcium loss, the countries with the highest dairy consumption have the highest levels of osteoporosis (so much for milk building strong bones). Yes there is calcium in milk but it is largely indigestable (hence adding vit a and d to make it more so) and its protien content leeches calcium from your bones, hence the net loss.
 
it's a Red-billed Oxpecker
Click to expand...
What a horrible creature. There should be some kind of trade off for the doe to allow the bird to steal blood. Perhaps the bird helps warn about predators in addition to cleaning off the ticks.

Another factoid: human breast milk contains much more lactose than cow's milk. (Enough to give most adults who can tolerate cow's milk the runs!) I think this is a protection to keep adults from stealing babies' food.
Click to expand...
May be. If that is the case it should also appear in many other mammals. So I'd wonder if bulls from mammals in general get the runs from milk.
 
ok, here is your answer:

The normal mammalian condition is for the young to lose the ability to effectively digest milk sugar (lactose) at the end of the weaning period (a species-specific length of time usually equal to roughly 3% of lifespan). It has been established that certain human populations have undergone a mutation on chromosome 2 which results in a bypass of the normal shutdown in lactase production, allowing members of these groups to continue consumption of fresh milk and fresh milk products throughout their lives.
There is some debate on exactly where and when the mutation(s) occurred, some arguing for separate mutation events in Sweden and the Arabian Peninsula near 4000 BC which converged as they spread, while others argue for a single event in the Middle East at about 4500 BC which radiated from there. Whatever the precise origin, most western Eurasians and people of western Eurasian ancestry show the effects of this mutation while most eastern Eurasians, sub-saharan Africans and native peoples of the Americas and Pacific Islands do not [1].
<snip>
Oddly, many European cat breeds have a mutation similar to the human mutation, also prevalent in Europe, which allows symptom-free adult lactose consumption. Most oriental breeds are particularly sensitive to lactose.



-source-​
 
seattlegal said:
There is some debate on exactly where and when the mutation(s) occurred, some arguing for separate mutation events in Sweden and the Arabian Peninsula near 4000 BC which converged as they spread, while others argue for a single event in the Middle East at about 4500 BC which radiated from there.
Click to expand...
So I guess this must be a dominant gene? which has allowed for its spread?

Seem lactose intolerance had been protecting us from drinking this...

wonder if there are health studies regarding folks with and without...hmmmm..
 
We don't NEED to consume milk- we like it. It makes tea and coffee seem so much nicer....

Yes, we DO need calcium, but once we get to about 25, we stop needing so much of it. If we ate bones, chewed fishbones, if we gnawed at marrow, if we live in an area where we get water filtered through limestone, we have no need for milk, nor calcium supplements, nor anything else. Look at bottles of mineral water in the store-- there's traces of calcium in most of them. People who eat a normal, balanced diet and get enough sunshine on their flesh don't need to drink milk as adults.

There was an article in a magazine I read, oh, several weeks ago, and a woman was talking about still feeding her son from the boob... he was 16 years old. Her husband had cancer, and she fed him, too. Apparently, she fell for the tale that "human milk is so full of nutrients" and is beneficial to those with cancer. (It isn't, really). Now, I noted that she did not express this milk; she suckled them both.

I was... appalled. The husband bit, maybe I could get my head around that. But the kid? Nah. This boy she was suckling was a big lad. Lying on her lap like a child. He wasn't a baby-- he was sitting his GCSE's. It was... mmm... to my mind, sick. Dirty, a little bit wrong.

I know women who have breast fed their children up to the age of five and six, and that was odd to watch, sure, but it didn't make me feel like I was watching pornos. Feeding a six year old is a lot different, visually, to feeding a sixteen year old. I think there has to be a cut off point. And I think six is it.

There's lot of talk at the moment about food intolerances, but... most of it is rubbish. Sure, there are a few medical conditions that mean digesting certain substances is difficult, but most of the people who say they are intolerant of wheat, or dairy, are just neurotics... They don't actually have a medical problem, like, say, celiac disease... they're not allergic to wheat, or milk. They're neurotic.
 
wow, thats interesting sam/fk........... i like milk, cold, but only from a glass not plastic. and I mean icy cold...... preferable with MILO in it.............yummmmmmmmmmmm milo........ oh, i digress........ the breastfeeding part of an adultish child is .....(dont have a word for it... but it made me shudder). Although it does remind me of a skit on Little Britian..... bitty.... i want bitty..... (if you have ever watched it, you will understand. lol)

thanks for all your input.

Love the Grey
 
Vajradhara said:
interestingly enough, as adults, most humans cannot drink milk.. it give us the explosive poopies!
Click to expand...

I don't think that's quite true. I was drinking boiled/warmed up milk until a few years ago when I for some reason dropped out of the habit. When I tried to get back into the habit, my gut became runny.

Maybe we just need to eat more yoghurt before doing it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top