h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've always understood that this amounted to an intolerance to cow's milk products. and that you are basically okay with things like goat and sheep's milk. Is this true, and, if so, why?

Something to do with the size of the protein molecules?

My daughter was sensitive to the proteins in bovine dairy produce but was fine with goat milk.

Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest the sugar lactose.

There is an enzyme in our bodies that does this and if you have low levels of it then you are lactose intolerant.

Goats milk does not contain large quantities of lactose and so you are safe if you have the intolerance and drink it.

Actually having now googled a little bit, this bit

>>Goats milk does not contain large quantities of lactose and so you are safe if you have the intolerance and drink it.<<

Is not true. If you have lactose intolerance you can't have large quantities of any of the milks you mention.

You are OK with those if you are allergic to Cow's milk. This is not the same thing as lactose intolerance. I was guilty of mixing the two up, which is what the question is largely about I guess.

So if I am lactose intolerant I can't eat/drink milk products from any animal?

http://www.lactose.co.uk/

It may be of sideways interest:

My toddler, some years ago, had eczema. Goat's milk slowly cleared it up (several weeks, I think) and it was never to return (40 years or so). Perhaps it was coincidental, but...

"Some years ago" might be the greatest understatement of the year.

First left, second right... at the Y junction, fork off to the left, Arnie.

Rod, that again is an immune response thing.

Eczema and milk allergy (or indeed any allergic or autoimmune response) are linked to certain molecules in the milk setting off an extreme reaction in your immune system.

Therefore a likely way of avoiding this immune response is to avoid the cause - something in the cows milk. Usually such a cause is an antigen which sets off the immune response. An antigen is most often a specific sugar-coating on the surface of cells or certain proteins.

Between species the structures of these antigens will vary and so while cow's milk might cause an allergic response such as seen in eczeman, goats milk will not.

Lactose intolerance is entirely different. It's a digestive issue and really just causes the person discomfort and isn't serious.

An overactive immune response can kill.


That aside, most juvenile eczema disappears at around either the ages of roughly 2 years or 14 years. Mine certainly disappeared at the 2 year old stage, my sister's has been much better since she went through puberty.

>>Eczema and milk allergy (or indeed any allergic or autoimmune response) are linked to certain molecules<<

not necessarily from milk obviously but that's the case in hand.

Interesting, Orcus.

It turns out, some 40 years later, that he (the toddler) is gluten intolerant, not severely but, enough to have kept him more or less permanently a bit under par.

I'm imagining some kind of connection -?

Connection to what?

Eczema, milk allergy or lactose intolerance. I'm confused by that last post, sorry.

I thought gluten was a protein in grains. Surely that's a different thing again.
Of course, being on a low par will allow otherwise minor complaints to become much worse than they would be normally...

A little imagination is a nebulous thing.

OK, back to Lactose intolerance.

As has been said above, lactose intolerance is the inability to digest lactose, the milk sugar. It is caused by the lack or deficiency of the enzyme lactase in the digestive system.
The most commonly-experienced effects (as far as I am aware) after consuming anything containing lactose include stomachaches, vomiting, diarrhoea and wind (particularly acidic-tasting burps). However, this normally passes once the body has rid itself of the lactose.
Uncomfortable, yes, but not deadly.

All mammalian milks contain lactose in their natural state, although it is possible to buy lactose-reduced (but not entirely lactose-free) milk, which has been made by passing the milk through porous capsules containing the lactase enzyme. However, different dairy products contain varying amounts of lactose. For example, mild, creamy cheeses contain much more lactose than harder, more mature cheeses. Butter contains relatively little lactose, because it is removed in the manufacturing process.

A little known fact (in the Western world) is that globally, lactose intolerant people are actually in the majority, with an estimated 70% of adult humans worldwide being lactose intolerant. So it's most people in the UK who are different, not me!

I was aware that the Chinese tend to be intolerant.

Presumably other Asians too? (more widespread than westerners).

This raises an intriguing thought - presumably the intolerance develops after weaning (can't imagine all their babies have the colic badly) or is human milk in the lower end of the scale?

It's thought to be due to agriculture.

All humans are lactose tolerant until weaning as you say. So they can get nourishment from the mother's milk. However, in Europe alone really there has been a long history of husbandry of cattle and so we developed the ability to digest milk into adult hood. This has not happened over the rest of the world and so most retain the ancient inability to digest lactose in adulthood.

Ah, thanks again, Orcus.

Another side issue (of imagination?): Long history of...

Presumably, then, that African People (can't think of their name) who drink blood from their cattle is again an acquired tolerance?
(I think I'm right that blood isn't digestible for the rest of us?).

Ah, the Masai, eg http://www.culturequest.us/maasaitribe/masaai_food.htm

What makes you think that blood is indigestible? Never put your finger in your mouth when you cut it? Black pudding is basically made of blood, it's just not generally the sort of think people drink, that's all.