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Lactose tolerance spread throughout Europe in only a few thousand years
EurekAlert! ^
| September 3, 2020
| Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
Posted on 09/16/2020 10:11:55 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The human ability to digest the milk sugar lactose after infancy spread throughout Central Europe in only a few thousand years. This is the conclusion reached by an international research team led by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). The researchers analyzed genetic material from the bones of individuals who had fallen in a conflict around 1200 B.C. on the banks of the Tollense, a river in the present-day German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania... found that only around one in eight of the assumed warriors had a gene variant that enabled them to break down the lactose in milk. "Of the present-day population living in this same area, around 90 percent have this lactase persistence," explained population geneticist Professor Joachim Burger of JGU, the lead author of the study. "This is a huge difference when you consider that there cannot be many more than 120 human generations between then and today." Aside from lactase persistence and a few other genetic variants, the genomes of the Tollense people are similar to that of today's inhabitants of northern Germany and the Baltic Sea region....
Back in 2007, Burger and his team established that almost none of the first sedentary farmers in Europe were lactase-persistent. "It is astonishing that at the time of the battle at the Tollense, more than 4,000 years after the introduction of agriculture in Europe, lactase persistence in adults was still so rare... With milk being a high-energy, relatively uncontamined drink, its ingestion may have provided greater chances of survival during food shortages or when supplies of drinking water were contaminated. Particularly during early childhood, in the years shortly after weaning, this factor often may have been decisive amongst prehistoric populations," Burger concluded.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: agriculture; ancientautopsies; animalhusbandry; bronzeage; cheese; dietandcuisine; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; huntergatherers; icecream; lactose; lactoseintolerance; lactosetolerance; milk; millet; tollenseriver; tollensevalley; yogurt
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1
posted on
09/16/2020 10:11:55 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...
2
posted on
09/16/2020 10:12:25 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
To: SunkenCiv
...[cow milk] ingestion may have provided greater chances of survival during food shortages or when supplies of drinking water were contaminated.It's interesting that cows could drink contaminated water and convert it to pure milk that humans could drink. Why didn't the cows get sick on the same contaminated water that would have sickened humans?
3
posted on
09/16/2020 10:17:17 PM PDT
by
ProtectOurFreedom
("And oft conducted by historic truth, We tread the long extent of backward time.")
To: SunkenCiv
According to this study, the area where lactose tolerance is highest is among northwestern Europe: Ireland, Scotland, and Scandinavia.
4
posted on
09/16/2020 10:18:22 PM PDT
by
Governor Dinwiddie
(Guide me, O thou great redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.)
To: ProtectOurFreedom
They did get sick, they just didn't whine about how Trump doesn't wear a mask.
5
posted on
09/16/2020 10:25:11 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
To: SunkenCiv
6
posted on
09/16/2020 10:28:25 PM PDT
by
ProtectOurFreedom
("And oft conducted by historic truth, We tread the long extent of backward time.")
To: Governor Dinwiddie
7
posted on
09/16/2020 10:30:26 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
To: ProtectOurFreedom
I hope I didn't seem, uh, Bossy.
![Rimshot - Ba dum tssshhh](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VGg_HTls8ME/hqdefault.jpg)
8
posted on
09/16/2020 10:35:07 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
Did you know 51 headless vikings were found in Dorset?
No, but if you hum a few bars...
9
posted on
09/16/2020 10:37:35 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
To: SunkenCiv; Gamecock; SaveFerris; PROCON; Rebelbase; Army Air Corps; KC_Lion
"I'm lactose intolerant. I have no patience for lactose, and I won't stand for it."
To: Larry Lucido
I was expecting a Seinfeld...
11
posted on
09/16/2020 10:38:33 PM PDT
by
SaveFerris
(Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
12
posted on
09/16/2020 10:41:14 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
To: SunkenCiv
Another example of white privilege?
To: nickcarraway
Another example of much greater tolerance among people of European descent.
14
posted on
09/16/2020 10:49:22 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
To: Larry Lucido
15
posted on
09/16/2020 10:55:04 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
To: ProtectOurFreedom
Four stomachs to process what they ingest might have something to do with it. Plus, some bacteria affect humans but not animals and vice versa.
16
posted on
09/16/2020 10:57:37 PM PDT
by
skr
(May God confound the enemy)
The lactose, lactosetolerance, lactoseintolerance keywords, chrono:
17
posted on
09/16/2020 11:05:08 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
To: ProtectOurFreedom
It's interesting that cows could drink contaminated water and convert it to pure milk that humans could drink. Why didn't the cows get sick on the same contaminated water that would have sickened humans? Your question indicates fallacious reasoning.
There are several possibilities:
1. Some of the cows undoubtedly did get sick from the contaminated water. But a caring father would nevertheless prefer giving his recently-weaned, still somewhat sickly infant child cow's milk rather than contaminated water.
2. A robust, healthy cow is more resistant to contaminated water than an aged grandfather. Etc.
Regards,
18
posted on
09/17/2020 12:38:01 AM PDT
by
alexander_busek
(Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
To: SunkenCiv
My guess is that persistence lactose tolerance greatly reduced mortality in the latter stages of childhood.
To: ProtectOurFreedom
A lot of animals have much stronger immunity to pathogens in water that would make humans sick. My dog can drink from streams/rivers when we go hiking and not get sick. I cant.
20
posted on
09/17/2020 2:15:39 AM PDT
by
FLT-bird
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