Free Republic

Nowhere on the agenda of the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, being held in San Diego this week, is a topic plaguing many of its members: the recurring appropriation of the field’s research in the name of white supremacy. “Sticking your neck out on political issues is difficult,” said Jennifer Wagner, a bioethicist and president of the group’s social issues committee, who had sought to convene a panel on the racist misuse of genetics and found little traction. But the specter of the field’s ignominious past, which includes support for the American eugenics movement, looms large...

A 7-month-old baby died after his parents fed him only gluten-free and lactose-free foods, including quinoa milk, the New York Post reported. The child’s Belgian parents self-diagnosed him with an array of food allergies, but never sought a medical professional’s opinion before deciding on his diet, according to the newspaper. “The parents determined their own diagnosis that their child was gluten intolerant and had a lactose allergy,” lawyers said in court during the trial for the child’s 2014 death, the Independent reported. “Not a single doctor had a dossier about Lucas and child protection services did not know about them.”...

Elma, Wash. (AP) -- Laurel Gordon of Washington state has been putting on a tiara to promote milk products the past two years as Grays Harbor County's dairy ambassador. The funny thing is, the 18-year-old from Elma is a lactose intolerant dairy princess. The Daily World of Aberdeen reports that unless Gordon takes special pills, her body is unable to digest milk, so she drinks soy milk.

A pair of new studies has uncovered evidence that low levels of vitamin D could lead to poor blood sugar control among diabetics and increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome among seniors. ..... More than 90 percent of the patients, who ranged in age from 36 to 89, had either vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, the authors found, despite the fact that they all had had routine primary care visits before their specialty visit. Just about 6 percent of the patients were taking a vitamin D supplement at the time of their visit, the research team noted, and those...

HAMILTON, CANADA – Women who drink two large glasses of milk a day after their weight-lifting routine gained more muscle and lost more fat compared to women who drank sugar-based energy drinks, a McMaster study has found. The study appears in the June issue of Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise. "Resistance training is not a typical choice of exercise for women," says Stu Phillips, professor in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University. "But the health benefits of resistance training are enormous: It boosts strength, bone, muscular and metabolic health in a way that other types of exercise...

An EU-funded project coordinated by Uppsala University in Sweden will study the origins and significance of lactose tolerance in Europe. The project, called LECHE ('Lactase persistence and the early cultural history of Europe'), is a training network with 13 participating universities in Europe... Approximately 85% of adult northern Europeans are able to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products; however, in the rest of the world the ability to digest milk drops off sharply after infancy. In fact, as one moves south from Scandinavia, lactose tolerance in adulthood drops off. The persistence of lactase (the enzyme...

A new Cornell University study finds that it is primarily people whose ancestors came from places where dairy herds could be raised safely and economically, such as in Europe, who have developed the ability to digest milk. On the other hand, most adults whose ancestors lived in very hot or very cold climates that couldn't support dairy herding or in places where deadly diseases of cattle were present before 1900, such as in Africa and many parts of Asia, do not have the ability to digest milk after infancy. "The implication is that harsh climates and dangerous diseases negatively impact...