While drinking hot chocolate in the morning is a trivial act for most of us, digesting milk into adulthood is not common in the animal world. It is also fairly recent in humans. New research published in the journal Nature , shows that we already use milk long before we digest it. Contrary to what one might think, it was not domestication that contributed to our ability to properly digest milk, but dramatic crises in our history.
The digestion of milk is related to the production of the enzyme lactase in our intestines. In most people, this production declines rapidly during weaning and adolescence. However, a genetic trait called lactase persistence has emerged repeatedly over the past 10,000 years. It has spread to various populations, especially in Northern Europe and West Africa. “We first thought that the mutation…
Source: Le Figaro
