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[foolio]

Sorry to make a new thread for such a dinosaur strip, but I didn't want to rile the off-topic gods. I'm wondering, (please don't ask why), are otters REALLY lactose intolerant? They are mammals, wouldn't their milk make their babies sick? Unless they have lactose free milk...

well can anyone (perhaps we have some people from the Monterey area) resolve this?

[CortJstr]

IIRC it's not uncommon for a mammal to develope lactose intolerance after infancy. I've read that milk will give adult cats the runs while kittens are all about the dairy.

[MattFish]

IIRC it's not uncommon for a mammal to develope lactose intolerance after infancy. I've read that milk will give adult cats the runs while kittens are all about the dairy.

Does this make any difference at all as to how humans process milk? Is it just because we usually drink other species' milk as adults that there isn't a problem there? Would we all get the runs if we harvested human breast milk to bottle and sell? Would that be an altogether bad idea?

[AlohaDawg]

For one, it doesn't taste very good, so it wouldn't sell anyway (after two kids, trust me...) For two, it's the lactose acid that people don't tolerate. Milk that's been treated to minimize the lactose acid, or (most) people who take lactaid pills can drink the milk. I don't think it much matters what species of mammal made the milk in terms of the intolerance factor.

In college these guys I know used to have a friday night challenge. They'd get some big ol' country boy freshman and give them one hour to drink a gallon of milk. Not one made it without barfing copiously. It was the body's inability to rapidly process that volume of lactic acid that did it. Every time. Big and small, the cow conquered all.

[tcc]

Yeah it's all about lactase - the enzyme that breaks down lactose.  If your body doesn't have it, the bacteria in your gut have enough time to really get into it - resulting in the sometimes amusing symptoms of bloating and flatulence.

Originally all humans lost this enzyme as they got older but since some racial groups domesticated cows and the like, we have evolved to continue to have the enzyme into adulthood.

[Bobby Isosceles]

Most mammals develop a natural lactose intolerance; it is believed this is related to the weaning process.

There are two groups of human and one group of cat that have developed a genetic anomaly; they can digest milk well into adulthood.

In the case of humans, Western Europeans and Central Asians tend to be more likely to have the rogue gene. In the case of cats, only Western European breeds exhibit this (perhaps implying a certain amount of coevolution); i.e., himalayans are definitely lactose intolerance at adulthood.

Source: Wikipiedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance

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 in time and place, most modern western Eurasians and people of western Eurasian ancestry show the effects of this mutation (that is, they are able to safely consume milk products all their lives) while most modern eastern Eurasians, sub-saharan Africans and native peoples of the Americas and Pacific Islands do not (they are "lactose intolerant" as adults)

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.

As for me, I'm very Lactose intolerant. I think the Lactose should stop stealing our jobs and white women and go back to Lactostan.

[V-Adore]

I have a friend who has attempted the gallon-of-milk challenge more than once. He refuses to admit failure. Why? I have no idea.

[pmcd9]

Milk isn't like other liquids.  It's liquid food.  Drinking a gallon of milk would be like eating two, maybe three jumbo pizzas.  I can't imagine anyone surviving that.  They have a contest somewhere in Africa among chieftans to see who can gain the most weight by drinking nothing but milk for a period of several months.  It's an often fatal sport.  I tried googling it, but I can't find anything on it.  It's real though, I saw it on Nature I think.

~Paul

[MattFish]

They have a contest somewhere in Africa among chieftans to see who can gain the most weight by drinking nothing but milk for a period of several months.  It's an often fatal sport.  I tried googling it, but I can't find anything on it.  It's real though, I saw it on Nature I think.

Sounds like FOX would be all over that.


The Big African Milk Death Mind Factor Survivor