by Sixstrings » Mon 22 Nov 2010, 16:44:28
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lulubel', 'I')'ve never had any physiological problems with dairy, although I'm very aware that animals aren't designed to consume milk as adults.
Actually, we've been drinking milk for so many thousands of years that most of us have evolved to be perfectly lactose tolerant. Some of course aren't.. if you researched their genome, you'd probably find they have some ancestors from non milk-drinking populations.
In ancient Greek / Roman times, I don't think southern Europeans drank any milk, not sure about cheese. I do know that the barbarian northern Europeans drank a LOT of mare's milk -- these were horse cultures, on the move all the time, so milk and cheese were necessary (crude cheese was basically curdled milk, made right there in an animal bladder bag while the rider traveled).
SeaGypsy made a similar comment about how odd it is we drink milk (only species to do so or something like that). In my view, there's nothing odd about it at all, animals use other animals all the time -- either in parasitic or symbiotic relationships. It's clear our relationship with cattle is SYMBIOTIC -- we use them for milk, meat, leather, and in return we feed them and propagate their species. We both need each other, nothing unnatural about that.