- #1
Graeme M
- 337
- 31
Lactose intolerance and lactase non-persistence are frequently confused when people talk about the effects of dairy in human diets. We often see mention of how 75% of the global population may be lactose intolerant when in fact what is meant is lactase non-persistent.
The curious thing about this is that lactase non-persistence was probably typical prior to agriculture and in fact is typically the case for many people today. This raises the question of just how much calcium people really need in their diets given that a lack of dairy in pre-agricultural populations would have meant that much lower levels of calcium would have been available dietarily. I recently came across this interesting paper that talks about this exact possibility. The author has compared osteoarthritis rates worldwide and noted they are highest in populations who consume the most milk. She has also compared the genetic profile of East and West African populations and found that lactase persistent (LP) groups present the highest disease rates whilst lactase non-persistent (LNP) groups the lowest.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4926535/
A related paper discusses this finding and proposes a hypothesis to explain how this may be - the proposal is what the authors have termed the derived calcium homeostasis mechanism. Essentially, they argue for a co-evolution of this mechanism along with the genetic adaptation to lactase persistent and outline just why LP populations may be at higher risk of osteoporosis. Conversely, LNP populations may retain the ancestral mechanism and require far less calcium in their diets than is usually recommended.
https://cedar.wwu.edu/orwwu/vol7/iss1/6/
I am wondering if anyone is familiar with this research and whether further work has been done around this? Is there anyone with experience in this field who might be able to comment on the proposals?
The curious thing about this is that lactase non-persistence was probably typical prior to agriculture and in fact is typically the case for many people today. This raises the question of just how much calcium people really need in their diets given that a lack of dairy in pre-agricultural populations would have meant that much lower levels of calcium would have been available dietarily. I recently came across this interesting paper that talks about this exact possibility. The author has compared osteoarthritis rates worldwide and noted they are highest in populations who consume the most milk. She has also compared the genetic profile of East and West African populations and found that lactase persistent (LP) groups present the highest disease rates whilst lactase non-persistent (LNP) groups the lowest.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4926535/
A related paper discusses this finding and proposes a hypothesis to explain how this may be - the proposal is what the authors have termed the derived calcium homeostasis mechanism. Essentially, they argue for a co-evolution of this mechanism along with the genetic adaptation to lactase persistent and outline just why LP populations may be at higher risk of osteoporosis. Conversely, LNP populations may retain the ancestral mechanism and require far less calcium in their diets than is usually recommended.
https://cedar.wwu.edu/orwwu/vol7/iss1/6/
I am wondering if anyone is familiar with this research and whether further work has been done around this? Is there anyone with experience in this field who might be able to comment on the proposals?