On 08/05/2021 13:30, T i m wrote:
On 8 May 2021 11:00:14 GMT, Tim Streater
wrote:

snip

T r o l l still hasn't grasped the basics, namely that we are all (all
mammals, that is) born with the ability to process lactose. From Wikipedia:

"Infant mammals nurse on their mothers to drink milk, which is rich in
lactose."

so that includes humans, most particularly babies.

Yes, and? Where does wiki say that human babies are best raised on
cows milk?

Winky goes on to say:

"Many people with ancestry in Europe, West Asia, South Asia, the Sahel belt in
West Africa, East Africa and a few other parts of Central Africa maintain
lactase production into adulthood. In many of these areas, milk from mammals
such as cattle, goats, and sheep is used as a large source of food.

Yup, for them it's normally called 'survival' rather than choice.

I survive each day and eat meat as a natural balanced diet. Need, want,
choice are meaningless words in the context of human emotion. Very few,
as a proportion to world population, succumb to famine.

Hence, it
was in these regions that genes for lifelong lactase production first evolved.
The genes of adult lactose tolerance have evolved independently in various
ethnic groups. By descent, more than 70% of western Europeans can digest
lactose as adults, compared with less than 30% of people from areas of Africa,
eastern and south-eastern Asia and Oceania."

Yup, because of the circumstances / cultures / religions of 'some
people', those people have *developed a tolerance to something they
were never designed in nature to consume, certainly after they had
weaned themselves*.

That is perhaps what has held them back, while the rest of the world
with the lactase persistent gene advanced through industrialisation.

Humans were ,meant to drink human mother breast milk, cow calves were
meant to drink cow mother breast milk, etc etc.

Some species have, of course, evolved to drink milk into maturity.

So as I said before, at the root of it is whether your culture included
drinking milk. If it did, then over the millenia your group might well evolve
genes to enable drinking into adulthood, as that would confer an evolutionary
advantage.

Yup, but still very very weird in 2021, not the 1821 that the Squeaker
Goblin was born and still lives in.

It is only weird to fanatical vegans, envious our loved ones allow us to
drink milk.

Speaking of drinking fluids from other species, T r o l l might like to have
a friendly word with various ant species, which farm aphids and use their
secretions as food.

Ah, so now the Goblin thinks we should use ants as a guide for our
morals and ethics!

Given they have a social structure and are sentient beings, they can be
no worse that your morals.