Thousands of years ago, the environmental factors from which humans descended and the resulting factors traces of evolving genetics We can still do that today.

One of these is the characteristic we now call ‘lactose intolerance’, where we have difficulty digesting the lactose in milk. So why Turks and Mongols, Compared to other societies, who has difficulty digesting cow’s milk?

Let’s start with the basics, you hear “I have lactose intolerance” left and right. What is lactose, which we often hear about?

Lactose; occurs naturally in the milk of mammals, including cows, goats and humans a kind of carbohydrate. The milk of every living thing, descendants of his own kind It is most suitable for. Therefore, even giving milk to cats can have life-threatening consequences.

When a living species, such as humans, drinks cow’s milk, they can experience both short-term and long-term problems. For the short term, which you know well; We can give examples such as indigestion, intestinal complaints and nausea. Casein, which makes up 90% of milk, causes bone damage and… hormonal disorders can happen.

In fact, many recent studies have shown that after sucking breast milk, we do not need the milk of any other living being, and that while we try to get calcium from cow’s milk, many things are added to our bodies. other harmful substance It proves that we can benefit from other sources of calcium instead of taking calcium.

Let’s get back to our topic without going into too much detail; Turks and Mongolians are more lactose intolerant than other breeds!

As Turks, 83% of us are genetically disabled due to our hereditary characteristics on the second chromosome. not lactose intolerant And therefore, after drinking cow’s milk, we may encounter various problems.

As babies we can only really digest lactose. depending on our hereditary and racial characteristics This ability decreases over time.

Rates of lactose indigestion vary widely from country to country.

Lactose intolerance; In Northwestern European countries only 1-2% While it is there, it gradually increases towards the south and east. Even in Central Asian and Arab countries this percentage is the same up to 90%, in people of African descent up to 99% It can go up!

We said that our ability to digest lactose decreases over time. With this, “lactase persistence” This genetic trait has evolved significantly over the past 10,000 years and has spread to humans in certain parts of the world.

Famine caused Europeans to rely heavily on milk.

Scientists who investigated lactase persistence came to the following conclusion:

“Our research shows that as prehistoric societies and settlements grew, people became more affected by diseases, especially those of animal origin, uncleanliness and diarrhea. Consuming milk under these conditions resulted in higher mortality rates and people with lactose intolerance became more vulnerable. This situation disease and malnutrition Things got worse under famine, where rates rose. “This led to individuals who did not carry a copy of the gene variant that confers lactose tolerance being more likely to die without reproducing, and the persistence of lactose tolerance to spread through the population.”

Our genes have evolved to be lactose intolerant.

Genetic variations in the LCT gene, which produces lactase, an enzyme that digests lactose in milk, also influence the occurrence of lactose intolerance. For this reason mainly Europeans Lactose intolerance because they can produce the lactase enzyme throughout their lives.

Asian and Turkish communities, which have a different lifestyle than Europeans, could not develop sufficient tolerance to lactose. lived in the past traces of Turkish societies, now at Starbucks “A latte for me, with lactose-free milk please!” We hear as…

If you are lactose intolerant, you can use other foods that can provide you with sufficient calcium, other than cow’s milk:

• Grape molasses
• Sesame
• Hazelnut
• Peanut
• green leafy vegetables
• Dry beans
• dried fruit

Plant-based milks that you can choose instead of cow’s milk and that you can easily make at home:

• almond milk
• oat milk
• coconut milk
• soy milk
• hazelnut milk