this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
830 points (96.8% liked)
Comic Strips
15340 readers
2244 users here now
Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.
The rules are simple:
- The post can be a single image, an image gallery, or a link to a specific comic hosted on another site (the author's website, for instance).
- The comic must be a complete story.
- If it is an external link, it must be to a specific story, not to the root of the site.
- You may post comics from others or your own.
- If you are posting a comic of your own, a maximum of one per week is allowed (I know, your comics are great, but this rule helps avoid spam).
- The comic can be in any language, but if it's not in English, OP must include an English translation in the post's 'body' field (note: you don't need to select a specific language when posting a comic).
- Politeness.
- Adult content is not allowed. This community aims to be fun for people of all ages.
Web of links
- !linuxmemes@lemmy.world: "I use Arch btw"
- !memes@lemmy.world: memes (you don't say!)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Btw, is there a evolutionary cost to creating lactase? Because, why do we stop with it usually and only keep it if it has huge advantages?
I would guess that humans have been around for what, 250k years? And that the vast majority of that didn't involve a whole lot of milk after age 4.
So it wouldn't have been to much advantage to be able to metabolize lactose.
No, there is, you get more from your cattle, and on a individual level, less likely to starve.
Keeping Lactase happened at least twice; north europe and a group in west africa.
Sure, if you a) keep mammals around and b) drink their milk. I'm not convinced domesticated animals have been a thing for all that long, evolutionarily. Long enough for some groups to have adapted, sure. We have adaptations for cooked food, too.
[Searches] Cattle probably around 10k years ago.
Saudi Arabia too. I assume that camel milk came in pretty handy in early tribes surviving the deserts.
Yes. It costs calories and nutrients.
But why then creating lactose in milk at all? Fat alone doesn't suffice?
It's easy to break down into glucose, which is important for bodily functions. Gluconeogenesis is a thing, but it is inefficient.