Evolutionary Whodunit: How are adult humans able to digest lactose?

Helen Thompson — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:59:37 +0000

Got milk? Ancient European farmers who made cheese thousands of years ago certainly had it. But at that time, they lacked a genetic mutation that would have allowed them to digest raw milk's dominant sugar, lactose, after childhood.

Today, however, 35 percent of the global population — mostly people with European ancestry — can digest lactose in adulthood without a hitch.

So, how did we transition from milk-a-phobics to milkaholics?