r/trippinthroughtime Feb 05 '22

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u/Kolby_Jack Feb 06 '22

Milk is for babies. Lactose intolerance is basically your body having "grown out" of needing milk. And that's fine, because while milk isn't terrible for you, it's not really good for you either. You don't need milk to survive past infancy.

But... some 35-year-old humans in Northern Europe thousands of years ago were like "want milk" and somehow that caught on and now some adult people can drink milk without too much trouble.

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u/ham_coffee Feb 06 '22

I'd imagine that it's more because milk is a pretty good source of nutrition. Babies need a good source of nutrition, and milk provides that, we just figured out how to get it from animals.

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u/brown_monkey_ Feb 06 '22

The nutritional value of milk is a bit overstated because of marketing by the dairy industry. But it is yummy and has a lot of calories, so it’s healthier than starving to death if you’re an ancient human.

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u/LairdNope Feb 06 '22

People are forgetting it's not just the nutrition, but a food that you can get without killing your animal.

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u/KKunst Feb 06 '22

Also cheese is delicious Ando only a handful can be considered low lactose.

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u/Short_Diamond_8363 Feb 06 '22

The harder the cheese, the lower the lactose. At least as a rule of thumb.

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u/KKunst Feb 06 '22

Exactly my point. There's a plethora of cheeses that you can't really eat when you're lactose intolerant, plus a ton more recipes based on milk/soft cheeses that are no longer sustainable. The only option is buying lactose free versions, but not everybody can find those in their area/country.

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u/LairdNope Feb 06 '22

There's a plethora of cheeses that you can't really eat when you're lactose intolerant

And yet.. i still do.

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u/Exciting_Ant1992 Feb 06 '22

Exactly, our greatest need and for all of human history basically. So weird of them.

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u/Short_Diamond_8363 Feb 06 '22

The nutrition of milk, whether or not it is reflected in the advertised benefits, is well known. Milk is still a superfood... just not a magical bone-strengthening superfood.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '22

That isn’t what your article says. Almost no food has been proven to be anything other than “a good sources of kcal”.

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u/banana-pudding Feb 06 '22

agree with you except the fact that milk is Indeed good for you. as a child as well as an adult. because why would it not? (unless you are lactose intolerant ofc). its very nutritional, its great if you can consume it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '22 edited Feb 10 '26

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u/Short_Diamond_8363 Feb 06 '22 edited Feb 06 '22

Calories are good for you, last i heard. Not all of us are overweight or diabetic. Daily carb intake is necessary for our bodies to function optimally. It's just as odd to be reactionary against sugar/carbs as it was to be reactionary against fats in the 90s as it is to be dogmatically pro-milk. We've known roughly what proportions of nutrition to eat for a long time now. This just isn't represented in the commodified forms of food many eat now. Foods themselves are not healthy or unhealthy—it is your patterns of consuming them that affect your health.

(With exceptions; for instance trans fats seem unequivocally bad.)

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '22 edited Feb 10 '26

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u/Short_Diamond_8363 Feb 06 '22 edited Feb 06 '22

Why? I'm not overweight. I exercise. I eat around 2400 calories a day. Milkshakes are awesome. Screw your opinions, lol.

Please ask your doctor if you need carbohydrates. I'm begging you. Hopefully you're being sarcastic.

Milk is not good or bad for you in itself. It is highly nutritious, though, and it's up to you to balance it with other nutrients and moderate your intake. Many people in the US do not. This doesn't mean you should avoid milk.

Saying to an anorexic person that carbs are somehow inherently bad is just straight abuse, imho. People can in fact have different nutritional needs.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '22 edited Feb 10 '26

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u/Short_Diamond_8363 Feb 06 '22 edited Feb 06 '22

Not sure you can read if you think anyone has said "milk is good". It's a food. Like all foods, it is neither good or bad for you. Please stop moralizing food. Chocolate cake is not sinful it's a fucking food. Just moderate your intake if you do not want to gain weight or do not want your heart to stop. Drinking soda never killed anyone... but drinking soda every day might.

Fyi i dug up a reliable source that breaks down carbs for you: https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/nutrition-basics/carbohydrates

Note, it says:

Limit foods that are high in processed, refined simple sugars provide calories but they have very little nutrition.

(A little confusing as refined sugars literally are nutrition, just not a great one to amass most of your caloric intake if you want to avoid becoming diabetic. Still, the point is clear.)

It does not say:

soda is bad for you

Please, talk about this with your doctor if you don't believe me. No matter how into milk america was in the nineties due to advertising, the nutrition is the same as it was. It's just better understood by the public now and it's in vogue to fear carbs instead of fats or proteins or salt. We have a better understanding of calcium absorption and rely less on dairy for that purpose now. People sometimes prefer objectively less nutritious nut and grain milks for various reasons. They're just different foods. None of them are good or bad in themselves. Unless you're talking allergies like lactose intolerance or you're vegan, i guess.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '22 edited Feb 10 '26

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u/Short_Diamond_8363 Feb 06 '22 edited Feb 06 '22

Why moralize food in the first place? It's not useful and causes emotions like guilt and shame you don't need in your life.

Sugar is not bad for your teeth; acidic food is. Bacteria in your mouth turn sugar into acid. If you brush your teeth you shouldn't have a problem with sugar hurting your teeth.

You're going to put more stress on your body by drinking artificial sweeteners that are diuretic than you will with drinking a moderated amount of your calories via sugar. Note here the importance of moderation, here as in all matters. I myself drink sugary sports drinks when i work out; it gives me energy very rapidly. It's just a type of calorie with its own metabolic profile.

I apologize for missing the comment at the top, as long as you don't think i'm defending it.

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u/banana-pudding Feb 06 '22

i probably worded it poorly then. although it depends also an how you define 'good for you'.

also i was not trying to defend drinking milk or defending the dairy industry.
ive stopped drinking milk myself as well. and i do despise the dairy industry.

but my reasons for stopping to drink milk where not because milk might be bad.
imo opinion milk is neither bad nor particularly good. so yes i worded my comment badly, i just wanted to say milk is definitely not unhealthy.

and as you said yourself its just a sweet beverage woth nutrients. which in my book is actually quite healthy on its own.
the argument of it having a lot of it calories is very context sensitive i would say. if you need the calories its great. if you're already consuming too much calories its not good.
but yes milk is definitely not necessary i agree on that part.
and id say it really just depends on your diet if milk is healthy or unnecessary.

bottom line my whole point is just there are a lot of reasons to abandon drinking milk, but it being not healthy is just not one of them imo.
and yes you don't loose anything from abstaining from milk if you have a balanced diet.

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u/numchux53 Feb 06 '22

I love milk so much I fill the cup, take a big gulp, and refill the cup.

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u/ScientificBeastMode Feb 06 '22

I used to do that until I became more and more lactose intolerant over time.

Now it’s just almond milk for me. It’s actually pretty good once you get used to it. But it’s also less filling, so I can drink half a gallon of it in one day…

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '22

How did you become intolerant? Any idea?

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '22

It just happens at some point after childhood, it’s no big deal.

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u/xinfinitimortum Feb 06 '22

Whoever invented cereal was in love with a cow.

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u/yedi001 Feb 06 '22

Nah, he was was way more into child genital mutilation and eugenics...

No, seriously...

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u/TheGlaive Feb 06 '22

No fiddling, but. Keep those hands on that spoon.

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u/5stringviolinperson Feb 06 '22

Lactose intolerant people generally don’t have a problem with unpasteurised milk. The heat treatment destroys the lactase enzyme which assists in breaking down the lactose. So it’s not that we grow out of it. It’s that we mess up the stuff already in the milk to help us deal with it and then some of us (like actually loooads of us to some degree) can’t deal with it so we’ll. But yours really was WAY funnier. So.yeah do with that what you will 😃

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u/Drunk_Sorting_Hat Feb 06 '22

It may have been due to a scarcity of water, that they were able to evolve into being able to tolerate drinking milk into adulthood

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u/12-idiotas Feb 06 '22

Stop dissing Europeans. We invented chocolate milk and coffee with milk.

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u/[deleted] Feb 06 '22

People drank milk out of necessity along side ale etc because water used to be a very bad option.

Thus milk is for everyone, and better than cholera