When Did Humans First Start Drinking Milk?

At the blog Food & Think, Amanda Bensen asks "Have you ever stopped to think about how strange it is that we drink the breast milk of another species?" She did some research on the history of milk drinking and found that it can be traced back to 7,500 years ago in Central Europe and the Balkans. From a press release by researchers at University College, London:

The ability to digest the milk sugar lactose first evolved in dairy farming communities in central Europe, not in more northern groups as was previously thought, finds a new study led by UCL (University College London) scientists published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology. The genetic change that enabled early Europeans to drink milk without getting sick has been mapped to dairying farmers who lived around 7,500 years ago in a region between the central Balkans and central Europe. Previously, it was thought that natural selection favoured milk drinkers only in more northern regions because of their greater need for vitamin D in their diet. People living in most parts of the world make vitamin D when sunlight hits the skin, but in northern latitudes there isn't enough sunlight to do this for most of the year.

In the collaborative study, the team used a computer simulation model to explore the spread of lactase persistence, dairy farming, other food gathering practices and genes in Europe. The model integrated genetic and archaeological data using newly developed statistical approaches.


Link via Food & Think | Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture

elizabeth: because pigs don't produce milk. Sows do. =D
Seriously though, there is mare, ewe, cow, goat and camel milk drunk and eaten all over the world, but their udders are easy of access, whereas a sow are not. Plus pigs have long been considered filthy animals in many cultures, so another obstacle to sow milk right there.

... i wonder what elephant or whale milk taste like...
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I'm going to phrase Ms. Bensen's question a bit differently:

"I wonder who first looked at a cow and said, 'I'm gonna see what happens when I pull this thing that is on the underside of this animal and drink whatever squirts outta it....'." =D =D =D
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It's really not so bad when you think that there are some obscure cultures still that drink the blood of their horses to survive when travelling... :P
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Whale milk would taste like...well, something like meaty lard in water. It's about 1/3 fat, and has a ridiculously high protein percentage as well. About 50% solids.

I don't know if that or gray seal milk would be worse...gray seal is over half fat and I think 70% solids. Blech.
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Also, unless you have very specialized pumps, you can't easily milk any litter-bearing species. Just not enough milk out of each teat!

Young drinking milk is a mammalian trait, adults drinking milk (much less that of another species) is exclusively human. Almost all older animals become lactose intolerant to some degree, and humans likely were universally not exempt from that rule until 7500ish years ago. Now it's just far eastern and other non-dairy-consuming cultures (and people) that tend to develop lactose intolerance on a large scale.

(I'm a Dairy Science major who's studying for a Lactation exam right now. do excuse me :/)
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I'm currently writing my thesis on vitamin D and hearing that milk is a natural source of vitamin D is a shock. Milk is not a natural source of vitamin D. Fatty fish and some mushrooms are the only natural sources of vitamin D. I would love to see the citation on this research article...

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp
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Thanks for posting this. My husband decided a few weeks ago that people have only been drinking milk for like 500 years and he's been telling people that non-stop. I tried to set him straight, but I had no evidence. Until now....
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