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ABSTRACT
Cow's milk is accorded a high cultural value in the contemporary United States. Its white color, association with the maternal and the pastoral, and repeated mention in the Bible add positive symbolic weight to this major national agricultural commodity. Thus, it comes as no surprise that influential policy-making institutions in the United States recommend milk consumption for all U.S. groups. This is despite variation in adult populations' abilities to digest milk, which has been documented by biological anthropologists. This article assesses various U.S. "stories" about milk consumption and its relationship to biological variation against the biological anthropological explanation of variation in lactase activity/lactose tolerance. Many of these serve as normalizing discourses that ultimately pathologize biological difference and may undermine the dietary traditions of some ethnic groups. In particular, the close relationship between government and the dairy industry leads to policies that fail to seriously consider variation in digestive physiology among the diverse U.S. populations.
[Keywords: milk, lactase, nutrition policy, biological variation]
THAT POPULATIONS VARY with respect to their capacity to digest milk in adulthood is well known among biological anthropologists and organizations in the United States involved in the formulation and enactment of food and nutrition policies. This variation in response to milk derives from genetic regulation of lactase, the enzyme that breaks down the milk sugar lactose. In most populations, lactase activity declines during childhood; in relatively few does lactase activity remain high throughout adulthood. Cross-culturally, persistence of lactase activity into adulthood correlates with (1) fresh milk consumption; (2) a central role for milk production in the domestic economy; (3) positive evaluation of milk and other dairy products; and (4) physiological capacity to digest and, hence, tolerate lactose. This article is primarily concerned with how the anthropological interpretation of lactase persistence compares to those offered by institutions in the United States that have an impact on dietary recommendations for consumption of cow's milk, an important agricultural commodity. Because polices often reflect the biases and agendas of their authors, the portrayal of lactase persistence by the dominant ethnic group-U.S. citizens derived from northern Europe, who are largely lactase persistent-is likely to indicate ethno- or biocentric bias, insofar as it promotes milk consumption and downplays the significance of other biologies.
First, I outline the...