Why do Asians have a harder time absorbing milk than other races?

For most Asians, lactose intolerance (a component of milk) is a very common syndrome.

After enjoying milk or dairy products, many people will experience symptoms of bloating or abdominal pain, diarrhea. This is the consequence of lactose intolerance syndrome . Many people are confused because they used to be able to digest milk easily when they were young but then lost this ability.

Almost all babies are born with the ability to digest lactose (a sugar found in mammalian milk), says internist Sean Chung, MD. Most babies, of all races, use the enzyme lactase in their small intestine to break down lactose into glucose and galactose, which can be easily absorbed through the intestinal lining.

As in other mammals, lactase stability plays an important role in helping infants digest milk, especially during breastfeeding.

Bloating or abdominal pain, diarrhea when using milk or milk products, this is a phenomenon of lactose intolerance.

Doctors in Southern California explain that many of us have a dramatic decrease in the amount of the enzyme lactase by age 5. This phenomenon, known as lactase instability , causes the lactose in milk to not be processed. When this lactose stays in the intestines, it absorbs water from the body and is converted by intestinal bacteria into unpleasant things, including hydrogen gas.

In fact, humans in early civilizations were lactose-free into adulthood. It was only during the invention of agriculture thousands of years ago that people in Western Hemisphere cultures developed a stable lactase enzyme. Humans evolved the ability to tolerate a new source of dairy food besides breast milk, which came with the domestication of animals.

This phenomenon is explained from an evolutionary perspective that citizens of some countries became adapted to milk, simply because they consumed more milk.

Unlike countries near the equator, people in Nordic countries need to consume a lot of milk to supplement calcium, due to a lack of Vitamin D from sunlight.

That is why the rate of lactose intolerance in Northern European populations can be as low as 5% while in some Asian communities it can be as high as over 90%.

To improve the situation, people with lactose intolerance can use small amounts of milk at a time , use cheese and yogurt, products that contain less lactose than fresh milk; or buy milk products that have been processed to break down lactose first to avoid this phenomenon.