I can't handle milk either, or anything high-lactose. The above things, though, no prob. I'd guess most of the "lactose-intolerant" will do alright with moderate (non-binge) amounts of such low- (but not no-) lactose foods.
Variations of all those are indeed much-loved staples all over the world, whether of the cow or the goat or the sheep (or gazelle? caribou? ruminant species abound!) variety, depending on regional grazing conditions I guess.
Sure. The point remains: dairy hasn’t been “a massively important staple of advanced societies for thousands of years.” It was an important food in a minority of them, and even there biologically recently.
10,000 years. See top comment.
North Indian lactase was inherited from the Middle East. (I’m Northern Indian, in large part.)
[1]https://www.science.org/content/article/humans-were-drinking...
Nope. I also love cheese and yoghurt and milk chocolate and process lactose very well. I recognise, however, dairy as the indulgence it is. It's not a smart staple for most people, including most kids. (If your kid isn't fat, it's probably fine.)
Of course it’s useful. Particularly while kids are young, it’s a nutrient-dense food source that helps fuel immune systems being uniquely taxed by our post-agrarian densification (and cultivation of farm mammals immunologically similar to us, thereby giving rise to plagues).
The fact that it’s new means it’s necessarily loosely integrated. So if you aren’t in a calorie-deficient dietary environment, it follows that it can be assumed to not be an ideal nutrient source (even while remaining an ideal food source). And we see that. Milk consumption causes all manner of inflammatory responses. Because of course. It’s, in essence, another mammal’s filtered blood.
Additionally, cow milk represents a single dairy product amongst a plethora of ones. Everything from Horse milk to Goat's milk is consumed globally, and much dairy is consumed as further processed food like fermented milk, yogurt, cheeses, etc. which generally aren't considered by Americans when talking about dairy, for whatever reason, even when supposedly attempting to "unplug" from the dairy industry's propaganda.
[1] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4066025/
[2] - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15277142/
[3] - https://gut.bmj.com/content/41/5/632
[4] - https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/china...
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/lactose-i...
And yes is seems like the gut microbiome actually has a role in moderating lactose intolerance.
https://biology.indiana.edu/news-events/news/2019/foster-lac...
From your links: "Harpending and co-author Gregory Cochran, both at the University of Utah, argue that the ability to digest lactose shaped human history. Lactose-tolerant populations, they claim, could better survive famines, and may also have been better conquerors, aiding the spread of their civilizations and cultures."
“Approximately 65 percent of the human population has a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy. Lactase nonpersistence is most prevalent in people of East Asian descent, with 70 to 100 percent of people affected in these communities. Lactase nonpersistence is also very common in people of West African, Arab, Jewish, Greek, and Italian descent” [1].
Digesting cow’s milk relies on a new gene (<10,000 years old) that evolved in Northern Europe, East Africa and the Middle East [2]. Most adults—65 to 90%—have some degree of lactose intolerance. It’s simply untrue that dairy has been a staple of even a plurality of advanced civilisations over history.
[1] https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/condition/lactose-intoleran...
[2] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/lactose-toleranc...