
17. Are Certain People More Susceptible to Lactose Intolerance Than Others?
To be quite honest, most adults in the world, as many as 40%, stop producing lactase needed to digest milk sugars when they’re between two and five. Humans are the only mammals that continue to consume dairy into their adult lives, and we experience lactose intolerance because we’re not biologically built to do so. Lactose intolerance can be passed on through genetics, but it can also result from other diseases affecting the digestive system. It’s best to speak to your doctor to see if you’re genuinely lactose intolerant or if you have something else going on that you should know about.
Some ethnicities are more prone to being lactose intolerant than others. These include Mexicans, Asians, Indigenous Americans, and Africans. Lactose intolerance is also passed down through genes in these ethnicities since the diets were never heavily focused on dairy in the past. Moreover, since there’s no cure for lactose intolerance, these genes will continue to be passed on.