And Seishi is feeling better. Still not asking him to eat regular food, but he’s certainly not seeming out of sorts.
Jane got the drapes finished….they’re really spiff.
by CJ | Sep 4, 2014 | Journal | 20 comments
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Photos of both?
Soon!
A late happy birthday and drapes. I’ve been sick with more-than-a-cold-less-than-flu, to use the technical term. I find my doctor’s prescription for a “cough suppressant” was $15, now-prescription Robitussin with codeine. That anyone would put up with the expectorant just to get that tiny bit of codeine–well, not me: an expectorant I did not need; quite the opposite. Behind the counter, okay; prescription is over-kill. Hmph!
I hope Seishi is doing well. The mention of kitty ice cream reminded me of a statistical map I saw recently. Ice cream and cheese and other dairy are so popular I was surprised to (re-?)learn that adult lactose tolerance (lactase persistence) is present in only 25% of the world population, those from northern Europe, about Poland to France. We’re mutants! I wonder if dairy has ever been used as a shibboleth.
Yes, the normal human condition is to be “lactose-intolerant.” Western/Central European and East African populations basically independently developed a mutation to maintain the ability to fully digest dairy past childhood. In some other areas of the world — the Mediterranean and Egypt are the ones come to mind, India and nearby regions presumably also — much of the population has the ability to digest semi/pre-digested dairy products, basically cheeses and yogurts and other cultured dairy products. Natural selection in most native peoples in other parts of the world, i.e. those that go in for heavy domestication of dairy animals (duh) — did not develop versions of this mutation. That would be native populations in the Americas, much of Asia and much of non-Eastern Africa.
I’m curious, Raesean: That was an independent development, between the European and East African populations? Not through mutual contact, somehow? (Intermarriages or less permanent unions, say, among a few people?) Or…would it preclude the possibility it was already present in the genome and got turned on / expressed in both populations through some mechanism?
On the other hand, if it’s two different types of mutations for lactose tolerance, digestion, two sites or two differing alleles, then that would indicate independent innovations (mutations).
Either way, hey, I’m glad I’m (apparently) quite lactose tolerant. I’ve never noticed a problem with dairy, and my immediate family (parents, grandparents) didn’t, that I know of. Go back one or two generations, and it’s farmers and small town folks, so dariy would’ve been common. Hah, my dad my mom’s mom really loved buttermilk and clabbered milk. (Me, “sweet milk.”)
Er, and aren’t East African populations largely cattle herders, cows, mainly, but also sheep and goats? … I’ve just realized I don’t remember where the Masai hail from. I’d better look it up.
Lactose tolerance was an independent mutation in Central/Western European populations and the geographically also very separate East African specific populations. And, yes, you are remembering correctly: the Masai are indeed cattle pastoralists from East Africa and the classic example of lactose tolerance in this area. I do anthropology/advocacy work with a cousin culture to the Masai, the Samburu up in Northern Kenya, whose traditional diet and culture revolve around cattle and milk also. What I realize I don’t know is if non-pastoral peoples in the area display lactose tolerance or intolerance.
P.s. In glancing at an anthro text on food and society right now (“Everyone Eats” by E. N. Anderson), I just found out that the Inuit (a.k.a. The “Eskimo”) also cannot digest sucrose, another sugar just as lactose is. That little tidbit gets filed away mentally to trot out in an anthro class sometime, perhaps this semester.
I’m intolerant, since age 50 or so. My sister isn’t. Our father may have been–he kinda restricted himself to ice cream. 😉 Our heritage is, with a couple of unknown, untracables, Welsh-British Isles-French, with the odd Chinese way back (“Elizabeth the Cuman”).
From what I remember it’s an independent mutation arising in two distinct populations dependent on diary in their diets for protein and whatever; but it’s a relatively easy adaptation. Everybody starts out being able to digest milk (babies get breastfed), but at around 4 or 5 years old the enzyme responsible for this gets switched off (babies need to stop breastfeeding at some point, even if there’s little other suitable food available – and yes, they can take some of their nourishment this way for years, if it’s available and mom lets them).
The only mutation needed is inserting an off-switch code in front of the bit that codes for turning off the production of this enzyme by age five. If that doesn’t have a negative impact on mom’s reproductive fitness, because other sources of milk are available so she can stop breastfeeding; and it gives the kids a better chance of getting high-value nourishment (especially in an age when meat wouldn’t have been on the table for everyone every day), it would be likely to spread quickly.
Those off-switches abound in our genome, and inserting one in the wrong place is not a very difficult to achieve kind of copying error, I think; so the chance of that happening twice is a lot more reasonable than if the entire digestion of a new substance had to be developed from scratch. OTOH, I am not a geneticist nor a population scientist of any kind, so what do I know?
Rasean, that’s an interesting new fact about the Inuit, about (some of) them being sucrose intolerant. I don’t think there are a lot of sucrose-rich fruits which grow near the Arctic, so once one knows this it does make sense. Losing it doesn’t decrease one’s fitness if it’s hardly ever useful; and maybe maintaining that ability (useless in this environment) does cost some extra energy or bodily resources. On the other hand, in very many modern ready-made foodstuffs (and not just the baked goods) some kind of sugar is added, and even the high-fructose corn syrup still contains quite a bit of sucrose as well. It would make navigating the supermarket quite a challenge.
Paul, I’m quite Western-European myself, and I too lost my tolerance several years ago, after decades with no problem. Thinking back, I’d been dieting fairly strictly which meant I’ d not drunk any milk or eaten any custard or yoghurt (because I don’t like it without sugar) or anything like that for at least a year before the point where I found out I’d become intolerant. Maybe not encountering the substance for a certain length of time triggers the switching off of the production of the enzyme needed to digest it?
Or maybe whichever kind of bacteria in our guts is responsible for this bit of digestion gets outcompeted when its preferred food source isn’t available, and so disappears from our internal biome, taking its specific digestive ability with it? I’m fascinated by the hints that are emerging from the recent interest in our internal ecologies, that differences and changes in these bacterial suites have a lot more impact on our health and well-being than was traditionally thought.
@Hanneke: In LA markets seemed to sell milk mostly in 1/2G cartons. When I moved to Portland it seemed to be 1G plastic jugs, which I tended to wait to buy on-sale–rarely more than a week or two between one chain or another. I’d been unaware of developing intolerance until there was about a 6-week period of no sales, and I noticed my digestion was better. Doesn’t seem like your first hypothesis is borne out by my experience.
As to the second, it is widely reported to be the presence of lactase digesting bacteria which causes the gas and indigestion, so I doubt that hypothesis too.
One thing that is true is the amount of sugar in yogurt (in this country)! Do the calc. 28.35gms/oz. Amazing amounts in Coke and other carbonated drinks too!
It seems to me lactase persistence grants two advantages. First, it allows conversion of inedible grass to edible milk. Second, with a little technology, it allows long term storage of food in cheese.
Several people have suggested Civilization (the computer game) implement some of the ideas in Guns, Germs, and Steel. “Your population has gained the lactase persistence mutation!”
(Here’s hoping this ends up in the lactose thread, where I mean it to.)
Indeed, it does seem that “just because a population as a whole” tends to have a genetic trait, that doesn’t mean a specific individual will. My spouse and I go through close to two gallons of milk a week just between the two of us, but my cousin — similar to Paul — at some point in her late 40’s suddenly couldn’t drink the stuff any more. We’re both about as British Isles/Western European as you get. I do wonder if “laying off” dairy as an adult may lead to one’s gut losing some of its ability to tolerate and digest it, but I’m neither a geneticist or nutritionist to know if the body can behave that way.
Re. the Inuit and a general inability to tolerate sucrose as adults: first I’ve heard of it too but definitely worth finding out more about!
@Raesean: My sister can, I can’t. Recessive genes persist in a population, i.e. the gene frequency doesn’t change (which most people find unexpected), unless it has a definite effect on fitness. Lactase arguably did before food storage and transportation eliminated starvation, for the most part.
If you’ll allow that making a “spring house”, as was common in north-temperate latitudes long before modern refrigeration, is a bit of “technology”, then technology can even modify gene frequencies.
The public has a funny appreciation of Darwin’s Laws. Because there are curiously shaped bits of super-cooled silica in my environment, I was not at a disadvantage in noticing a baby Western Diamondback Rattlesnake coiled up in the dust once upon a time. 😉 Darwin’s Laws apply in the environment that exists, not the one imagined.
I’m glad Seishi is feeling better. I envy you the drapes. I need to get some new (vertical) blinds up. The four-footed folk have done a number on my old horizontal blinds. (Sigh.)
Smokey (virtual cousin to Shu) got ahold of some-such-thing this morning and had a brief bout with teh upset stomach / spitting up, more than his occasional nonsense. He recovered fine, though, and is his happy, mischief-making self again. Since he started life as a street kitteh, he’ll always have his basic tenet, “There’s moar ~food~ out? Teh awesome. Nom-nom-nom.” Little fuzzball has been known to eat himslef silly and, hey, tummy not feelin’ so… :: hork :: (human sighs at goofy cat who does not learn). Meanwhile, Goober is the opposite, he only eats when hungry and gets finicky at times, natural appetite control. It’s a balancing act with these two. … Thankfully, Smokey’s small, stout size (again from starting as a street kitteh, he’s small and stocky, a little guy, stunted slightly) and he has evidently learned enough appetite control that he’s not too tubby…but does resemble a roly-poly more than I’d wish for him. He (so far) works it off, but he’s not yet 5.
What we did on the drapes is, on one level, simple: we got a double rod, ie, an inner rod that carries most of the curtainage—or sheers—and an outer rod that independently has the inner, usually heavy, drapes. Our design uses the outer rod as the support for two panels that extend over the wall adjacent and serve as a ‘garage’ for the sheers when drawn back to their limit. The panels are ornate cloth, and very severe, no folds—as if they were actually an architectural element. Jane went further, and made an equally-severe valance strip that runs between the two long panels. I’m sure she will post pix on her page when she gets a spare moment.
Severe sounds wonderful. I’m very fond of the tailored look although you wouldn’t think it to see the house. DH has hoarding tendencies.
Does he have Aspergers? I do, and I do too. Did you ever watch “New Tricks” on PBS when the “Brian Lane” character was on? Perhaps a bit exaggerated for some Aspies, but the operative word in ASD is “Spectrum”!
I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it; it’s just the way he is. He was born at the end of the Great Depression and frugality and saving things for a rainy day was a way of life in his home when he was growing up. I also think he has gotten much worse with age. I’m going to have a garage sale to end all garage sales one day.
I watch “New Tricks” not on a main local PBS station but on one run by a smaller local college. I miss Brian but the new guy has potential, particularly with his daughter Holly. She, of course, reminds me very much of Marlee Matlin.
My father was born in ’14, Mom in ’15, so they were late ‘teens in the early ’30’s when the Depression was at it’s worst. Mom was frugal, but not a hoarder. Dad was a bit self-indulgent, when he had the chance. I don’t think the Depression was a primary influence.
Hoarding is something different. But as an Aspie, I’m something like Brian–it’s hard to throw something away if I think it has some value TBD. In general I think ASD’s feel better with the “familiar” about them. I didn’t know I was an Aspie until I was over 60! Dad never did.
The thing is, if he’s just a OCD hoarder then one path would be best. If he’s an Aspie then another. It’s best to know what’s at issue. Stuff like this is not necessarily reliable, but you could try this online Asperger’s Quotient test. As a point of reference, I scored 37, my sister scored 6! Have we had our “misunderstandings”? 😉
@Paul: He’s really not interested in taking tests like this. At his age (84) I’m not going to worry about it.