Failure to recognize lactose persistence drove harmful universal milk-promotion policy for decades

Evidence

The ill effects of promoting milk drinking among peoples without lactase persistence didn’t begin to dawn on American researchers until 1965. Prior to this, Americans assumed that if drinking cow’s milk was good for “our” (European-descent) children it must be good for everyone’s children. In 1946, the National School Lunch program required that fluid milk be part of any student lunch funded by the program. Despite the growing scientific literature, government efforts continued to promote milk drinking for everyone into the 1990s. As late as 1998, the then Secretary of Health and Human Services even appeared in the well-known Got Milk? commercials. Over the years, many of the famous sports and music stars who appeared in these commercials donning milk moustaches were not, in all likelihood, actually able to digest the very beverage they were promoting. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 301

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Culture-fueled lactose persistence spread to a third of humanity in ten millennia — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 299; US policy promoted milk to people who could not digest it from 1946 onward — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 300; Denying recognition to traditional food systems produces food insecurity — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 302

Broader Connections

• US policy promoted milk to people who could not digest it from 1946 onward #exemplifies (0.97) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 300
• Culture-fueled lactose persistence spread to a third of humanity in ten millennia #expands (0.88) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 299
• Denying recognition to traditional food systems produces food insecurity #expands (0.80) — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 302