Lactose intolerance is actually the human norm – but racism, the US government and business interests have made it into a condition

A historian argues that lactose intolerance, experienced by roughly two-thirds of the world's population, was recast as a defect after American dairy producers pushed a postwar milk surplus into school lunches at home and abroad.

A 1966 study of incarcerated Black men in Baltimore compared their lactase levels to white participants and researchers concluded the Black subjects had an 'inborn error,' rather than questioning why milk-drinking was assumed normal in the first place.

The framing persisted long after a 1981 NIH official conceded lactose intolerance is the typical physiological state for most adult humans, and the piece links that legacy to modern uses of the science by white supremacist communities.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.