Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture? - PaleoHacks.com

Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2011-04-12T20:02:56Z

"No species on Earth drinks the milk from another species, except humans (of some agrarian cultures). How did humans survive, even stronger and healthier, before the agrarian revolution?"

I just read this. And asked myself, is this true? I know ants drink the milky substance from lice. Cats drink milk. Also there are stories about animals raised by mothers from a different species.

Do you have some data on animal drinking milk from another species? I want to get clear on this vegan/ vegetarian argument.

There are still new species discovered every year...so what do we know? here is a sneaky answer to this topic. Some animals like seagulls are watched stealing elephants' milk... http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/latest-questions/question/2863/

The second topic. How Humans surived stronger before the agrarian revolution? There were several agrarian revolutions?

One was called the green revolution in the 1960s' where the chemical fertilizers were used massively. Probably she means the agrarian revolution in the paleolithic time. Were the people healthier? A lot of healthy and fit people from India and China who are doing agriculture are very fit and healthy.

Probably she means the big scale agriculture. Such people often support Permaculture and Forest Gerdening. And don't like Big scale Agriculture, even organic. A mixture of hunter gather culture and permaculture is a good utopia for them.

Answer by Jack Kronk for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2011-04-12T20:15:21Z

If another species had the intelligence to obtain the milk from another animal, they might do it too. The fact is that humans are able to milk other animals and many humans are well nourished by cows' and goats' milk and their by products like cream, butter, ghee etc...

Also, as your question indicates, some animals do drink the milk of other animals in certain scenarios when the mother isn't around or if the mother was killed or whatever while the animal was still very young.

Maybe in 200 years there will be a certain food that many humans are nourished by that virtually nobody eats today in 2011. That doesn't necessarily make that future food a bad choice nutritionally. Vegans' 'argument' there is completely absurd. I won't even get into it.

Answer by gn for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2011-04-12T21:38:18Z

the question for me: is there that much difference between eating an animal itself and consuming its 'body fluids'...?

Answer by WaveHunter for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2011-07-25T21:17:21Z

It's bull**, like you said ants milk aphids for honeydew and some ants ferment leafs and eat that.

Nutrients from nature are natural.

Answer by BAMBAM for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2011-07-25T21:36:37Z

Mammalian milk contains similar molecules between species with the primary molecule being lactose. The content of milk between species does have enough variance to make me avoid milk. Namely, casein. It is found in small amounts in human breast milk, consumed by human infants for perhaps 2 years max. After 5 years, our levels of the enzyme lactase begin to fall while the mother cannot produce sufficient milk after 5 years.

To me it seems plausible we are biologically wired to be exposed to only small amount of casein for a short amount of time and our biochemistry evolved in concert with this small, brief exposure to casein.

Here's where I worry.

Cow's milk contains much higher casein because they are a much larger mammal than humans.

Excessive casein in the body can lead to accumulation of metabolic wastes in the form of caseomorphins. These molecules have been observed and measured. Although we cannot determine conclusively what kind of genes they trigger on or off, I'm weary that they might turn on the wrong genes and turn off the right ones.

You can take your chance but I just think it's odd for a 36 year old man to be nursing on a teet. Nursing on the teet of another species at 36 (my age), makes it a far more daunting leap of faith for me.

Answer by thhq for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2011-07-25T23:25:11Z

While ever popular with cats and dogs, sometimes it's easy to forget how much pigs love their milk and whey. I had no trouble finding an image of a monkey chugging a pint on Google. For scavengers like raccoons, bears, skunks and opossums whatever they find in the can is edible. Any animal would drink cow's milk. All they lack is opportunity and the skill to milk a cow.

Part 2. I have a problem with that statement too. If it is true I'd speculate that it was because they were nomadic scroungers, always on the move looking for anything that was edible.

Answer by mallory for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2011-07-26T01:25:11Z

why can we drink the milk of other animals which makes as much sense as eating the animal...shouldnt there be as many meat intolerant as dairy intolerant then?

Answer by Kerbox for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2012-09-14T02:55:33Z

Part of the conversation missing here is actually how bad pasteurized milk is, especially for young children and the ridiculous scale on which humans use this form of milk; can even be argued this might be a form of control since it is a very expensive process which leaves farmers at the hands of big produces. Governments make sure, regardless of the lengths farmers or a co-op can go to to make sure of the safety of their raw milk, it is totally illegal to sell raw milk for consumption. Even though I agree that milk is no really designed/ideal for adult humans it is just a pity we have been sold this garbage that raw milk is unsafe and given this diabolically poor product called pasteurized milk.

Answer by fromthericefields for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2012-09-14T15:27:33Z

I will start eating dairy only when I find some unadulterated raw dairy products then I may experiment.

Answer by CD for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2012-09-14T15:38:58Z

No other species on earth drives cars, or can send racy text messages.... Just because others don't is not a reason for why we should not.

Answer by Jamie for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2012-10-22T12:00:53Z

Id say yes, definately other animals drink the milk of other species. And of course, they dont need to actually milk it.

All mammals produce milk, including grazing herbivores.

Grazing herbivores are food for hunting carnivores.

I cant see a carnivore turning its nose up at an energy and nutrient source that is an easy to ingest part of a kill, unless it was overtly poisonous. That may be what domestic cats like the stuff so much.

Also carnivorse frequently also eat the stomach, which contains whatever the animal has been eating, which also, like mothering animals, could contain milk (as would the baby animals body/metabolism).

Another mammal, frequently, and in larger quantities? Not that I can think of. But I am not sure why that is relevant to whether its optimal. Dont follow the logic of that argument.

What is that logic by the way?

1) Animals dont do it 2) Humans do

Its unhealthy.

We could reverse that logic, and conclude that eating horse manure is optimal, smelling each others rectums, or eating anything thats in front of you without consideration for its toxicity, or if u r currently sick. Or throwing up into your childrens mouths. Or eating grains, by chewing on stones. Or biting the heads off our mates.

Answer by Sam for Do other species drink foreign milk? Were we stronger and healthier pre-agriculture?

2013-03-14T12:35:28Z

I don't think the fact other animals do it or not the point vegans are making, it's the fact the cow doesn't naturally produce milk throughout its whole life span. If I was to lockup a female make her pregnant then just take her baby off her so I could drink her milk then repeat the process over and over again until she does I'd be labelled a monster but its fine to do it to a cow. Who makes the norm and just because it is the norm does that make it right. I'm not saying I want to lock up some chick or anything but who are you to say that one creature is worth more then another.