THE first adult milk drinkers came from central Europe, not Scandinavia as was thought.
Unlike more than half of the world鈥檚 people, most northern Europeans can digest milk, thanks to a gene that enables lactose digestion throughout adulthood.
It was thought the gene first arose in Scandinavia, where lactose tolerance is most prevalent, because it is a way of getting vitamin D in places with little sunshine, says of University College London. His team have now narrowed down the emergence of the gene to a tribe of cattle herders living around 7500 years ago between the Balkans and central Europe (PLoS Computational Biology, ).
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