How 1960s Dairy Policies Turned Global Lactose Intolerance into a Racial Defect

A historian argues that lactose intolerance, affecting roughly two-thirds of the global population, was recast as a medical defect in the 1960s after the United States off-loaded surplus milk into publicly funded meals at home and in allies such as Japan and Taiwan. Researchers studying Black and white inmates in Baltimore concluded the Black participants’ lower lactase activity was an "inborn error," assuming tolerance as the default.

Decades of broader studies revealed that adult lactose tolerance is actually the rare genetic mutation among people of Northern European descent. The author labels this reinterpretation "nutritional imperialism," noting similar biases that framed other ethnic physiological differences as deficiencies, and points out that white supremacists have weaponized lactose-intolerance maps to reinforce racial hierarchies. The piece urges acceptance of dairy-free diets as normal rather than pathological.