Should human adults be drinking milk?

Lactose intolerance is often given as a reason why human adults in general shouldn't drink milk. This sounds plausible, but we went in search of some other views - and, ideally, some facts.

The most usual starting point for an argument against drinking milk is "adult animals are intolerant to lactose, so surely humans are too?". However...

Northern Europeans have evolved lactose tolerance - which means most of us who are ancestrally native to the UK or elsewhere in northern Europe should be able to digest milk and dairy products.

Dairy products contain:

• protein
• fats
• sugar (lactose!)
• calcium
• vitamin D

So, unless you have lactose intolerance or a milk allergy, go ahead and drink milk and consume dairy products. Except of course if you have a non-medical reason for not doing so.

For information on lactose intolerance, see the NHS Choices website.