>However, certain other food intolerances are enzyme based.  People commonly
refer to these as "food allergies". Some of these intolerances (eg lactose
intolerance) can be inherited.

Just want to clarify that it is the *normal* human genetic condition to be
"lactose intolerant" -- to not produce the enzyme lactase after
mid-childhood and to not be able to digest lactose as an adult.  Most of the
people in the world are genetically "lactose intolerant" and do not drink
any animal milk after they have weaned from mother's breast (unless it has
had the lactose already digested by bacteria -- such as certain forms of
cheese and fermented milks -- or by commercial enzymes).  It is Europeans
and their descendants, and a few other herding populations such as the
Fulani of West Africa and the Maasai of Kenya who are able to digest lactose
after childhood.  Lactose tolerant people constitute a small minority of the
world's people.

Kathy Dettwyler

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