My mom is allergic to almost everything good in this world, in terms of food. Chocolate, red wine, gluten, dairy... The list goes on. Because of this, I'd always hoped I'd end up with my dad's genes and avoid the whole allergy thing altogether. But, unfortunately, my hopes came back to bite me about a year ago. A mild case of lactose intolerance seemed to develop overnight, and before I knew it, I'd cut out dairy entirely and carried a sleeve of Lactaid with me wherever I went.

I'd been told before that my mom had developed the dairy allergy around my age, and the more I talked to people about it, the more people admitted that they too had a sensitivity. So, naturally, I took to the internet for answers.

As it turns out, I really wasn't alone, not by a long shot. 75% of adults are lactose intolerant, to some degree. Why? Because it's the human body's natural reaction. Most adults do not produce enough lactase to break down the sugar found in milk, lactose. Babies have an increased amount of lactase present in the walls of their intestines in order to digest milk or formula. However, there is a scheduled decline in lactase production after breastfeeding, not only in humans, but in most mammals.

We are the only species on the planet that consumes another species' milk. Which, if you think about for too long, starts to look kinda gross. This decline in lactase production, resulting in a lactose intolerance, makes perfect sense for most animals because after infancy, they don't consume any other form of animal milk. But for humans, we treat this process as a developing allergy.

There are entire cultures where milk does not occur as a part of their cuisine, and in some parts of the world, over 90% of the population is lactose intolerant. Because this process is so common, we really should start treating the problem by its root cause, not mislabeling it as an allergic reaction. Only a small percent of the population has the genetic mutation LTC, which allows them to continue producing lactase well into adulthood, while for the rest of us, becoming intolerant is a perfectly regular and natural thing.

But even if you aren't intolerant, consuming large quantities of dairy milk can be bad for your health. Milk has been linked to the development of specific cancers and other life threatening conditions, as well as more management symptoms such as acne and ear infections. So, the question remains: if all this is happening, why do we still produce so much milk?

Answer: Because cheese is delicious.