On Thu, 11 Apr 2024 17:49:24 -0400, I wrote:

>This got me thinking: A lot of what is considered 'special' in food is
>regional or ethnic (i.e., not from your personal cultural background), and
>as often as not, has a mostly-hidden/forgotten origin as 'poor people food'
>where it originated. Some people, however, might be closer to that hidden
>history than others, and will refuse to eat some things because of it.

There are other reasons that some foods might be avoided: digestive
incompatibility. As an example, two of the three 'gross' 'racial' groupings
of Terrans have a tendency toward lactose intolerance as they age to
maturity; as a result, they tend to avoid drinking milk as adults, and the
use of dairy-based ingredients in cuisine, such as cheese, is unusual.

It turns out that areas where cattle, goats, or sheep could be raised
easily without succumbing to disease were conducive to adult humans
retaining the ability to produce lactase, the enzyme that allows the
digestion of lactose. There's an interesting article, written for the
layman, that discusses this
(https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2005/06/lactose-intolerance-linked-ancestral-struggles-climate-diseases).

In the Traveller context, the Ancients may very well have - either
deliberately or accidentally - selected for/against this trait. If a herd
animal suitable for production of both milk and meat was _not_ part of the
human-compatible food supply, it stands to reason that lactose intolerance
would develop among those branches of humaniti - thus, one might expect
that Vilani, Zhodani, Geonee, Daryen, etc., would tend toward lactose
intolerance, while Sword Worlders and many Solomani would enjoy dairy right
into adulthood. The AstroBurger at Paulo Down on Terra would probably do a
much better business in cheeseburgers than the one at Vland Skyside.

Thoughts?

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