Our latest chart obsession is this map of lactose intolerance frequencies:

Source: Wikipedia.org, “Lactose Intolerance.” Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance Accessed 10/17/2010.

There is a long history of institutionalized racism in the dairy industry in the United States. Dr. Milton Mills of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) notes that while the United States government tells U.S. citizens that we should eat two to three servings of dairy products each day, it is an entirely inappropriate recommendation for most members of diverse communities in the country. As the above chart clearly presents, about 75 percent of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. PCRM notes that 60 to 80 percent of African Americans, 50 to 80 percent of Latinos, and at least 90 percent of Asian Americans and Americans Indians are lactose intolerant.

Thanks, I Love Charts, for sharing this chart with us. Special thanks to my former classmate Jared Goodman for his keen research skills, too.

2 Comments

1. 
   Comment by

   sriram

   on October 22, 2010 at 2:04 am #

   hope the desi retards see this!

2. 
   Comment by

   dcwonk

   on October 25, 2012 at 10:25 am #

   “retards”? really?