File talk:Laktoseintoleranz-1.svg

The Southern Cone

Very interesting map. Is there an explanation for why lactose intolerance is so prevalent around the regions of the South Cone of South America? Argentina, Uruguay, southern Brazil, and to a lesser extent, Chile, have populations that are very European in heritage, having been heavily settled by European immigrants over the past few centuries (in contrast to other parts of Latin America, where indigenous and African heritage have much stronger influence). I'm assuming this map isn't only taking into account the indigenous populations, otherwise the United States and Canada would be colored much darker, too.

That's exactly what I logged on to the talk page to say, except I think there are some serious problems with this map and it shouldn't be used. I don't see any mention of the data source used to construct the map, but it assuming it's even remotely accurate, the high lactose intolerance in the Cono Sur must be measuring indigenous people, and the low lactose intolerance in the US probably is measuring the current (predominantly European ancestry) population. Most of the colors follow international boundaries, but Brazil, Bolivia and the Mediterranean countries are split between two colors. I'm skeptical that sub-national data on lactose intolerance exists. If there really are published differences in lactose intolerance within a nation, I would surely expect this data to exist for the US before Brazil and Bolivia (presumably states with higher African-American populations would have higher lactose intolerance). I'm also generally skeptical of the level of lactose intolerance shown for the US. While British and German ancestries are the most common single ancestries for Americans, there are many southern Europeans, Africans, and Asians, and I would expect overall US lactose intolerance to be higher than the Northern Europe. Canada has more lactose intolerance than the US? How is that possible? Canada has slightly more Asians and Native Americans, but overall, is far more Northern European than the US.Plantdrew (talk) 17:04, 14 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, the answer is obvious: The idiot that made the map has no idea about anything from South America. --Sekelsenmat (talk) 12:55, 8 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm chilean and I only know like 2 or 3 persons with lactose intolerance --200.86.55.186 (talk) 07:38, 25 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]