I. Lactose Intolerance
Unless you carry a mutation giving you a lifelong ability to produce an enzyme, lactase; its production, along with your ability to digest and metabolise lactose (milk sugar), ceases after the earliest childhood.
Lactose tolerance (the opposite to intolerance) is most common in Scandinavia, around the Baltic Sea, and among Berbers in North Africa. (About a possible connection, see Part II) Further, it is rather common in north-western Europe, including the British Isles and Ireland.
Hard cheese contains no lactose, but whey does.
Lactose intolerance may not be confused with allergy. As a matter of fact, it is no disease, but probably the normal. Tolerance is the peculiar deviation.
When the intolerant individual ingests lactose, it remains undigested. When it reaches the colon, it undergoes bacterial fermentation. That cultivates bad microorganisms and their metabolism produces hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. In short, you get flatulence.
It is possible to test one's tolerance by utilising these gases. If a person after a night's fasting (no smoking either, it disturbs the test) takes 50g lactose dissolved in water, this will quickly reach the colon of the intolerant person, where the bacteria will metabolise it. The resulting hydrogen and methane can be detected in the breath by chromatography. This is called the Hydrogen Breath Test. It is also possible to test how the blood sugar level is affected by intake of lactose, and thus determine if the patient is intolerant.
If you have to avoid food containing lactose, note that some processed food might contain it; sausages, chocolate, bread,... You have to read the declaration of contents carefully. If it states lactose, milk, curds, dry milk solids, dry milk powder, or whey - do not eat! Medicines, too, might contain lactose, since it is sometimes used there as a preservative.
II. Vandals & Germanic Migration
The Vandals were a Germanic people, who supposedly resided in Silesia around 100 AD. In 406 they crossed the Rhine, went through Gaul; and reaching the Iberian peninsula they got territory by the Romans. In 429 they continued to Africa, and in 440 their king, Geyseric, forced Rome to hand over to him a large part of Roman Africa. There he founded a state, controlling most of the north-western African coastline, as well as Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic islands.
In 533, a Byzantine army under Belisarius defeated the Vandals, and their kingdom was incorporated into the Byzantine empire. The Vandal history was at an end.
In 455, the Vandals arrived to Italy with an army, took and plundered Rome. There, it is said, they brought a destruction that was extraordinary - even for their time. This bad reputation is the origin of the modern meaning of the word "vandal", or "vandalism", but there is no evidence that they deserve it. Probably they were neither better nor worse than others.
Abbé Gregoire is often mentioned as the official "inventor" of the word. He used it, "vandalisme", in his description of the French Revolution in 1794. Yet there are sources claiming that it was used earlier than that, even as far back as in the 17th century. I have not been able to verify that.
The Spanish province Andalusia (Andalucia) got its name by the Vandals, who resided there for a time before continuing to Africa. It was called Vandalusia, or Vandalita; the former later becoming Andalusia.
Lactose, milk sugar, cannot be digested without an enzyme called lactase. Mammals normally lose their ability to produce lactase after early childhood - when they are not meant to get mother's milk anymore. This goes for the human species too, yet some humans carry a mutation preserving this ability for life. It has been claimed that the mutation being responsible for this occurred in two areas: Scandinavia and Sahara.
There are other theories, however, which claim that it happened in Scandinavia, and then spread by migration – even to Sahara. One such theory links the Vandals to the spreading of lactose tolerance to Africa. But now we are treading a ground of pure speculation.
The word, Vandal, is sometimes said to stem from German Wandeln, to wander. It is not impossible, however, that it is derived from "Vendel", an area in Sweden. Even though the Vandals resided in Silesia around 100 AD, there is no reason to believe they started their wandering from there.
In Africa, the Vandal kingdom was defeated by the Byzantine empire, and ceased to exist. The Vandals' genes, however, certainly did not.
If this theory is right, lactose tolerance would prove someone's Scandinavian ancestry, however distant in time.
The ability to digest lactose has not necessarily been a precondition for the use of milk and dairy products, which has a history that possibly goes back to prehistoric times. The mutation leading to adult digestion of lactose has probably happened where milk was already an established part of the diet, otherwise the ability would not have been an evolutionary advantage - and the mutation would not have been able to spread and establish itself in a population.
It should be noted, however, that it is not known for certain when lactose tolerance developed. Northern Europe (Scandinavia) 6000-7000 years ago is a guess. That it was spread with the Vandals is a theory, nothing more, and it is quite possible that the mutation was spread much earlier than that.
In Mesopotamia and Egypt, dairy products were in use 5000 years ago, and in the Vedic culture of India ca 4000 years ago. (India today has a comparatively high rate of lactose tolerance.) In the Old Testament there are several references to milk as well. It is unknown to what extent lactose tolerance was already spread at those times.
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