Cheese has changed the development of Western civilization

Cheese delivery. (Reuters / Denis Balibouse)

Cheese - a unique product, a kind of chameleon in the world of food. No other food product is made in such a wide range of flavors and textures. But in addition to gastronomic value, he played an important role in the development of our entire civilization. In the latest issue of the Gastropod podcast, Paul Kindstedt, a professor at the University of Vermont and author of Cheese and Culture , talks about this .

According to a widespread myth, humanity received cheese around 7000 BC. as a result of a happy accident: one of the nomads from Mesopotamia allegedly took milk on the road, using the animal’s stomach as a thermos. However, upon arrival, he found that the remaining enzyme in the "thermos" made milk curl and formed the first cheese.

Professor Kindstedt explains that in reality such a story was unlikely to take place, because the inhabitants of the Ancient Near East had a total lactose intolerance. A hypothetical traveler simply would not want to take milk with him as a drink.

Thousands of years before that, people had mastered agriculture. Vast fields with wheat and other crops attracted wild sheep and goats. People quickly noticed that babies can drink sheep and goat milk instead of mothers. But in those days, infants were the only ones who consumed milk, because adults had lactose intolerance. Modern archaeological and genetic studies show that total lactose intolerance persisted up to 5500 g BC, that is, at least 1000 years after the invention of cheese.

According to Kinstedt, the mystery is due to the fact that around 6500 BC clay vessels for collecting milk were invented. In such vessels, milk clotted over several hours due to the heat typical of the Middle East and natural lactic acid bacteria. At some point, some locals probably tasted the resulting solid material and noticed that the body was able to absorb this fresh cheese much better than milk. The fact is that about 80% of lactose flowed off with whey, so this cheese was more suitable for human consumption with lactose intolerance.

This discovery played a crucial role in the development of human civilization. It turned out that in lean years, cheese can literally save people from hunger as an exclusively nutritious product rich in fats and calories. It was a completely new source of nutrients for adults.

The importance of a new discovery for Western civilization is indicated by the fact that within a very short time (by the standards of evolution, several thousand years — almost instantly) there was a massive genetic selection, so that lactose intolerance almost ceased to be found in adults in the Middle East.

Kinstedt believes that genetic selection began at a young age, when children began to feed sheep and goat milk longer. Children with a genetic mutation that made it possible to absorb milk as long as possible throughout life had a better chance of survival.

Then, as a result of population migration, this genetic mutation spread to Europeans (for comparison, lactose intolerance is now much more common in China than in Europe). “This is an absolutely stunning example of genetic selection that occurred in an incredibly short period of time in the history of mankind. This is truly a miracle, and it has changed Western civilization forever, ”says Paul Kindstedt.



According to Kinstedt, of modern cheeses, ricotta and goat cheese (chèvre) are the closest to the first ancient cheese, which curl up under the influence of temperature and lactic acid bacteria, without using an enzyme.