The natural selection that drove LP to high frequency in northern European populations must have been extremely strong — among the strongest selection pressures detected in the recent human genome.

The generation-to-generation advantage of being able to digest milk in a culture that depended heavily on dairy must have been substantial, whether through direct caloric advantage, through reduced disease risk, or through some other mechanism.

For Cheddar Man, living before dairy animals existed, the absence of LP was not a disability.

His world did not include cow’s milk.

The trait only becomes a disadvantage — a condition we would today call lactose intolerance — in the context of a dairy-dependent culture that arrived thousands of years after his death.

The trajectory of LP evolution is a microcosm of the broader story: what counts as an advantage or disadvantage in genetics depends entirely on context, and the context changes.