70-80% of Black people lactose intolerant
Around 70-80% of Black people have lactose non-persistence, meaning their bodies produce lower levels of the enzyme needed to digest lactose.
Snapshot · 2 Bears, 1 Cave with Tom Segura & Bert Kreischer
Tom Poops The Bucket, Bert Shit The Bed | 2 Bears, 1 Cave
Explore episode
Jun 29, 2026
Where this was said
Breeding
At 1:04:44 · chapter starts 1:00:33
Bert offers his prediction for Tom's gut lab results: a dietary pivot, specifically toward Peruvian ancestral foods like potatoes, quinoa, choclo, and lean meats. His theory is that while American food culture has become a global melting pot, human digestive systems are still genetically calibrated to whatever their ancestors ate for generations. [1] — Bert Kreischer "Bert and Tom develop a theory that gut problems stem from eating outside your genetic ancestry. Tom suggests Bert, being half-Peruvian, sho…" 1:01:30 Tom looks up a traditional Germanic diet — pork, dark bread, potatoes, cabbage — and Bert looks up Peruvian — rice, legumes, quinoa, fresh fish, potato. Both hosts find their respective diets genuinely appealing. They discuss the data point that 70-80% of Black people have lactose non-persistence as a supporting example of genetic dietary specificity. Bert jokes about typing 'what do Black people like eating' into a search engine and thinks better of it. Tom wraps up promising to report back with lab results, Bert signs off with 'I'm going to go shit in a bucket,' and the episode closes on the Two Bears jingle before a Zocdoc ad.
The Ancestral Diet Theory for Gut Health
Bert and Tom develop a theory that gut problems stem from eating outside your genetic ancestry. Tom suggests Bert, being half-Peruvian, should eat the Peruvian diet — potatoes, quinoa, lean meats, corn — while Tom, German-Irish, should stick to dark bread, pork, and cabbage. They look up both diets and it mostly checks out.
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