It’s definitely become more of a thing in the past 10-15 years. When I was a kid, outside of ice cream there was just Del’s. The hot wiener trucks did not come our way I guess… or they didn’t want to compete with the brick and mortar ny systems.

I’m thrilled with the food culture we have now though. We punch way above our weight when it comes to food.

It tends to be geographic, so if you live in a region that’s able to deal with lactose, you’d have the impression lactose intolerance isn’t super common. But entire regions are lactose intolerant, like Southeast Asia (including China) and about half of India.

Basically anytime you see dairy as rare or non-existent in a region’s traditional cuisine, that’s why.

Yes. 60-70% are the estimate ranges I’ve seen.

Well, there are over 5 billion lactose intolerant people out there. Coffee creamers do typically include a very small amount of milk derivative, but it’s not enough to make a difference if you don’t have a dairy allergy.