Asian populations tend to be lactose intolerant, making dairy products difficult to digest. But dairy foods are believed to promote faster growth and taller heights in children, which the government deems desirable. Many people can handle dairy foods, especially yogurt and other fermented varieties.
Livestock was too busy for dairy
Which makes sense. But the biggest reason Asian cultures don't regularly incorporate cheese into their cooking is probably because so many East Asians are lactose intolerant. In fact, they're drastically more likely to be lactose intolerant than Westerners.
The American anthropologist Marvin Harris found in a study that the majority of the Chinese suffer lactose intolerance. Thus, the main reason why this dairy product is not consumed in China may be genetic. However, there is also a cultural aspect, namely that the Chinese don't like milk or its derivatives.
Dairy products: Dairy foods, such as milk and cheese, are not commonly consumed in most traditional Asian diets. If used on a daily basis, choose low or nonfat products in moderate amounts. Fish and Shellfish: Fish and shellfish are also considered to be an optional daily food.
There has not been dairy in the mainstream Chinese diet for centuries — no butter, no milk, no cheese, nothing. Ninety percent of the population is said to be lactose intolerant.
Approximately 65 percent of the human population has a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy. Lactase nonpersistence is most prevalent in people of East Asian descent, with 70 to 100 percent of people affected in these communities.
In fact, an estimated 90-100% of adults in East Asia and 80% in Central Asia have an impaired ability to digest lactose.
Daily dairy intake continued to decrease among those 14–18 years (1.75 ± 0.07 servings) and among adults 19+ (1.48 ± 0.03 servings). Among those ages 2 and older, non-Hispanic Black Americans had the lowest average intake (1.18 ± 0.04 servings daily) and non-Hispanic White Americans (1.67 ± 0.03) had the highest.
Generally, dairy consumption is much lower in Asians, especially in Koreans because dairy foods are not a part of the traditional Korean diet and 75 % of Koreans have lactose intolerance ( 5 , Reference Scrimshaw and Murray 11 ). Recommendation for dairy food intake is one serving per day for Korean adults ( 12 ).
The country with the highest per capita consumption of fluid milk in 2022 was Belarus. The average person in Belarus consumed about 114.9 kilograms of milk in that year. Ukraine came in second with approximately 113.27 kilograms of fluid milk per person.
Milk and dairy products have become an indispensable part of the Japanese diet. Milk and dairy products are now a common sight in refrigerators in Japanese homes, but when and how did they start to take root in our daily lives?
It's a hangover from the Korean War (1950-1953), when US army bases would hand out American food such as Spam, hot dogs, chocolate and slices of cheese to locals. Alice's grandmother remembers when they first started eating cheese in Korea.
An intriguing little detail in all this frothy commerce is that many people in China, like much of Asia, are lactose intolerant. Human children produce an enzyme that allows them to digest milk, but in much of the world, its levels taper off as they grow up.
They still eat and drink much less dairy food than Americans and Europeans, because dairy products were not part of the traditional Japanese diet. Japanese children drink milk, and both children and adults like ice cream.
How many cows are in the world? India is home to the highest number of milk cows of any country, at around 59.5 million head as of 2022. That year, the European Union had the second most milk cows worldwide, at over 20 million head.
It's believed that Japanese people have only been consuming milk for about 150 years. It all began after the country opened its ports to the world and came into contact with Western culture. This is why about 90 percent of Japanese people are lactose intolerant now.
Milk, cheese, yogurt and butter can all be eaten. Fruits and vegetables are also considered halal unless they are known to be poisonous. Vegetables may be pickled in brine or vinegar, but it cannot be fermented as ft gives an alcohol content to the food and this is not permitted. Cereals axe also considered halal.
Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese are all virtually dairy free. African, Indian, Greek, and Italian require a bit more care, but these cuisines are also loaded with numerous dairy free options.
South Korea's biggest dairy brand has been forced to apologise over an advert which appeared to depict women as cows. The video by Seoul Milk shows a man secretly filming a group of people in a field, who later turn into cows.
Estimates for lactose intolerance vary by ethnicity. African American and Asian ethnicities see a 75% - 95% lactose intolerance rate, while northern Europeans have a lower rate at 18% - 26% lactose intolerance. For some people, drinking milk with their morning cereal is all the dairy they need for the day.
Over 90 percent of Asian-Americans are lactose intolerant, and it is least common among Americans with a Northern European heritage.
China, despite a growing interest in milk, is again near the very bottom, just above North Korea and Indonesia, where people basically don't drink milk. One last interesting tidbit is how milk consumption varies by age in a way soda and fruit juice consumption does not.
The sale of raw, unpasteurised milk for human consumption is illegal in Australia, as it potentially contains harmful bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria. Typical pasteurisation of milk involves heating to 72°C for 15 seconds.
China is not just a land of milk and honey for dairy producers since there are several factors hindering the development of China's dairy market. First, Asian people are genetically predisposed to lactase-deficiency: around 92% of adults suffer from lactose intolerance in China.
The good news is that because of aldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency, alcoholism and alcohol-related cancers are much less prevalent in East Asian populations. This is because people feel so bad after drinking alcohol, they tend to drink very little, if at all.