Dairy products are one noteworthy aspect of the Western diet worth particular attention as they are relatively absent from the Chinese diet. Indeed the Chinese commonly associate Westerners with the smell of sour milk which they often exude from their bodies.
Cow's milk is meant for calves, and babies are meant to drink mother's milk until weaned from it. Nature has designed both types of milk and digestive systems accordingly. In China children are generally breast fed until at least two years of age. Although organic, unpasteurised, whole milk is occasionally used to treat conditions such as constipation, its regular consumption is very rare in China.
Moreover, butterfat, the fat in whole milk that becomes highly concentrated in cream, ice cream, cheese, and, of course, butter is the most saturated of the animal fats, delivering a massive 54% of saturated fatty acids. Butterfat in the western diet, particularly in the form of cheese, is possibly the greatest single contributor to the overload of saturated fat responsible for the high rates of cardiovascular disease in our societies.
Cow's milk has four times the protein and only half the carbohydrate content of human milk; pasteurisation destroys the natural enzyme in cow's milk required to digest its heavy protein content. This excess milk protein therefore putrefies in the human digestive tract, clogging the intestines with sticky sludge, some of which seeps into the bloodstream. As this putrid sludge accumulates from daily consumption of dairy products, the body forces some of it out through the skin (acne, blemishes) and lungs (catarrh), while the rest of it festers inside, forms mucus and breeds infections, causes allergic reactions, and stiffens joints with calcium deposits. Many cases of chronic asthma, allergies, ear infections, and acne have been totally cured simply by eliminating all dairy products from the diet.
From a Traditional Chinese Medical perspective, dairy products are considered the most "Damp" forming foods. Combining "Damp" foods, especially in the context of a "Damp" climate such as the UK and Ireland, tends to give rise to "Damp" illnesses.
Examples of Damp illnesses include; bronchitis, asthma, coronary heart disease, chronic fatigue, Multiple Sclerosis and cancer.
"But what about calcium and osteoporosis?" True cow's milk contains 118 mg of calcium in every 100 grams. But it also contains 97 mg phosphorus in every 100 grams. Phosphorus combines with calcium in the digestive tract and actually blocks its assimilation. Statistically the countries with the highest milk consumption (the USA and Scandinavia) have the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world. China's osteoporosis rate is approximately one fifth of the rate in the UK and US. Harvard University's landmark Nurses Health Study, which followed 78,000 women over a 12-year period, found that the women who consumed the most calcium from dairy foods broke more bones than those who rarely drank milk. Summarizing this study, the Lunar Osteoporosis Update (November 1997) explained: "This increased risk of hip fracture was associated with dairy calcium If this were any agent other than milk, which has been so aggressively marketed by dairy interests, it undoubtedly would be considered a major risk factor." Cow's milk is not nearly as good a source of calcium as other far more digestible and wholesome foods.
