milk

One of the statements I make during lectures that always causes a virulent reaction from the audience refers to milk.  Specifically, I unabashedly declare that feeding milk to children beyond two years of age, from a Chinese medicine point of view, is ludicrous, unnecessary, and downright harmful.  I often say that if God had intended for children to drink milk all their formative years, then their mothers should naturally produce milk for more than two years.

“Where will they get their calcium?” I am asked.  I answer: fruits and vegetables.  Traditional Chinese Medicine holds that cow’s milk is too rich for the delicate digestive system of children.  Heck, because of lactose intolerance, it is too rich for asian adults as well!

But now we have an article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer that supports my TCM based belief:

Lactose intolerance proof cow’s milk not for humans (http://business.inquirer.net/money/features/view/20100305-256871/Lactose-intolerance-proof-cows-milk-not-for-humans)

…Physiologically, after infancy, many individuals lose their ability to digest simple sugar, or lactose, that cow’s milk is rich in…The result is that undigested lactose travels to the large intestine where bacteria break this sugar down, producing anything from gas, to cramps, to diarrhea. Lactose intolerance appears to be the main factor in as many as a third of cases of recurrent abdominal pain in children…

The article goes on to say that the undigested proteins can ultimately lead to autoimmune reactions resulting in diabetes, and that only 25% of calcium in milk is absorbed.  Hence, again, the Chinese were right.  Cow’s milk screws up the kids’ digestive systems, and you’re better off getting calcium from vegetables.  A bit of noteworthy correction, though: the article seems written in a way that implies that lactose is the only simple sugar.  It is A simple sugar but not the only simple sugar.  Fructose and glucose are simple sugars also.

So what is the ideal breastmilk substitute for infants, if not cow’s milk?  In Traditional Chinese Medicine it is pressure cooked rice porridge – cooked long enough to crush the rice and making it look like milky water.  This is different from just the water used to boil rice or “am” here in the Philippines.

If the mum is having a hard time lactating, there are TCM herbal and acupuncture solutions for her.

But NOT cow’s milk.

EDIT: added one sentence re: lactose as a simple sugar.  7:50 AM March 7, 2010.