Hi Dean, Rereading my post, I guess it had a overly sarcastic tone.
Just a friendly debate meant.

>
> >> They just drink it and go about their day
>
> Yep.. same as grain eaters eat grains/bread/pasta/rice etc. and go about
> their day, complaining about heart burn, headaches, joint pain, and
> spending a portion of their salary on health products. Everyone is free
> to eat/drink what they like.

No argument from me here.

But lactose intolerance is something different, a severe reaction in
the gut to lactose. That is pretty rare, even among Asians.
>
> >>Northern Asians like the Mongols have a heavily milk dependant diet as
> well.
>
> The Mongol diet of raw milk and/or raw yak milk/butter is not even in
> the same league as drinking domesticated, homogenised, pasteurized cow's
> milk that gets delivered to your door by a guy at 6am. It's not even
> close.

Sure, sure. But still not lactose intolerance. Sheep, goat, horse milk
more than yak. Actually, most of the mainland Asian peoples seem to
have milk in the diet. Chinese, Indian, Mongol, Thai. It is the island
peoples who never domesticated milk animals.
>
> >>Japanese now use a lot of milk because the native diet is so deficient
> in calcium and various other elements. Broken backed older people are
> a very common sight. Their Doctors tell them to drink milk.
> >>
>
> Before their doctors told them to drink cow's milk, how did they get
> their calcium for the last 20,000 years?

20000 years ago they ate meat and fish etc., say the archeologists.
Since 3000 years ago, basically they didn't get enough calcium etc.,
not enough to grow normal bones, at least since the agricultural
revolution. That is why the stereotypical Japanese was short,
bow-legged and near-sighted. The current generation of high school
kids is nearly as tall as I am, 6', and tend to be straight and
muscular, while their fathers and grandfathers barely reach my chest.
It is not just milk, of course, but the full range of vitamins and
minerals and energy offered by the modern diet.

We like to denigrate the SAD diet that is being exported via McDonalds
throughout the world, but there are lots worse traditional diets out
there. Pre-war Japanese had the shortest life spans among the
industrialized countries.

The new "western diet" has some advantages, but there are of course
the disadvantages you mentioned. Lots of young Japanese are suffering
from new diseases, severe skin problems, over-weight, allergies of all
sorts. These may be from milk, or bread, or trans fats, whatever.
Exchanging one set of disadvantages for another. I have seen mothers
dropping their kids off at school with a bun from the convenience
store half eaten in their hands. That's breakfast. Sad.

> Yes, of course health authorities will stick with the "drink milk for
> strong bones" myth- it keeps hospitals full, doctors in business, and
> the dairy industry with healthy profits.

Yep.