Metranet and Library Services are very usefull. I have read a good article from the journal Ecology of Food and Nutrition, which I found at Library Catalogues from LondonMet, it is about Globalisation and Cow's Milk production and consumption: Biocultural perspectives
Author: Wiley, Andrea S.1 Source: Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Volume 46, Numbers 3-4, May 2007 , pp. 281-312(32) Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
**If you want to read any article related with your subject area, link to:
http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/services/sas/library-services/subject-help/subjects/foodsci/journals.cfm
**My notes about this article:
Milk is increasingly becoming a globalized food, consumed by populations that have not traditionally included it in the diet. It is being widely promoted, especially for children, and is included in most food-based dietary guidelines. Justifications for increasing cow’s milk consumption usually focus on its “healthiness” and its ability to enhance the growth of children. It appears that populations are receptive to such messages about milk, and along with perceptions of milk as a “modern” or “western” food, these contribute to increasing milk consumption.
The globalization of milk also must be understood as a function of declining consumption in countries that have traditionally consumed large quantities of milk. This has caused dairy industries to search for new markets abroad, and they are especially interested in marketing in Asian countries where incomes are rising and populations are large or growing. But what is curious about this process is that while milk is broadly considered a “traditional” food in European and European-derived societies, it is seen as “modern,” “scientific,” or “cool” in countries such as China. It is hard to imagine American teenagers or adults drinking milk because it is a “cool” drink, or drinking it on festive occasions.
One of the most important and odd aspects of this process is the fact that many Asian populations, among whom growth in dairy consumption is greatest, also have high rates of lactase resistance. Large numbers of individuals are therefore vulnerable to the symptoms of lactose intolerance when they consume milk. Given this, it seems strange that fluid milk should be widely perceived as a particularly healthy food. It is salient that the greatest success that dairy producers may have in Asian countries will be with yoghurt, or other fermented milk beverages.
Fermentation results in diminished lactose concentrations and thereby circumvents potential problems with lactose intolerance. As Japan’s experience demonstrates, milk consumption may level out at relatively low per capita amounts, but the market for yoghurt-based drinks may have more potential for growth in populations with high rates of lactase resistance.
Yoghurt’s growth potential may also be facilitated by familiarity with other fermented white drinks (i.e., soy milk) among Asian populations. Although milk is similar to other foods such as corn or cassava that can generate health problems (pellagra [niacin deficiency] or cyanide poisoning, respectively) without proper processing techniques (and which had rather checkered histories of acceptance), milk’s rapid ascendancy may be due to a universal familiarity with milk consumption by infants, and milk’s intrinsic health- and growth-promoting characteristics. That populations of economically powerful and culturally dominant countries have long traditions of milk consumption, and these attributes can be correlated with larger body sizes (especially height), further contributes to positive evaluations of milk among populations with no tradition of milk drinking.
How these ideas articulate with experiences of lactose intolerance as more people have more experience with milk will be an important topic for investigation. And of course, whether increased milk drinking will have the widely anticipated (but scientifically unfounded) positive effects on height also remains to be seen.
