We may have more milk based treats in our cuisine than the Middle East but Im not sure we are more lactose tolerant but a good part of our population has SE Asian and Australoid blood. And for these folks milk is not their ahem cup of tea. But then they been have accepted into Indo Aryan(for lack of better ethnic term) and its cognate Dravidian culture and so the cuisine comes with the territory. And when you have a lack of synergy between what is culturally demanded(ghees,butter,kheer et al) and your genes which cant process those foods, problems arise. In this case health problems-obesity,heart disease, diabetes etc etc
Similar situation in Mexico. Going by Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, the Central Americans were a slim athletic peoples but accepted the lacto /red meat diet of their Conquistador overlords transformed them into the worlds most obese people.
We may have more milk based treats in our cuisine than the Middle East but Im not sure we are more lactose tolerant but a good part of our population has SE Asian and Australoid blood. And for these folks milk is not their ahem cup of tea. But then they been have accepted into Indo Aryan(for lack of better ethnic term) and its cognate Dravidian culture and so the cuisine comes with the territory. And when you have a lack of synergy between what is culturally demanded(ghees,butter,kheer et al) and your genes which cant process those foods, problems arise. In this case health problems-obesity,heart disease, diabetes etc etc
Similar situation in Mexico. Going by Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, the Central Americans were a slim athletic peoples but accepted the lacto /red meat diet of their Conquistador overlords transformed them into the worlds most obese people.