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What country has no cheese?

China is not known for its cheeses. In fact, ask most people in the country, and they'll tell you that Chinese people traditionally don't eat cheese at all.

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In the tourist town of Dali, in China’s far southwestern corner, a young woman is grilling cheese over a small bucket filled with coals. The cheese, called ru shan (or “milk fans”) is made from cow’s milk that is stretched like mozzarella, wound around sticks, and dried in the sun. The young woman toasts these sheets of cheese until they browned and blistered, then she slathers them with rose petal jam and wraps them up for tourists to enjoy. 170 miles to the southeast, in the city of Kunming, diners at the upscale restaurant 1910 La Gare du Sud are enjoying small squares of a different griddled cheese, ru bing (“milk cake”), dipped in a small dish of sugar. To the north, on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, laborers in Deqin, a small city near the holy mountain of Kawakarpo, enjoy steamed buns filled with a rich mix of butter and hot, melting cheese. China is not known for its cheeses. In fact, ask most people in the country, and they’ll tell you that Chinese people traditionally don’t eat cheese at all. For most of the country, dairy products are exotic Western ingredients that have only recently become popular in coffee shops that serve elaborate cappuccinos and American-style dishes like pizza and pasta. There is some yogurt; a thin, drinkable yogurt is a popular snack in places like Beijing. But when I first visited the China just a couple of decades ago, most of the people I met had never tried cheese. Historically, however, there was cheese in China—even in the areas considered the cradle of the country’s civilization. Dairy was a regular part of China’s medieval diet, and cheese continued to be available across the country for centuries: A number of Chinese books from the 1500s include recipes for making cheese by adding acid to milk (rather than rennet) as well as cheese-centered recipes that range from stews to steamed dishes to pastries. For instance, the 16th century book Mr. Song’s Book of Nourishing Life—which chronicles the foods made in eastern Jiangsu Province (present-day Shanghai)—includes a recipe for dumplings stuffed with cheese, poppy seeds, scallions, and spices.

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How long can an obese person live without food?

Your body can meet the majority of your calorie requirements from stored fat, but total starvation is fatal in 8-12 weeks, regardless of initial body weight.

Asked by: Annie Martoni, by email

Within one or two days of your last meal, your body will have exhausted all the glycogen stored in the liver and muscles. Most of your energy requirements will be met by breaking down stored fat into ketones, but brain cells and red blood cells can't metabolise ketones, so their glucose requirements must be met by breaking down muscle. Even if you have lots of body fat left to burn, you can still starve to death if you don't have enough muscle because vital muscles like the heart will have been weakened to the point where they stop working. For this reason, doctors normally consider 40 to 50 per cent weight loss as life-threatening, regardless of your initial body weight. Total starvation is normally fatal in eight to 12 weeks. In less extreme cases, however, where you are still receiving some calories - particularly if these calories include a high proportion of protein - being fat will help you survive much longer, because your body will be able to meet the majority of your calorie requirements from stored fat. Subscribe to BBC Focus magazine for fascinating new Q&As every month and follow @sciencefocusQA on Twitter for your daily dose of fun science facts.

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