Cheese, Anyone?

US Government Pushes Extra Cheese

Holy crap, the average american eats 33 pounds of cheese a year. And apparently the government thinks we should eat more.

Coming from France, cheese is (was) part of my life. I made a quick search and found out that the average in France, in 2008, was 52 pounds of cheese!!
I remember the cheese plate at my parent's, it was always amazing. Of course we have more than 360 different cheeses there... I don't think cheese can be held responsible for obesity, in my opinion it comes from a mix of too much sugar, starchy and fatty foods, too large portions, too much processed foods, not enough exercise.... I only speak from my personal experience, but I used to eat cheese 3 times a day, as the rest of my family and friends, and noone was obese... However, I know numerous people who have bad cholesterol and were told to cut cheese of their diet.

Coincidence that I opened this while eating sliced fresh mozzarella and prosciutto roll?

I'm thinking that's not what they mean by cheese.

Read the part about the partnership between this government agency and Dominoes pizza. Quite disturbing, really.

I confess that I didn't even look at the link. They're promoting the kind of thing that we should be shying away from, so, thumbs down.

I wonder why they didn't launch a campaign to promote regular cheese and even highlight some fresh artisanal cheeses. That's a bandwagon I could jump on!

Mmmmm,,, Cheese! But only the good stuff!

Cheese was probably the toughest thing to give up on when I went vegan.

I certainly don't miss it anymore though.

When you stop and think about it, you realize how we just put cheese on EVERYTHING. It's crazy!

What's so irritating and interesting in this article to me is the conflict of interest between the government agencies -- one of them pushing cheese (trying to support farmers and the dairy industry), the other one telling us not to eat too much of it. And those people claiming there are weight loss benefits to cheese, despite not having any real evidence to back it up? Bad science.

I try to eat at least one vegan meal a day, mostly to stop myself from putting cheese in everything... And it is good on pretty much everything. Yes what bothered me is the the talking out of both sides of the mouth. "Don't eat cheese, it has too much saturated fat." and "Eat cheese, it will help you lose weight." All driven by money and nothing else, of course.

I do eat cheese, in moderation like anything else. I just think that the government basically subsidizing the addition of 40% more cheese to Dominos Pizza by paying for a $12 million advertising campaign is kind of twisted when at the same time they claim to want to "end the obesity epidemic."

I can't stand the extent to which our government and big business are such a large part of the obesity problem in this country. It's not so much about the products they produce -- they have a right to make a buck, just like everyone else -- but the lies that go into the promotion of the products just make me ill.

Just finished reading the New York Times article about the U.S. pushing cheese sales. The picture shows someone making a pizza squeezing, what is presumably cheese, onto it. I'm sorry, but that to me is not cheese; that would be what Michael Pollan would call "an edible foodlike substance." For our homemade pizzas, we usually buy a mixture of 4 different grated cheeses, but for me to have it with crackers or with a good slice of bread, I buy "better" cheese anyway. By "better" I mean cheese that I need to buy at a deli or at a specialty store. Way more expensive that way, but that's what keeps the consumption at bay. If I could, I would eat cheese all the time...absolutely love it...

Yeah I buy the best real cheese too, but at least on Atkins cheese is an encouraged and acceptable food so I don't worry about those people that tell me I shouldn't eat it..however, there is a limited amount that should be eaten a day anyway.

I love cheese ... current strategy involves never nibbling on it unless I'm sitting down and it's on a plate - recognizing it has calories like a meal. Second strategy is buying good, really strong cheese - like Stilton for instance - which I find so strong I only want it in moderation anyway, or only need to sprinkle a bit of it on an omelette, pizza etc to get a good cheesy taste.