The Dairy Show

USDA Advises Eat More-No Eat Less-No Eat More Cheese

In this week’s New York Times there is an article about cheese and public health.  The perfect topic for a post!

The article by Michael Moss, who has written great articles some about beef safety in the past, discusses the dual responsibilities of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).  On one hand the USDA is charged with providing nutritional guidelines to the public and on the other it is also charged with promoting agricultural products to improve sales.  Moss discusses how the Dairy Management Organization, started by the USDA, recently advised Domino’s to add more cheese to their pizza in order to increase sales.  The writes that the new pizza has 40% more cheese and that ¼ of a pie contains ¾ of the daily-recommended allowance of saturated fat.  He contrasts this with recommendations from the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, who advise eating a diet low in saturated fat.  A diet low in saturated fat should involve eating less cheese and meat.

Is High Fructose Corn Syrup Just Sugar? Part II

In my last post on High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) I wrote about how the Corn Refiners want to change the name of HFCS to Corn Sugar.  I suggested that this was not such a big deal, because the main problem, in terms of diet, with both HFCS and "real sugar" is that they both provide the same number of "empty" calories.  Weight gain is the result of an imbalance of energy intake and expenditure, in that you take in more calories than you use.  Americans get about 25% of their calories from sugar and everyone should make an attempt to eat less sugar, no matter what its source.  It is important to keep this in mind and realize that even in comparison to HFCS "real sugar" is not a health food.  So in the answer to the title of the previous post (Is HFCS just sugar?), I said Yes, minus the greater impact on the environment.

That being said, I would now revise my answer in light of recent news to Maybe.