A PETA affiliated vegan group calling itself The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is behind multiple anti-cheese billboards in locations including Wisconsin and New York. Wild guess but at least one of these misinformed docs probably participated in the making of the pro-vegan film What The Health, a documentary that gets an “A” for obsessive ideology but an “F” for actual science.
The huge Wisconsin billboard was originally planned to feature the grim reaper wearing a cheesehead hat right near Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, of all places. In New York, the billboards featured bloated bellies and dimpled thighs as the “inevitable” result of cheese consumption.
When Foamation, the company which holds the cheesehead trademarks got wind of the plan, it threatened legal action causing the billboard vendor to refuse to put up the ad in its original cheesehead form even after the vegan physician group offered reimbursement for any legal expenses.
As it turned out, the billboard went up anyway but with a hatless grim reaper warning that “Cheese can sack your health. Fat. Cholesterol. Sodium”.
It seems that the vegan physicians didn’t get the memo from the World Health Organization (WHO) that more than half of the sixteen million deaths each year from cardiovascular disease occur in those eating a plant based diet.
I guess they also missed the research that aged cheese is one of the highest foods in Vitamin K2, a critical nutrient known to be highly protective against all degenerative illness including heart disease and cancer. Vitamin K2 is also very difficult to get enough of in the diet and plenty of cheese goes a long way toward filling that nutrient gap.
Perhaps this is why people so instinctively desire cheese given its prominent standing as the #1 most stolen item in the world!
Clearly, this round is a knock out by the cheeseheads.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source: Heart of the Matter: Sulfur Deficits of Plant Based Diets, Dr. Kaayla Daniel
Unbelievable. Even when I went through my (thankfully brief) vegan stage, I admitted that I would probably slip-up and eat cheese from time to time. Of course, then I didn’t know the health benefits. I just knew that eating cheese made me happy.
Cheese makes me happy too! Cheese is actually recommended by savvy mental health counselors for folks have the blues (and are not on MAOIs). Before the “do you have a peer-reviewed citation for that statement” police jump down my throat, no, I do not have a reference handy. (That is what PubMed and Google are for). Suffice it to say that when I was earning my first degree, in psychology, from an accredited college, in the late 1990s, it was something that was taught to me by several of my PhD-level professors. Something in cheese is a pre-cursor to serotonin–I can’t remember what. Eric Braverman’s book “Younger, Thinner You Diet,” may mention this too. While I never read his book with the intent of following any diet plan he suggests, Braverman’s book is an excellent reference for ascertaining which foods elicit which neurotransmitter(s) and how to improve your mood with food.
I’m a college kid, with with a dual emphasis major in human and molecular biology, pre-med, and a culinary minor. Basically, when I don’t have time to eat anything I grab a few ounces of raw cheddar or jack and some whole-fruit juice, and go to class/work. Raw cheese is one of my favorite foods because it is so nutrient packed, and convenient. One of my favorite breakfasts when I have a little more time is a well-buttered toasted sprouted grain english muffin, 2 eggs, fried, soft-boiled, scrambled, an apple and an ounce or two of cheese, and (guilty pleasure) a cappucino with espresso and raw goat’s milk. Keeps me going all day!
OMG, another college girl, too, and your favorite breakfast is litterally identical to my favorite breakfast (minus the cappucino, caffine gives me a headache). Real Food = Brain power!
Now I want some cheese… I think I’ll go grab a couple of slices of grass-fed gouda, and a bit of raw grass-fed cheddar. Pair this with an apple and a cup of warm raw milk with cinnamon, and we have a breakfast of kings! 😀
Yummmm Unfortunately I live in a state that has outlawed RAW MILK for human consumption. 🙁 How crazy is that ? I’m seriously thinking about using my 7 acres for at least a cow ! Just so I can get milk.
You should do it! Or try dairy goats! That is what my family has to do, and I am at a college 2 hours away from my farm, so my family runs me raw milk (moo-shine) every two weeks.
Love it Aimee… 🙂 moo-shine hehehe The cows across the lane are loose right now.. maybe I can rustle up the holstein and milk her out and then send her back home. 😀 Ya think they would miss a few gallons of milk?
They should tell that to Dave Nunley. While I wouldn’t say he radiates glowing health, the man has been living on nothing but mild cheddar for 30 years and doesn’t seem to be overweight.
Me, too. I have a sudden hankering for a chunk of gouda. Thanks for posting about this preposterous stunt.
Max McCalman, one of the more famous cheese people. Wrote an excellent rebuttal to this.
Choice quote: “Cheese is such a near-complete food (especially the high-fat cheeses) that we can reach satiety long before we have consumed excess calories, calories which in turn lead to weight gain if not expended.”
I also just found a source of grass fed, never heated past 102 degrees local raw Gouda!
Gouda is so GOOD-A
I think I may go have a slice of raw gouda myself right now …. great late evening snack. Sleep like a baby.
Vegan physician = oxymoron
BRAVO
LOL!
Hi Sarah! Could you post a link to where WHO states that “more than half of the 16 million deaths each year from cardiovascular disease occur in those eating plant based diets.”. I looked on their website and can’t find it. The only thing I could find was their recommendation to eat MORE vegetables and fruits.
See source article at the bottom of the post.
I lose weight when I have no dairy. Every time! It was made by God to make cows big fast. That is what they are. Lost 106 lbs in 2 years and that is what I cut. I’m preg and everyone says I’ve lost weight. Still not eating dairy. It makes me hurt all over and have breathing issues. Stop knocking vegetarians and they may just stop knocking meat eaters.
If you are allergic to dairy and/or feel better off of it, then don’t consume it. No one is telling you to do otherwise. It is simply not ethical to put a photo of an overweight individual on a billboard and blame it on animal food (a single animal food no less) when the main reason that many Americans are overweight is overconsumption of high-calorie, low-nutrition, sugar-laden foods and foods made with vegetable Franken-fats. Ironically, the gut dysbiosis and inflammation, caused in part by overconsumption of sugar and carbohydrates in most Americans, is probably what lead to your dairy intolerance in the first place. Your having a dairy intolerance does not give an unethical group of vegan doctors the right to make up their own science, nor does what any meat eater says about any vegetarian.
P.S., What is actually given to cows to fatten them up is carbs: grain or corn. Hence the term “grain finish” equating with meat that is more marbled with fat. Ask any farmer or butcher.
Shouldn’t we be talking about WHICH dairy? Velveta vs. raw milk cheeses, especially raw goat’s milk cheeses: industrial cheese vs. natural, enzyme rich cheeses. We’re not talking about the same thing AT ALL! Everyone is aware that many lactose intolerant people don’t have the symptoms anymore once they switch to raw dairy.
Sorry but the Vegans have upped the anti by sending their lobbyists in to make laws to damage farming and pet ownership. They will NEVER stop knocking meat eaters and are intent on destroying our lifestyle. If they would just realize that we have the RIGHT TO EAT MEAT the same as they have the right to eat vegetables there wouldn’t be a problem but they don’t. There are more and more laws being made to eliminate animals… so there is no stopping them WITHOUT KNOCKING THEM DOWN.
It used to be funny and a nice debate between vegetarians and non vegetarians… but they can’t be happy that we all have rights. They have taken it to an all out war. I WILL fight for my right and FREEDOM to EAT what I want and my darling late husband defended that right as a MSGT in the military for 43 years. So…. Don’t Tread On Me.
Rebecca
Peta has their own agenda. It’s not about health. And it’s definitely not about what is good for animals.