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Why the health loons are wrong about cheese
5th January 2007
Happy New Year!
Or, should I say, HEALTHY New Year?
Because you should be heavilyarmed against the January
nasties, thanks to my email from the 3rd of December.
What? You can't remember it? You didn't read it?
...Your DOG ate it?
Well, I'll recap. Back in early December I listed my
favourite 6 health products to help you through a weary,
cold, depressing January.
They were:
LiverPure, which cleans your liver with a combo of Milk
Thistle, curcumin, artichoke and dandelion.
Liver Pure
The Acumag Eye Massager, a pair of lightweight
goggles that massage the pressure points around your
eyes.
Eye Massager
Artrosilium, a natural remedy that's helping hundreds of
people shrug off the pain of rheumatism and arthritis
Artrosilium
KidneyPure, a special kidneycleansing agent that
kicks out those Christmas toxins.
Kidney Pure
ProStavita, a supplement that promises to ease
prostate problems.
Pro Stavita
Honey, Garlic and Vinegar capsules, which can help
burn off excess weight.
Honey, Garlic & Vinegar
So there you go. Now I don't need to do one of those
'here's how to get rid of the January blues' emails that
you expect at this time of the year.
Been there, seen it, done it already.
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Instead, I can go straight into my first rant of the year. All
in the defence of one of my favourite foodstuffs...
By the way, I explained my feelings about this topic to the
family round the dinner table last night, but my wife and
my eldest were more interested in who might be going
into the Celebrity Big Brother house.
Society is doomed, I tell you, doomed.
So I politely excused myself, and retreated into my study
to write this to you instead...
Is cheese really so unhealthy?
As far as I'm concerned, cheese is the greatest bio-
technological invention since the first fermentation of beer.
Cheese dates back as far as 6000 BC. Although legend
has it that cheese was 'discovered' slightly more recently
by an unknown Arab nomad.
This pioneer of cheese apparently filled a saddlebag with
milk for a horse ride across the desert. When he stopped
for a drink, he found that the milk had separated into
curds and whey, thanks to the rennin in the saddlebag,
the sun, and the galloping motion of the horse.
(Just so you know, fact fans, beer dates back even
further, to the 7th millennium BC, but that's a different
story for a different letter...)
What I'm saying, in my waffly way, is that cheese has
been a part of human nutrition for much of our history.
So what the heck is the television regulator, Ofcom, on
about when it says that cheese is now 'JUNK FOOD'?
Under their rules for distinguishing healthy food from junk
food, they've labelled cheese as more unhealthy than
sugary cereals, cheeseburgers, double chocolate chip
cake and full fat crisps.
Don't these guys read The Good Life Letter?
As you know, refined sugars and carbohydrates are
behind a lot of the obesity problems in the UK. People
think that if they avoid 'fat' and eat plenty of white pasta,
bread, cereal and white rice, they are somehow healthier. |
But these aren't. They spike your blood sugar levels,
causing huge crashes and surges of hunger.
And who encourages everybody to cut out fat and
cheeses... yet to UP their carbohydrate intake?
Yes, the food industry. The advertisers who make a lot of
money out of telling us to buy all these 'healthy' new
cereals, breads and snack bars.
Think of it this way. If they urged people to eat natural,
locally grown, fresh food, like grilled meat, vegetables,
cheese and red wine... who would make the profits?
Farmers, market stall workers, vegetable growers. Non-
branded, non-corporate organisations.
Certainly not the Big Boys of the food industry. Not the
mega-profitable snack and cereal companies, that's for
sure.
So LEAVE CHEESE ALONE is what I say. And for good
reason: - Cheese has a high concentration of essential nutrients,
in particular high quality protein and calcium, as well as
other nutrients such as phosphorus, zinc, vitamin A,
riboflavin, and vitamin B12.
- According to research from 5 years ago, cheese
provides 25% of the calcium available in the U.S. food
supply, a six-fold increase from 4% in 1909. The same
doubtless goes for the UK, too.
- Because cheese is a calcium-rich food, it may help
reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
- Certain cheeses such as Cheddar have been shown to
reduce the risk of dental problems. Eating cheese may
help reduce cavities. See, when you eat food, the pH in
your mouth often drops. This makes your mouth more
acidic, which can damage your teeth. But eating cheese
maintains your pH level.
- This is why some health professionals recommend
eating cheese immediately after meals, or as a between
meal snack.
- Research also suggests a small portion of organic
cheese can provide up to 88% of the recommended daily
intake of Omega-3 fatty acids. I can't see modern cereals doing any of the above. Or a
McBurger. Can you?
Besides, the dairy industry has pointed out that if breast
milk were covered by the recent Ofcom rules, it would
also be classed as junk food!
But this is what I love most about this story
What made me laugh was a piece of information I saw in
the Telegraph online. |
Apparently there's an 'All-Party Parliamentary Group on
Cheese'.
Can you believe that?
It's chaired by Dan Rogerson, the Liberal Democrat MP
for North Cornwall. He says that the Ofcom model is
'simplistic and counter-productive'.
He told the press:
'How preposterous that Ofcom restrictions should be
based on a model so flawed as to take cheese off the air,
while diet cola, which has no nutritional value whatever, is
left firmly on children's menus. It has to be perverse that
while milk may be advertised, a wholesome product made
from milk - cheese - cannot.'
Good for him!
Perhaps we could convert him to the way of The Good
Life?
Anyway, I'm off for a hunk of extra-mature cheddar, sliced
with a fresh apple... and to get another earful about
Celebrity Big Brother.
Yours, as ever,
Ray Collins
The Good Life Letter
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