Anti-Cheese Billboards: Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine Targets Dairy Lovers

HuffPost Food doesn't hide its love of cheese, which is why we are fairly aghast at this new ad campaign by the always-controversial Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (see: hot dogs equal cigarettes).

By placing the $3,500 Grim Reaper ad near Lambeau Field, the stadium for the Green Bay Packers and the heart of cheese lover territory, the PCRM is definitely trying to turn (cheese) heads. But it doesn't look like dairy diehards are paying much attention. Ad Week says, "Given the importance of the dairy business to the region's economy, the PCRM should grab a scythe and cut the cheese strategy. It's full of holes."

The PCRM wrote a letter to Green Bay Mayor James Schmitt, requesting that he require warning labels on the high-fat cheesy food sold at the Packers' stadium. Schmitt told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "We are going to protect and defend the cheese industry. We love our cheeseheads and we love our cheese."

Rest easy, curd nerds. Dishes like beer cheese and deep-fried cheese curds are still safe at Lambeau Field.

Here's the offending ad:

Comments

[wildisthewind]

09:43 AM on 09/30/2011

So, the prophecies were true.... the PCRM is the anticheese. They bear the mark... forks over knives. Hold onto you carrots because the end is near. All hail Lord Vegan.

[maslin]

02:09 AM on 10/01/2011

It's Muensterous. We are all Adelost. Perhaps we can find some sort of Remedou? Perhaps if we got some Stinking Bishop to tell the Saga of humanity, we could sway the beast? If not, it will be our Waterloo.

[airmikee99]

08:02 PM on 09/28/2011

Vegatarian: Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot that can't hunt, fish, or ride.

[airmikee99]

08:40 PM on 09/28/2011

Pfft, vegetarian.

[SLS11]

09:24 PM on 09/28/2011

and then .... there was just the village idiot! :)

[Apollos Dad]

02:26 AM on 09/30/2011

You rang???

[daveclementsusa]

06:13 PM on 09/28/2011

I bet they didn't conduct a national study versus Wisconsin citizens.

[daveclementsusa]

05:39 PM on 09/28/2011

Doctors against Cheese? So.
Hey Doc, focus on a cure for Aids, MS, Diabetes, Spinal Cord injuries ect., something a little more higher on the important scale.
Don't like cheese... Don't eat cheese!

[SLS11]

05:54 PM on 09/28/2011

I think these particular Doctors may be focusing on obesity and heart disease.

Leading Causes of Death
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm

[daveclementsusa]

06:10 PM on 09/28/2011

Doctors against cheese didn't inform us on anything not already known. Unless they are working on cures,
I don't believe I'm alone in saying, "I don't want to hear it." There are enough warnings under FDA lable requirements and people are free to eat cheese and they do. So there it is.

[c-tom]

01:11 AM on 09/30/2011

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has only a small minority of physicians in its membership. What it basically is a front for PETA. They aren't worried about the medical reasons not to eat cheese. They're worried about the fact that milking cows is torture and subjugation of the noble bovine race,

[honeybear64]

12:25 PM on 09/30/2011

Exactly. Cheese could cure cancer and PCRM would still be against it.

[Veganconnie]

05:28 PM on 09/28/2011

Go ahead everyone who wants to -- eat your cheese, bacon, steak -- whatever. But if you want to advocate for the Standard American diet, I suggest you know for sure where the food on your plate comes from and what it does. Here are a few references to the health effects of meat and dairy:

On meat and colorectal cancer: -- http://www.aicr.org/site/News2?abbr=pr_&page=NewsArticle&id=20691&news_iv_ctrl=1102

On the China Study: http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AoYrYNFxtCgXe4iKfRezVYhG2vAI;_ylu=X3oDMTFlbmQyaGhzBGlpZAMzMDgzOTMwODg3NjQ3MTEzODcyBG5vaAM1BHBvcwMxBHJpZAMxMzE3NzY-/SIG=133l5q26o/EXP=1294521548/**http%3A//well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/nutrition-advice-from-the-china-study/

On Fiber: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110322172225.htm

Here are some stats from Dr. Henning Steinfeld, chief of the Livestock Information and Policy Branch, FAO of the United States:

-- Diseases related to meat and dairy consumption include:
* Bird flu
* Bird Tongue disease
* E. Coli and Salmonella infections
* MAD COW DISEASE
* LISTERIOSIS
* SHELLFISH POISONING
* PRE - ECLAMPSIA
* CAMPYLOBACTER
* HEART DISEASE
* CANCER (COLON, PROSTATE, RECTAL, BREAST)
* DIABETES
* OBESITY

Also according to Dr. Steinfeld, eating meat is related to::

* World Hunger - 760 million tons of grain is grown every year to feed livestock, which is 42% of the world's grain supply

* Consumes 70% of the World's water

* Heavy contributor to oceanic "dead" zones, chemical pollution run-off from animal waste and antibiotic resistance.

* Generates 65% of human-caused nitrous oxide, contributing to "Global Warming.":

* GOING VEGAN FOR ONE YEAR would save 1.5 tons of emissions related to the standard American Diet.

[elcerritan]

06:29 PM on 09/28/2011

You didn't have much credibility even BEFORE you touted The China Study.

[Chester Erickson]

06:31 PM on 09/28/2011

I found something that might interest you, particularly the conclusion:

http://veganhealth.org/articles/dxrates

"In summary, not enough is yet known about vegan mortality to draw any conclusions other than that vegans do not have unusually high rates of mortality and they probably do better than the average person due either to diet or a healthier lifestyle."

This page was also pretty interesting:

http://veganhealth.org/articles/cancer

It has a much longer conclusion, so I'll let you check it out and decide for yourself, but it looks to me like the main advice should be "move around more, don't smoke, and don't get fat if you want to avoid cancer."

[grailknight]

09:25 PM on 09/28/2011

:other than that vegans do not have unusually high rates of mortality." Really? No one escapes alive!

[SLS11]

09:27 PM on 09/28/2011

Here's the conclusion in print:

"The authors conclude:

"Since the 1981 Doll and Peto review on diet and cancer mortality (12), about one third of cancers have generally been thought to be related to dietary factors. More recent evidence suggests that this number may be too high, but a revised quantitative estimate is beyond the scope of this review. Among the diet-related factors, overweight/obesity convincingly increases the risks of several common cancers. After tobacco, overweight/obesity appears to be the most important avoidable cause of cancer in populations with Western patterns of cancer incidence. Among non-smoking individuals in these populations, avoidance of overweight is the most important strategy for cancer prevention."

[wildisthewind]

04:44 PM on 09/28/2011

It's funny that the PCRM, which was formed by psychiatrist Neil Barnard while he was the head of the PeTA Foundation, is still masquerading as a physician's organization, despite the fact that an infinitesimal percentage of their members are actual physicians. In reality, they are a vegan activist organization that gave themselves a purposely misleading name to mislead people with a false appearance of authority. What they do is propaganda, not science.

Science starts out with a hypothesis. The PCRM starts out with a conclusion: "meat bad," and then they cherry-pick and obfuscate in every way possible to suit their predrawn conclusion, based on their fundamentalist belief in the infallibility of veganism. If you think there is anything objective about their work, or that they would publish any findings in favor of meat, as any real scientist would do, you are gravely mistaken.

[SLS11]

04:01 PM on 09/28/2011

Americans told to eat more cheese... by 'hypocritical' government trying to tackle obesity

But its cheese promotions have put it in direct conflict with the government’s healthy eating stance - an anti-obesity campaign championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

The anomaly has caused an outcry from nutritionists who claim the USDA is spending millions discouraging consumers from eating food with high levels of saturated fat - such as cheese.

Government warnings about saturated fat have driven a public switch towards low-fat and non-fat milk for years, creating surpluses of whole milk.

Now Dairy Management is trying and get those surpluses back into everyday diets, primarily through cheese. The dairy promotion is supposed to be a boon for farmers and rural economies.

But experts lashed out at the hypocrisy.

‘The USDA should not be involved in these programmes that are promoting foods that we are consuming too much of already,’ said Dr Walter C. Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health.

‘A small amount of good-flavored cheese can be compatible with a healthy diet, but consumption in the U.S. is enormous and way beyond what is optimally healthy,’ he added.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327647/Americans-told-eat-cheese--government-trying-tackle-obesity.html

[FaunaAndFlora]

11:21 PM on 09/28/2011

Walter C. Willett has started backpedaling on his anti-saturated fat dogma. From this article:
A reversal on carbs
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/20/health/la-he-carbs-20101220
"Fat is not the problem," says Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases."

[SLS11]

03:53 PM on 09/28/2011

5 Foods That Feed Cholesterol

"“If you eat a predominantly plant-based diet—with lots of fruits and vegetables plus some fish—you are on the right track to keeping your cholesterol at a healthy level,” says Lisa Dorfman, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association."

and....

"Whole-milk dairy products
Saturated fat, which clogs arteries and increases LDL levels, is the No. 1 cholesterol-boosting culprit. And foods like ice cream and cheese are where you’re likely to find them."

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/cholesterol/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100174503

[TomP100]

04:24 PM on 09/28/2011

Eating foods that contain cholesterol has little effect in raising serum cholesterol. Imagine if you used your time to actually keep up with the latest scientific discoveries instead of parroting vegan talking points?

http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Cholesterol-Rich-Foods-Raise-Blood-Cholesterol.html

http://www.mindbodyhealth.com/lowfatdietmyth.htm

It's time to update your thinking. It is 2011, not 1985.

[SLS11]

04:27 PM on 09/28/2011

Differing opinions, Tom.

[SLS11]

04:35 PM on 09/28/2011

The Effects of Cheese on Cholesterol
http://www.ehow.com/list_5770703_effects-cheese-cholesterol.html

List of Cholesterol in Different Cheeses
http://www.livestrong.com/article/35815-list-cholesterol-different-cheeses/

Cholesterol Food Charts
http://healthyeatingclub.com/info/books-phds/books/foodfacts/html/data/data2h.html

[FaunaAndFlora]

11:29 PM on 09/28/2011

You really are a font of misinformation. Before you continue to promote outdated theories that were based on the flimsiest of evidence, I suggest you take the time to browse this site:
The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics- http://www.thincs.org/

[Lulo]

01:04 PM on 09/28/2011

You will have to pry the cheese from my cold dead hands.

[SLS11]

04:06 PM on 09/28/2011

Sadly, that is exactly what will happen with many over weight cheese consumers.

[airmikee99]

04:42 PM on 09/28/2011

What about those of us that eat cheese like it's going out of style and aren't over weight?

Weren't you just berating someone else for jumping to conclusions? Open your eyes and take some of your own advice.

[Lulo]

02:06 AM on 10/04/2011

Really? We are having this long argument over CHEESE?

[Jennifer Hagan]

12:19 PM on 09/28/2011

That is an ok recipe but that isn't the recipe for Fondue Savoyarde.

[SusanElizabeth1949]

11:02 PM on 09/28/2011

I make mine with a white wine base, thickened with a little flour the Kirsch is added just before the cheese.

[Jennifer Hagan]

04:25 AM on 09/29/2011

Exactly. You don't add butter to it. That is seriously too much oil. I make mine the same way but I use Maizena as a thickener.

[FaunaAndFlora]

11:45 PM on 09/28/2011

So post a good recipe for Fondue Savoyarde. Seriously! No snark intended. I'm always looking for good recipes. ;-)

[Jennifer Hagan]

04:27 AM on 09/29/2011

This is one of the ones that my husband and I have used. It is pretty much authentic. Use google translate to view it in English. You can use Kirsch also. SusanElizabeth uses a similar recipe that I use now.http://www.fonduesavoyarde.com/

[threnodymarch]

10:21 AM on 09/28/2011

Cheese every now and then won't hurt you (unless you're lactose intolerant). Let's all take a deep breath. Almost everything is fine in moderation. Also, there is such a thing as low and no-fat cheese, but what's the point of living if you're going to eat fat free cheese? Haha.

[Veganconnie]

12:09 PM on 09/28/2011

I don't agree with the old saw that "everything is good in moderation." Would you sit at a table with a live screeching monkey who is sitting upright at your table whose brains are exposed for you to eat? I'm told they do that in China. Would you eat your cat as they do in other countris? Or how about taking the mil from a nursing baby cow who cries all night as he is taken from his Mom to soon be caged so he can't move around to soon after become "veal"? This is what happens here.. As the saying goes, "If you love animals called "pets" would do you eat animals called "food"?

[maslin]

01:03 PM on 09/28/2011

Demagoguery, such as the above post, is also not good in moderation.

[mothergrace]

01:49 PM on 09/28/2011

Please take your hysteria elsewhere.

All things are not equivalent in the world of omnivorism and it is counterproductive to compare eating live monkey brains with eating cheese.

[Steveh0607]

09:17 AM on 09/28/2011

To all the cheese haters in the world: GO AWAY!!

[Woodsie]

09:33 AM on 09/28/2011

x 2. : )

[Veganconnie]

09:48 AM on 09/28/2011

Again let me clarify. I think I can speak for other people who advocate a plant-based diet. I used to love the taste of cheese, and I'm sure I still would, but I do value my health and that of my family, friends and environment more than my own taste buds. Cheese indeed tastes good, but there are some substitutes that take a while to appreciate for those who are addicted to some of the finer cheeses. So too, there are many milk substitutes that are delicious, and even better tasting that cow's milk.

[elcerritan]

11:48 AM on 09/28/2011

Feel free to be as "plant-based" as you like, but also please disabuse yourself of your mistaken notion that people who include cheese and other animal foods in their diets can't be just as healthy as you claim to be. We also value our health and that of our families and friends, and the environment, and know that humanely and sustainably produced foods, includiing meat, dairy and eggs, do not harm the environment or ourselves. Promoting sustainable agriculture aka agroecology, which includes the use of animals, including as sources of food, is really the only way to ensure food security in the coming decades, particularly in the most "at risk" parts of the developing world; the "animal free" future you seem to be promoting isn't even on the radar screen. Eating real, whole foods that are sustainably produced is not simply a matter of satisfying one's "taste buds" or an "addiction," so please stop with the patronizing remarks.

[maslin]

01:02 PM on 09/28/2011

I've yet to encounter a single vegan 'cheese' that is even remotely close to worthy of replacing real cheese from a taste perspective, and the same goes for milk substitutes.

I will admit to liking almond milk, but it's not a milk substitute.

[DanoX]

06:02 AM on 09/28/2011

You'll get my cheese when you pry it from my cold dead cholesterol clogged hands!

[elcerritan]

02:43 AM on 09/28/2011

Know what makes me smile? That PCRM wasted $3,500 on this stupid billboard. I wish they'd wasted more.

[Veganconnie]

09:32 AM on 09/28/2011

The $3,500 PCRM paid foe the billboard is no waste considering all the free publicity it garnered -- like on this HuffPost site. It's money well spent; the few converts they gained were worth the cost.

[elcerritan]

11:52 AM on 09/28/2011

Free publicity that's already exposed them to more public ridicule than they would otherwise have experienced. Anyone who would be "converted" (appropriate term considering PCRM's blatantly vegangelical agenda) by that billboard is an utter fool who's a "lost cause" to rationality in any event.

[airmikee99]

04:44 PM on 09/28/2011

PETA thinks the same thing, and as an animal lover, I hate PETA.

[maslin]

01:52 PM on 09/28/2011

What blows my mind is that someone greenlighted this. It's visually weak, supporting a weak (or vague) argument, with a weak tag line.

They do get a lot of free publicity here, though.

[elcerritan]

05:02 PM on 09/28/2011

They were going for the Big Scare, but the Grim Reaper's chapeau de fromage gives him a somewhat antic aspect that sort of takes the edge off, don't you think? I suspect the average Cheesehead looking at this would think, "WTF?" and burst out laughing. I know I did and I'm not even from Wisconsin.

[GaryNOVA]

01:55 AM on 09/28/2011

GO PACK GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay away from our cheese!!!!!!