What we should be eating these days to stay thin is becoming more and more confusing if we pay attention to recommendations coming out of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They just issued their most recent version of dietary guidelines that scolded us for eating too much fat and avoiding healthy foods like brown rice, lentils and beans. According to the recommendations, most of our calories should come from vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils and fat free dairy products. But now, like a mother who holds out a chocolate chip cookie in one hand and celery sticks in the other, the USDA is trying to get us to eat more high-fat cheese.
The newspapers recently reported the activity of a USDA-supported nonprofit organization called Dairy Management. Their mission is to get you and me to eat more cheese on our pizza, specifically a pizza from the Domino's pizza chain. In an attempt to find a market for whole milk and cream whose sales are languishing due to the public's switch to lower-fat dairy products like fat-free milk and yogurt, the Dairy Management group came up with an effective idea: They recommended increasing the amount and variety of cheese on pizza pies, because people love to eat pizza whose cheese runneth over. Domino's tried it, their pizza sales went up and the dairy people were happy because they could turn their milk and cream into a desired commodity.
Don't get me wrong, I like cheese, so much so that a few weeks ago when visiting friends in Switzerland I devoured a slice of pizza covered with melted Gruyere. But like many of us who have been bombarded for decades with USDA rules and regulations about decreasing our fat intake, my first response to the report about promoting cheese consumption by this agency was, "Now exactly how is this going to fit into your new dietary regulations?"
There probably would be nothing wrong with adding more cheese to our pizza if we ate only one, or at most, two slices and called it dinner. But when pizza is a snack or appetizer before a full meal, or when at least half a large pie is devoured at mealtime rather than one slice, the saturated fat in the additional cheese will be doing more than tantalizing taste buds. Dealing with the adverse effects from high cholesterol and elevated triglycerides, among other things, is a big price to pay for more cheese on your slice.
This confusing message from the USDA (cheesy pizza or fat free cottage cheese) should make us rethink how we can be motivated to change our eating and indeed exercise habits so we are less obese and healthier. We don't have to be told yet again that a meal with excessive amounts of fat, salt and sugar is not as good for our body as a meal with plenty of vegetables, fruit, lean protein and whole grain carbs like brown rice. We know this, but like smokers who know that they may develop horrible medical problems but keep on smoking, we have to be motivated to change.
And so far no one has yet been able to figure out how to make enough of us change our food choices to stop our national weight gain.
Perhaps money and advertising are the answer.
Here Are a Few Suggestions:
Until then, all we can hope for is that the USDA has not made an investment in plus-size clothing.
David Katz, M.D.: USDA's Pizza Policy Exposed: Is the USDA Governing Our Taste Buds?
EatingWell: Delicious Christmas Cookies Only 100 Calories Or Less
Although I don't eat it, engineered corn also isn't a problem as far as obesity is concerned other than it makes corn more available - corn in general as a significant portion of daily calories, is a problem.
Think of it this way: We feed cows corn to fatten them up. The USDA tells us to eat corn in order to stay thin and healthy. Huh?
As a dairy producer, I can tell you we pay DMI to promote our dairy products, not the government. DMI receives money from the government to support programs such as The Food Assistance Program.
The dariy checkoff program was created by farmers, for farmers, and is funded by America’s dairy farm families. It does not use any government or taxpayer dollars to promote dairy products in the United States. Did you know that more than 50 percent of DMI’s annual budget is allocated to advance dairy health and wellness efforts, that are consistent with the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans?
For more information, you can read my blog post @ The Wife of a Dairyman
http://www.thewifeofadairyman.blogspot.com/2010/11/ny-times-article-regarding-dairy.html
I sure hope this comment doesn't disappear as well.
A 5,000 calorie slice of pizza? An entire large, 14" Domino's cheese pizza is only 2,300 calories.
"Supersize Me?" The amount of food he claims to eat per day (5,000 cals) is mathematically impossible based on his own rules. The entire movie is based on a LIE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccdfzq2M1Ec
Your article talks about the "dangers" of high fat pizza... pizza? How can you completely miss that thick, processed, refined, broken-down-to-sugar crust? Do you honestly think the 9g of fat (3.5 of which are saturated fat) in a slice of Domino's Cheese pizza are more detrimental to health than the 42g of refined carbohydrate?
"...the saturated fat in the additional cheese will be doing more than tantalizing taste buds. Dealing with the adverse effects from high cholesterol and elevated triglycerides...is a big price to pay for more cheese on your slice."
This is an incredibly inaccurate and misleading statement.
Dr. William Davis, Cardiologist:
"One of the most common triglyceride myths is that eating fats increases triglyceride. But that’s only a half-truth, since fats do indeed increase triglycerides - but only if triglycerides are measured after eating. The real story is that fats in the diet decrease triglycerides - at all other times except after a meal. The higher the fat content of your diet, the lower your triglycerides will be in a fasting blood draw. This has been well-established in numerous diet trials comparing low-fat with low-carbohydrate diets.
Even the American Heart Assoc (an entity with which I rarely agree) states that a diet high in CARBOHYDRATES leads to high triglycerides.
What?!?!?!?!?! Of course Dominos would have a reading list to support your "association" (I mean partnership) with the USDA and dairy farmers. So here's some "misreported facts" from the other side of the story. It's funny. I have no financial interest in getting people to "choose" a certain food. Do you?
BTW - The USDA was created to subsize farmers (ie. dairy industry, etc.) not to provide "nutritional" advice. It's strange, we Americans can't seem to figure out why we've never been fatter or sicker. Got any ideas on how that could be?
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/
www.theethicalnag.com
http://www.turnthetidefoundation.org/
http://www.foodpolitics.com/
People can fully decide to be as nutritious or indulgent as they would like. Not to mention, how often they choose to order or how much of their pizza they choose to eat.
Our cheese and pepperoni pizzas actually are lower in calories, fat and sodium than the majority of our national competitors. You can also find Domino’s Pizza on the Weight Watchers points menu -- and many of our stores offer salads as a permanent menu item.
And to ensure that we are doing our part to keep our customers informed, the Cal-o-Meter on our website allows them to see the exact per-serving calorie count of their order.
Perhaps you could further help your customers by offering a simple red-yellow-green light approach on the menu items. This simple system grades the nutritional value of the item ordered as one that should be enjoyed rarely (red), in moderation (yellow) or frequently (green). That could help a customer make a truly informed choice.
If you showed 10 people a plate with TWO slices of Domino's Wisconsin Six pizza (since we agree most people eat more than one slice) and asked "Do you think this is high calorie, or low calorie" what do you honestly think they'd say?
Do you really think more than 50% of them would say "Low calorie?" People know the difference. A traffic light inspired system of color coding menu items isn't necessary.
That's one of the last things I'd ever eat.
I don't eat low fat anything... they take out the fat and they add sugars and other carbs. If I want yogurt or cottage cheese, I eat the real thing. I eat cheese. I eat protein, fats and complex carbs. No convenience food, fast food or pre-made food.
Gosh, that must be bad for us.
Reading Gary Taubes book now. Horrible how the "food industry" has duped the American people over the past several decades. Criminal.
Dairy Management, whose annual budget approaches $140 million, is largely financed by a government-mandated fee on the dairy industry. But it also receives several million dollars a year from the Agriculture Department, which appoints some of its board members, approves its marketing campaigns and major contracts and periodically reports to Congress on its work.
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It's not in the interest of a resturant to serve smaller portions at a lower price, they have to stay in business after all. They should have "healthy" portions for a slightly lower price. Some do and it's really a marginally lower price but after all, they do have to keep the doors open.