Causecast

by KAREN MURPHY, Contributing Writer

Mmmm, cheese. Been craving it lately? Suddenly everything cheesy just looks better, doesn’t it? That’s because the U.S. government wants it that way. That’s right, Uncle Sam has teamed up with fast food giants like Subway, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Taco Bell to increase your personal cheese intake to supplant the nation’s dairy industry.

According to the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service is complicit in approving advertisements that promote expanded cheese intake. To be fair, it’s not that the USDA or the federal government is going out of their way to promote cheese to the American public, but that the lobbying groups that run their advertising by the USDA exert as great an influence on the American people as the politicians who tell us to eat healthier, wholesome meals.

“Behold the power of cheese”

Ring a bell? Just like Pavlov’s dogs, you should be reaching to slather that plate of broccoli with a nice gooey cheese sauce right about now. Or enjoying a “fourth meal” (WTF? Suddenly 3 isn’t enough?) of Taco Bell’s new Bacon Cheesy Potato Burrito, which ranks right up there as possibly one of the unhealthiest meal conceptions ever. Except for fried macaroni and cheese from Cheesecake Factory, which is nearly impossible to type without choking on one’s own clogged arteries, let alone actually consume.

It wouldn’t be going out on a limb, then, to suggest that our government is making our kids fat. Childhood obesity is arguably today’s number one epidemic with little kids now being prescribed medication to fight diseases normally associated with adulthood, like high cholesterol, Type II diabetes, and high blood pressure.

What can we do? Kids like cheese. Sorry, dairy industry. You don’t need our help that badly.

1. Complain. Write your elected officials: your tax dollars are going to support a lifestyle that’s unhealthy and is causing health care costs to skyrocket? No thanks.

2. Complain some more. Tell Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Subway, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and whoever else you can think of to back off. Sure, it feels like Sisyphus, but change will happen if enough people speak up.

3. Educate. Tell everyone you know about the protein myth. A diet chock full of vegetables, whole grains and legumes offers all the protein we need.

Photo by Joi, flickr