Cheese is Healthy, Says the Dairy Industry

Dairy industry pays for biased evidence to promote cheese for cardiovascular health.


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A new study funded by dairy industry group Dairy Management, Inc—and carried out by researchers at Pennsylvania State University—found that due to the antioxidant properties of dairy, the consumption of cheese protects the cardiovascular system against the negative effects of sodium. “Newer dietary recommendations suggest limiting sodium, but our data suggest that eating sodium in the form of a dairy product, such as cheese, may be protective,” study co-lead researcher Lacy Alexander says. This year, milk producers dumped 43 million gallons of excess milk into lagoons and fields across the country. Similarly, the United States Department of Agriculture issued a $20 million bailout for the 11 million pounds of excess cheese that dairy farmers could not sell in 2015. These facts amount to a dairy glut that the industry is struggling to remediate and, as this study proves, dairy farmers are turning to alternative methods to convince the general public that their animal-based products—which independent studies have shown promote a range of illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and obesity—are healthful. As evidenced by the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC)—where vegan medical group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine alleged that the purportedly unbiased DGAC was swayed by egg industry-backed studies to remove the upper limit on their recommendations for American consumption of cholesterol—governing bodies in the United States lack regulations for controlling the dissemination of false health studies funded by animal agriculture industries to raise their bottom line.