by Vic Shayne, PhD
What’s this obsession we have with cheese? Is it friend or foe? Cheese has been a staple of primitive people for as far back as the domestication of animals. How, then, can it be bad for you? In the most basic argument, the fact is that for many people cheese represents a major health issue, as it may contribute to:

• sinus headaches
• sinus congestion
• bad breath
• body odor
• bowel problems
• skin problems

And if the cheese is not organic, or is not from hormone and drug-free cows, then there are even more problems, including hormone disruption and hormone-related diseases. If the cheese is cooked (not raw), then it is more difficult to digest and utilize. Very few cheeses you can find in your grocery store (you generally have to go to the health food store) are raw. Most are pasteurized. Pasteurization turns foods into worse foods.In 1970 the average American ate a little over 11 pounds of cheese. By 1998 it had jumped to 28 pounds. That’s more than two pounds a month.(1)Quite a few natural health care practitioners swear that cheese and other dairy products are a detriment to health and tell us to never eat these foods. Mostly because they are mucus forming. Other sources claim that cheese eating leads to high cholesterol, but this is a narrow-minded view, because cholesterol-eating does not necessarily lead to cholesterol-blocked arteries; there’s more to that issue than just eating fats.So for now, the best advice is that if you have health problems of any kind, remove dairy from your diet for three weeks and see if you feel better. If you do, don’t eat dairy.Sources

1. Nutrition Action Health Letter, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Jan-Feb 2001

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