USDA in conflict over cheese

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. government is in the position of convincing Americans to eat more cheese while trying to fight obesity at the same time, observers say.

Dairy Management is a marketing creation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, helping companies such as Domino's Pizza and Taco Bell promote and sell more cheese, while the USDA is also responsible for a federal anti-obesity campaign aimed at discouraging Americans from eating obesity-causing foods -- like cheese, the food Dairy Management is vigorously promoting, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Government warnings about saturated fat have pushed Americans to low-fat milk for decades, creating surpluses of whole milk and milk fat.

Now the government, in creating Dairy Management, is attempting to get those dairy surpluses back into Americans' diets, primarily through cheese.

In a statement, the USDA said dairy promotion was intended to bolster farmers and rural economies.

But some health experts see it as a classic conflict of interest.

"The USDA should not be involved in these programs that are promoting foods that we are consuming too much of already," says 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 said.