…Is like trying to take hydrogen and oxygen out of water.

How much longer will our brightest people continue to believe this kind of misinformation?

Ain’t gonna happen. Nevertheless, we’ve got thousands of scientists in the food industry working on it. While very smart and highly educated, these scientists are all part of the 95% of Americans who truly believe that we “need” to eat animal protein to be healthy. From an 8-6-12 New York Times article, it begins:

MILWAUKEE — In the centuries that Americans have been making cheese, they have gotten very good at it, producing world-class Cheddars and chèvres, to name just two varieties. But more recently, cheese making has been something of a struggle.

Under pressure to reduce sodium and saturated fats in American diets — especially those of children — the cheese industry has tried to make products with less salt or fat that consumers will like.

But all those smart scientists have not had great success. Then just think how many great things they could accomplish if they focused on making whole, plant-based foods the absolutely best-tasting food on the planet. What if they focused on something that was actually possible AND would work wonders for our health and the corresponding cost of health care.

In a related article last week, I cited another example of how the ubiquitous “protein myth” is robbing us of many of our greatest minds. Robbing us when it comes to devising a healthy human feeding model that will provide nourishment to the nine or ten billion humans that will be inhabiting this world in less than forty years.

Assuming the human race survives another 200 years, what do you think the caption will be under this picture in the history books of 2212? How about “the misguided people of the 20th and 21st centuries literally lost their minds for a few hundred years.”

I told a similar story in one of my blogs last week. It was all about what some of our greatest thinkers have to say about avoiding another “dust bowl” that plagued our nation in the 30’s. (See link below) Not a single one of the seven experts on their panel suggested the most powerful solution possible—that of aggressively shifting to a whole foods, plant-based feeding model for humans. Even though such a model would:

• Reduce chronic disease and the corresponding cost of health care by 70% or more.
• Enable us to feed ten billion people on half the amount of land now required to feed seven billion.
• Solve the global water shortage and pollution problems.
• Reduce fossil fuel energy consumption by thirty percent.
• And end the barbaric livestock industry that currently kills two billion sentient beings every single week for our dinner tables.

The sustainability of the human race is at risk here and we’re worried about how to take the fat and sodium out of our cheese. To me it’s like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Did you notice that I have stopped talking about the sustainability of the planet, but rather the sustainability of the human race. The planet will be just fine. After we’re all gone, it will reinvent itself as it celebrates four billion years of existence. We’ve only been here 200,000 years.

What’s good for our health, is also good for the planet — and all of her creatures.

But wouldn’t it be nice to have our brightest people working on projects that would actually promote the sustainability of the human race? Meanwhile, how are things going on the cheese front? Not so well:

“We’ve made some progress in that arena,” said Gregory D. Miller, president of the Dairy Research Institute. “But we have not been able to crack the code.”

Dr. Miller, whose group is financed by the dairy industry, was referring to efforts to reduce salt, but he had a similar appraisal of the challenges of low-fat cheese. “When you take a lot of the fat out, essentially cheese will turn into an eraser,” he said.

The trouble with cheese is that salt and fat are critical components, responsible for far more of its character than consumers might think.

The Bottom Line. Sometimes; news like this just makes me want to SCREAM.

• Source article. U.S. Cheese Industry Works to Reduce Sodium and Fat – NYTimes
• Two movies we all need to watch. Every year. Home and Earthlings.
• My special page devoted to “Dispelling the Protein Myth.”
•  “Dust Bowl” debate. Experts are missing the main point.
• An earlier blog about dairy. Healthy Food Choices. Confusion still reigns over clarity
• An earlier blog. Dairy; “Beware the Sacred Cow,” by Nigel Richardson

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

• The movie that’s changing the lives of millions: Forks Over Knives DVD 
• Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
• An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell
• Dr. McDougall’s new book, The Starch Solution, with lots of great recipes.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

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J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.

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Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation