Watch Out for the USDA!

at 9:28 AM

Why does the USDA talk from both sides of its mouth?  Domino's Pizza was rated the worst tasting pizza by consumers according to a survey taken last year.  Then helped arrived in the form of an organization called Dairy Management.  You would think this would be a private marketing firm set on making money for and with big pizza chains.  But no!  Here is the shocking news.  Dairy Management is in fact a marketing creation of the USDA.  With their help consumers devoured the pizza, literally, and sales of the cheesier Domino's Pizza soared.

As healthy as this pizza has been for Domino's, one slice has as much as two-thirds of a day's maximum recommended amount of saturated fat (saturated fat has been linked to heart disease in several published studies).  You may ask, well how much cheese do we consume?  Americans eat an average of 33 pounds of cheese a year, triple the 1970 rate, in fact cheese is the largest source of saturated fat.  Dairy Management has worked with many restaurants to expand their menu of cheese-laden products.

In one instance, Dairy management spent millions of dollar on research to support a national advertising campaign that people could lose weight by eating more dairy products.  Many other studies have found no link between weight loss and dairy consumption.

Dairy management (remember: part of USDA) runs the largest of 18 Agriculture Department programs that market beef, potatoes and other commodities.  Their expenditure last year was $136 million to promote dairy sales overseas.  By contrast, the department's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which promotes healthy diets, has a TOTAL budget of $6.5 million.

The new Domino's Pizza, called the Wisconsin, has six cheeses on top and two in the crust and one quarter of the pizza has 430 calories.

Americans are eating too much of cheese, meat, bread, rice, cheese, pasta, cheese, crackers, cheese,chips, cheese, pretzels, cheese, soda, cheese, cake, cookies, cheese and the USDA (our so-called nutritional police) has a whole agency working to ensure that we eat even MORE CHEESE!!