Cheese

I have had a very long love affair with cheese. Iv always thought cheese is amazing and it is the final food i need to give up to become totally vegan. A few nights ago my friends ordered pizza, i did not order any, but ate a vegan wrap. This didn't stop me polishing off three slices of vegetarian pizza. I keep telling my self that surly cheese is not that bad?

So i started doing my research. Turns out i was wrong.

Background: The history of cheese making

Cheese making has dated back before recorded history. Many myths exist around the discovery of cheese making but the one i like most is that ancient Arabians tided the stomachs of goats filled with goats milk onto their camels and rode out into the dessert and the milk separated and cheese formed. (i will get back to the importance of the stomach later). I must mention that cheese making is also thought to date before this time in Poland as cloth with milk fat residue has been found.

The dairy industry harms cows

I love animals and i believe that cows milk is for calves. The dairy industry do terrible things to cows and calves, like separating parent and child a birth.This separation usually occurs within 3 days, as the longer the calve is with the mother the more distress that will occur. (like having your baby taken from you wasn't distressing enough) They also kill male calves at a very young age for veal as they are not useful for milk. They are fed up on a "milk substitute" as to make sure there mums milk goes towards human consumption.  As well as this dairy cows often live a short.

Cows have a gestation period for 9 months, as soon as they give birth they are often impregnated again as to keep the milk cycle up so they are producing almost all year round.
As well as this most cows do not live for more than 4 years as the milk production decreases and they are culled. There are also other reasons like udder infections and if they become lame.

Cheese production is particularly harmful (and often not vegetarian)

It takes around 10 units of milk to make 1 unit of cheese. That means that the 50g of cheese on your sandwich took half liter of milk to produce. Per capita in Australia it is estimated consumption in 2011/2012 was 13.4 kg that is around 130L of milk per person per year on cheese alone. Source

Not only is the large amount of milk used to produce cheese, but also i was surprised to learn that many cheeses are not even vegetarian. A substance called rennet is often used in the production of cheese. Rennet is found in the stomach of mammals and includes enzymes that coagulate milk and cause it to break up into curds and whey. Rennet is important for animals to break down mothers milk. Rennet from calves stomachs is used to create cheese. The modern method involves placing calves stomachs in an enzyme extracting solution to remove the rennet.

Cheese is bad for you and addictive

Cheese is made mainly casein and fat from milk. It is very high in protein and fat and can be seen as a highly concentrated form of milk. This means that it is not very high in calories, but also very high in other toxins which may be found in milk. This may include hormones, infections, worming injections ect.

Cheese is also very high in saturated fat. In some cheeses 100g contains your daily saturated fat recommendation. This also means that cholesterol is fairly high, so if this is something you are worried about, give cheese the boot. Here is a list of cholesterol in different cheeses.

Casein is a main component to cheese. It is broken down into several substances in the body. Substances produced include casomorphine and opioid peptide. Both of these substances are opioids and have similar effects on the body to morphine or opiates. This is fine if you are a calf as it encourages you to drink more and grow up big and strong, but it is not so good if you are a human. Cheese concentrates these substances and makes it far more addictive than milk.

Another interesting fact that i learnt is that the white layer around solf cheeses such as brie is actually a film of mold that forms. It is not usually harmful, but still its mold.

Good Bye Cheese

I feel that my research has convinced me to say no to next time i am offered mold covered, concentrated cows milk morphine filled with toxins and say yes to better treatment of animals and better health for me.

I will be trying out some different alternatives to cheese over the next week so i will be writing a post when im done.