Cheese becomes junk food

January 02, 2007

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NEW advertising rules which brand cheese as junk food have been slammed as `dietary nannying gone mad'.

Anthony Gibson of the National Farmers' Union, said: "To suggest there is anything inherently harmful about cheese is absurd." He said the rules could threaten sales of cheeses at a difficult time for the dairy industry.

The rules, being introduced this month by television regulator Ofcom, will ban adverts for junk foods during children's TV programmes, or shows with a large proportion of child viewers.

The Food Standards Agency used a nutrient profiling model to distinguish junk food from healthy food. The model labelled cheese as more unhealthy than sugary cereals, full fat crisps and cheeseburgers.

But the British Cheese Board said the typical portion size of cheese was 30 to 40g - not the 100g used in the FSA model.

Most cheese would be exempt from the ban if a typical-sized portion was used in the model, said the board.

Mr Gibson added: "There is no such thing as a bad food, it is just how much of it you eat, in what balance and how much exercise you take."

Other foods caught in the `junk food' ban include Marmite, Jaffa cakes, hamburgers and chocolate.

Foods which can be advertised include currant buns, frozen oven chips, chocolate-flavoured milk and lasagne ready meals.

What do you think? Have your say below.

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Dave, Manchester (02/01/2007 at 10:34)

The 100g portion is crazy - you'd probably never eat 100g of Marmite in a month. It's like doing an alcohol analysis and working to a pint portion and then saying whisky or gin fails the test but that beer's okay!! Cheese, Marmite, full fat milk, hummus etc all fail when the real reason for the ban is to limit exposure to crisps, burges etc for kids - another example of a government body unable to think sensibly

Tom Taylor, Skelmanthorpe (02/01/2007 at 11:21)

The Food Standards Agency recieves finance from the big food producers and retailers, most of the FSA reports seem to be weighted in their favour so most of what they reccomend should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

Billy Huss, Prestwich (02/01/2007 at 17:53)

Blessed are the cheesemakers.

Ace Riley, manchester (02/01/2007 at 20:05)

Eating any high fat food is bad for you ? so if people eat too much cheese each week that could be classed as junk food ? if you get too much fat from burgers or cheese or a packet of crisps its all the same fat?

Adam Wiktorek, Salem Oregon (02/01/2007 at 22:07)

junk science will always find junk food, cars, airplanes, coffee, socks & tee shirts, computer games, music, yaddy, yadda, yadda.
Thanks for allowing me to vent.

Jim Leatherman, Dayton, Ohio (02/01/2007 at 22:29)

I am lactos intolerant and allergic to the protein in milk or cheese.

John Buchholz, PhD, Grand Terrace, CA (03/01/2007 at 06:30)

I agree that there are "no bad foods." The issue here is caloric intake and activity levels. Those with low activity levels should limit their caloric intake. Athletes and those with very high activity levels require more calories.

Cheese is very tasty and healthy in moderate amounts. A balanced diet is what makes the differerence. Now we have left wing liberals trying moderate the type of foods we eat? This is pure nonsense.

mrs fotheringam, chorlton (03/01/2007 at 08:29)

cheese is indeed very dangerous. mr fotheringham was almost killed by a two ton block of cheese when he worked at a cracker factory in the 1970's. ban the stuff outright i say!

kay gunderson, north dakota (03/01/2007 at 12:24)

cheese is a good food, the problem is that american people eat to much cheese I read recipes all the time and everything has cheese in it look at all the shelf food, has cheese in it cheese is like any other food moderation

Anna, Didsbury, Manchester (03/01/2007 at 13:02)

So cheese cannot be advertised in cookery programmes, for example? There is something dreadfully wrong with our television regulatory body. With them it seems it is either no regulations where there should be some, or the wrong regulations. And the Chairman recently got reappointed. So the government must think they are doing things right. Astounding. Frightening, given the place of television in our culture these days.

steve, Milwaukee WI U.S.A. (03/01/2007 at 13:16)

I am so sick and tired of being preached about what I should or should not eat!In fact cheese has substantial amounts of protein which is needed for muscle development.It seems to me that we are headed in a direction where the only thing were going to be eating and drinking is water and celery sticks!

Robert Pflager, Wauseon Ohio (03/01/2007 at 13:50)

Success with smoking bans impaired driving seat belts, animal rights etc has encouraged the socialists of our world to start on food. The final end to these efforts will be to end all freedoms not approved by our masters who pretend to now have our best interests at heart. this is the road to despotism.

rob king, canada (03/01/2007 at 17:43)

Get allll of the food scientists out of our food chain !!! They are the ones corrupting our diets for god sake.....I imagine that NOTHING that they do enhances our health and is the root cause of our health problems. Just try to buy real food these days ...its almost impossible...although you still can buy apple sauce encased in nice little red containers that God makes....Rod

Catherine Crowley, Lake Forest, IL (03/01/2007 at 18:57)

What IS harmful to all of us is the constant manipulation of the media attempting to make us all paranoid about everything we eat and enjoy. I wish they would all BUZZ OFF!

m brown, mo (03/01/2007 at 19:23)

who is the moron that came up with this, any thing in a large portion can kill. Why do we need food police. Let,s look at helping people that are really in need.

Marie, Idaho USA (03/01/2007 at 21:46)

I wish the government would focus on protecting me from really dangerous stuff like factory farming of animals and quit trying to be a nanny!

BEVERLY DOTSON, IRVING, TEXAS (03/01/2007 at 22:22)

I THINK WHAT WE EAT SHOULD BE OUR DECISION AND NOBODY ELSES. WE SHOULD BE INFORMED AS TO WHAT THE CONTENT OF FOOD IS WHICH IS ALREADY BEING DONE BUT IT SHOULD BE OUR DECISION AS TO WHEATHER OR NOT WE EAT IT OR NOT. IT IS NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S JOB NOR IS IT THE JOB OF ANYONE ELSE OTHER THAN PARENTS AS TO WHAT OUR CHILDREN EAT. IT'S NOBODY ELSES CONCERN OR BUSINESS.

Paul, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada (03/01/2007 at 22:30)

Personally speaking, I eat Marmite in large quantities, and find that any amount of cheese will give me problems - even as little as 30 grams. I do follow a tailored diet called Eat Right For Your Type, which tells me that all cheese (even mild mozzarella) is basically junk food for my system. This is not the best advice for everyone. This is just another example of the Fascism inherent in socialist governments .....

Amber, USA (08/01/2007 at 22:51)

It's funny that no one has gotten the point here people. They are banning these during "children's programming" in the hopes that the child will opt for a healthier snack then a hunk of cheese. What's so wrong with that. If it makes sense that they shouldn't market beer and other harmful things to kids, then shouldn't that same standard be applied to food thats high in fat, which cheese is, not to mention that all the nutrients that are found in cheese can be found in other veggies. I think they should promote a similar ban in the USA. It would do wonders to combat child obesity.

George, London (09/01/2007 at 11:50)

What everyone is missing is that Ofcom isn't stopping people from eating cheese or any other food, it is only stopping companies from advertising certain unhealthy food foods in programmes that have a high number of children watching. I'm sure 30g's of a big mac and fries isn't that bad for you.

How often do you see Red Glouster or Farm House Cheddar advertised on childrens TV? You don't what you get is mass market stringy cheese and other highly processed types.

I must laugh at our american friends who think that there is a socialist agenda to this. We believe that saving the lives of our children goes ahead of the corporate bottom line.

Erin Lea, Newtown, CT (11/01/2007 at 14:40)

Cheese is absolutely a junk food. It is a mucous creating food, contains acidic protein which leaches calcium from bones, is the LEAST absorbable form of calcium, causes many known and common health problems, 80% of the earth's population is lactose intolerant, and no animal species (including humans) is naturally supposed to ingest milk past infancy. These are facts that people hate to hear and that the dairy industry spends a lot of money trying to dispel. There is a wealth of information out there regarding the unhealthy effects of ALL animal products. As long as you don't ask the Beef industry and the Dairy industry, your research will tell you that animal products are unhealthy. The meat and dairy industries make too much profit, and have far too much control over the government to tell you that animal products are unhealthy. People must learn how enormous and how POWERFUL these industries are. It's absolutely astonishing. Profit over health is their motto. Does anyone remember how long cigarette companies hid evidence and told consumers that cigarettes weren't harmful??

Laugh Out Loud, Budapest (12/01/2007 at 10:51)

Who cares, a quality chuck of mature Cheddar or a stinky Blue Stilton is still great to eat. Crusty bread, cheese and a bottle of good red wine is one of my pleasures in life. Life wouldnt be worth living listening to these kills joys and freaks who insist everything is bad. All things in moderation doesnt do anyone any harm!

Anthony, Accrington,Lancashire (12/01/2007 at 11:21)

Er cheese ISN'T junk food;it's a nutural product produced from milk and if eaten in moderation ISN'T bad for you at all.

Kwah Wa'Adabi, Portland, Oregon USA (13/01/2007 at 21:14)

I think the disignation for cheese as junk food is slightly incorrect. Firstly, it is not truely a food, so therefore it cannot be "junk food". I believe a better classification would be to just laBEL CHEESE, "JUNK". tHAT SEEMS MORE APPROPRIATE and exacting.

Kenny Jengold, Near Town (16/01/2007 at 04:43)

ive eaten cheese all my life and its never done me no harm. my 2 lads eat cheese and play football and my grandad et cheese all his live and lived till 92.

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