Disgusted with the "new" food pyramid

"What the hell!?!"  has been running through my mind for the last couple days after reading an article in the Cheese Reporter (an industry newspaper) regarding the "new" food pyramid the government has released. 

Apparently many producers seem quite satisfied because cheese is actually pictured....are you kidding?

My food rant begins.  The USDA is responsible for creating the food pyramid in the USA and distributing its propaganda throughout our schools, doctors offices etc.  This new pyramid was created at the urgings of Michelle Obama and her crusade to curb obesity.  While the goal is a good one, the essential leanings of the government concerning food has gone "science project" versus "victory garden".  I am consistently disappointed in the USA's quest to isolate certain vitamins/minerals/compounds and then try to recreate them in synthetic form and advertise them to us to consume instead of endorsing WHOLE, REAL, FRESH FOOD!!!

Every scientist around the world concurs that they do not fully understand the human body's ability to process and draw nutrients from real foods.  They cannot figure out why the "supplements" don't work as well as the real thing.  Or that many foods with high concentrations of potentially "harmful" compounds (remember the egg debacle with cholesterol) are really not bad for your overall health.

WHY are you having a fit over all of this, you may ask?  Because now they are messing with my CHEESE!  :)  The USDA is recommending that people keep cheese in their diets as long as it is "low-fat or no-fat".  The USDA is also approving soy milk as dairy.  Huh....bean juice is dairy because the producer has ADDED calcium?  (I am not against soy milk and could care less about who likes it, or if you drink it and the whys)  Anyway you slice it, soy milk is not dairy, period, it is soybeans.

On the low-fat/no-fat dairy issue.  Milk has fat.  In order to make cheese, you want that fat so the milk makes a curd....it's how cheese is made.  Did you know that processed cheese can contain up to 51% "non-dairy" components and it's USDA approved as cheese?  So, all the no/low fat cheese no longer has the amounts of proteins, vitamins and minerals we come to expect from natural cheeses...it's just filler folks.  It's also all about the calories according to the USDA.  Of course it is, but what about educating on smarter calories to consume?   

I think most people would be absolutely mortified by the amount of "all-natural" added flavors and ingredients that are available on the market, approved by our government.  As cheese makers, we get publications each month on "how to make your cheddar more cheddar-y" or "what to add to your ice cream to make it creamier and cut the fat content" and yes, they are "all natural". 

Now please tell me, how can Michelle Obama promote a new food pyramid with low fat food and look at herself everyday and believe she's doing the right thing with her influence to the USDA?  Wouldn't it be MORE effective, healthier, economically feasible to just encourage people to eat whole foods?  Cripe-you don't even have to know how to cook to eat vegetables and cheese and still be healthy!!!!! 

I'd rather have obese, healthy people in this country than  thinner folks that are living-on -processed, full-of-fillers food!  

Thanks for letting me say my bit....I'm going to make apricot tarts now with BUTTER, CHEESE, FRESH FRUIT, raw sugar and unbleached white flour....how unhealthy is that?!  To think my own government supports non-dairy whipped topping as an appropriate substitute to cream and that comes in a twinkie...but, as long as I'm watching the calories....