Fortunes of cheese at a turning point

Cheese is at day 1 of a new era of opportunity. After 40 years of being demonized for its fat and salt content cheese today stands at the threshold of a turnaround that could see it re-established as a natural and healthy wholefood, like many other foods before it, from nuts to eggs.

Science has now established that not only is cheese not harmful, neither for its saturated fat content nor for its sodium, with no link to cardiovascular disease or to elevated blood pressure. In fact, it could well be beneficial to health thanks to its high protein and calcium content.

For years consumers have worried about their cheese intake, which is hardly surprising given that “avoid too much fat and cholesterol” was among the top recommendations of most governments’ healthy eating advice, coupled with the advice that foods such as cheese help increase the risk of heart disease.

But according to recent studies from universities such as Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard this link is not so strong and linear as it could be expected.

As Professor Arne Astrup, head of department, department of nutrition, exercise and sports at the University of Copenhagen, and who headed the influential Diogenes study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2010, which found strongly in favour of high-protein, low-carb diets, told New Nutrition Business:

“Over the last years science has constantly made the same mistake. It’s time to change and start looking at the foods as a whole and not only to the effects of individual nutrients. The food matrix [the composite of naturally occurring food components in a food] is extremely important and determines the final effects on the body – and cheese is the proof of this.”
Another barrier to cheese consumption has been concern about its relatively high sodium content. But studies show this may also be less of an issue than health advisors believe. In fact several studies show no relationship between cheese intake and increased blood pressure, and some even found beneficial effects.

Weight gain

Nor is cheese the inevitable path to weight gain many believe it to be.
In a Norwegian study, a significant negative correlation was found between the intake frequency of cheese and BMI in all age groups of men and women, except in old subjects.

“Since saturated fat is a major cheese component, it might be questioned whether subjects with a frequent use of cheese would put on more weight than low consumers of cheese,” said the study. “Our consistent finding in all age groups of both men and women, except in the 75-year-old subjects, of a negative correlation between cheese intake and BMI is not in favour of the idea that frequent cheese intake leads to increased body weight. In fact, the opposite might be suggested from the present results.”

Industry faces a choice

The evolution of science gives every reason to believe that cheese could be the next big food turnaround – just as nuts, once demonized for their fat content, turned out to contain beneficial fats and have gone on to become a snacking success story.
But how quickly that happens – in fact whether it happens at all – is dependent on:
how willing industry is to effectively and quickly use the new science to show to consumers that cheese is more hero than villain
how willing industry is to re-educate health professionals who cling to ideas about cheese that have no basis in science
and perhaps above all, how willing companies are to be innovative with cheese and create new and convenient products that revitalize consumer interest in this traditional wholefood.

It’s up to dairy companies to seize the moment. Instead of waiting for consumers and health advisors to slowly change their minds about cheese, and expecting sales of block cheese to go up on the back of this revised science, industry should take a more courageous and proactive approach.

There are two parts to the reinvention of cheese:
The first is, don’t rely on sales of commodity block cheese to increase – you have to present it in convenient snack formats so health conscious consumers can incorporate it in their daily routine as an alternative to other less healthy snacks.

The second is that the dairy industry has to engage in educating consumers and the media about the good things to be said about cheese, to counteract 30 years of misinformation from health professionals. There are two prongs to this:
Like the Almond Board of California did, go out and present the new science around cheese at dietician conferences. Debunk old science and present the newly discovered benefits of cheese – its role in dental health for example.

Then, challenge dietary advice that is not based on new science. Have a “fast-response unit” to challenge any misinformation about cheese in the media and among conservative dieticians – misinformation about cheese has been currency for the last 30 years is going to take some time to stop circulating. This includes actively challenging consumer food rating systems such as the UK’s traffic light labeling (which mistakenly punishes cheese for its saturated fat and sodium content) unless changes are made to incorporate new findings about cheese.

Sitting back and waiting for the cheese-is-actually-fine message to filter down via health professionals to consumers is to miss an opportunity. Conservative health advisors will drag their feet for years before they gradually change their perceptions. Many will continue to counsel caution around cheese consumption – irrespective of the science.
With new science reaching a tipping point, cheese could be the next naturally functional success story. People in the dairy industry now have a once in a career opportunity to take a dairy food that’s been out of favour for decades and reposition it.