Anti-cheese campaign highlights benefits of going vegan

A group in the US has launched an anti-cheese campaign as part of the battle against obesity.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has erected giant billboards in Albany, capital of New York State, alerting people to the amount of fat contained in cheese.

With Americans eating more than 33 pounds of cheese each a year - three times more than in 1970 – the PCRM says it is no coincidence that the US is faced with a growing obesity problem.

PCRM says that nearly 60 per cent of New York State's residents are overweight - with the obesity rate for children between 6 and 11-years-old quadrupling over the past 30 years.

"Typical cheeses are 70 per cent fat," says Dr Neal Barnard of PCRM.

Dr Barnard adds: "The type of fat they hold is mainly saturated fat - the kind that increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Cheese is also loaded with cholesterol and sodium.

"It is the number-one source of saturated i.e. 'bad' fat in the American diet."

Cheese is not eaten by vegans because it is produced from animal's milk – just one of the many reasons why adopting a vegan diet is a good idea.

It is benefits like this that have seen a swathe of celebrity vegans shunning meat in recent times in order to improve their health – from tennis star Venus Williams who is suffering with Sjogren's disease, to 'Dallas' actor Larry Hagman who has cancer.

PCRM's campaign features two posters: one shows a man's obese stomach beside the words, "Your abs on cheese", while the other features an overweight woman and the words, "Your thighs on cheese". 

New York State has been chosen because it is one of the US's largest producers of dairy products, while Albany County itself is home to several dairy farms.