Editorial: Government officials are cheese-heads

Pizza is a well-known staple of the average college student’s diet. But not all pizzas are… Pizza is a well-known staple of the average college student’s diet. But not all pizzas are created equal.

According to The New York Times, after Domino’s Pizza tied in a survey for worst-tasting pies, it teamed up with an organization called Dairy Management to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, along with a new $12 million marketing campaign.

Of course, with more cheese comes more calories and fat.

In fact, “one slice contains as much as two-thirds of a day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat, which has been linked to heart disease and is high in calories,” The New York Times reported.

Compared to other pizzas, that’s a lot of saturated fat.

According to CalorieKing, one slice of Pizza Hut pan cheese pizza contains 23 percent of a day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat. One slice of Papa John’s original-crust cheese pizza contains 18 percent.

In addition to at Domino’s, Dairy Management has “helped generate a cheese sales growth of nearly 30 million pounds,” in places like Pizza Hut, Wendy’s and Burger King, according to The New York Times.

Although we aren’t exactly surprised that an eating establishment is injecting its food with more fat in order to increase sales, we are surprised that a government agency is advising it to do so. The fact that Dairy Management was created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture presents a conflict — while Dairy Management promotes all of this cheese, the USDA warns about the dangers of saturated fat and obesity.

“The organization’s activities, revealed through interviews and records, provide a stark example of inherent conflicts in the Agriculture Department’s historical roles as both marketer of agriculture products and America’s nutrition police,” The New York Times reported.

Unlike in politics, where people can use political cues like party identity as a shortcut, health cues don’t exist. We either have to trust the information that the government puts out or do a great deal of self education.

As the cheese example shows, information the government is putting out and promoting can be conflicting. So where do we go for guidance?

According to Dr. Walter C. Willett, the chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, “The USDA should not be involved in these programs that are promoting foods that we are consuming too much of already.”

We agree that the USDA should not be promoting and marketing excess of what it knows to be unhealthy. But because the cheese example is just another reason not to rely on the information the government gives you, we recommend you eat a little less pizza or at least compare nutritional information to find the healthiest one.