The Cheese Trap: How Breaking a Surprising Addiction Will Help You Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Get Healthy

Dr. Barnard provides a bone-chilling panoramic view of the cheese industry from the forced insemination of cows to the cheese making process and chronic diseases caused by cheese consumption. The cruelty of the animals described in the process is heartrending and graphic.All concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are famously cruel and filthy. The book describes how none of these operations match the systematic cruelty of dairy production that dispenses horrific suffering from conception to the final slaughter. Calves are ripped unnaturally from their mothers face force-feeding in dark quarters to become veal. Mother cows cry all night over the separated calves. It’s doubtful that Josef Mengele could have devised a more cruel process.The descriptions of the diseases caused by the cheese to humans puts another sad dimension on the cheese making process. Barnard carefully and convincingly describes the science and correlation between cheese and acne, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies, asthma and obesity among others. The concentrated hormones, antibiotics and saturated fat in cheese attacks virtually all human biological functions relentlessly.Tragically, this consumption is driven from an unwitting addiction by consumers to casomorphin, an opiate drug concentrated in cheese from milk in the cheese making process. To make the brutality complete, our own government facilitates this horror through subsidies and promotion of the cheese industry. It goes so far as to provide advertising to attract consumers by using their addiction to consume more. Much like drug kingpins and dealers, they dispense their wares to their addicts with no conscience in the name of money. Worse, the victims aren’t even aware.Anyone who has a reasonable concern for animals or their own health should read this book before picking up another double cheeseburger at McDonalds. Read this book, if not for the animals, environment or yourself, then for your family’s health. It’s doubtful there is another product on the market that results in more collective pain and suffering to animals and humans and damage to the environment than cheese.

This book is well written, well researched, and very timely. I've been vegan for a few decades, and don't use cheese, but there was still much new information in this book. I love the fact that there is a large recipe section in the book, with delicious recipes I'm going to try. For anyone who is struggling with weight problems as well as allergies, diabetes, heart disease and myriad other diseases, following the guidelines in this book should help bring relief. I know that giving up dairy years ago brought me much relief from the sinus congestion and allergies I suffered with.

Great book! A true life saver and eye opener! After years and years of trying to become vegan, ditching dairy was the hardest thing to do. And now we know why (the addiction factor plus the indoctrination by the industry about calcium and protein deficiency). After reading many other books about health, nutrition, and veganism, this superb book finally did it for us! Finally we see dairy and esp. cheese for what it really is: a greasy, highly processed, pile of fat, calories, and cholesterol! Whoever thought of cheese that way before??? Our abusive relationship with dairy and cheese is finally gone for life! Too bad this remarkable book was not published many years ago!

I love this guy. This was an interesting book and I love listening to podcasts with this doctor on. My husband went plant based and I got this book because I struggle with cheese. Even though I don’t consume much I still like it sprinkled on things here and there. I broke down and bought cotija cheese at the store the other day, but this book has helped me break the habit for the most part. There are some interesting recipes in the back of the book. I have tried many recipes trying to replicate cheese sauce with no luck so far. I will keep trying and I refer back to this book when I feel the urge for some amazing aged cheddar.

Great info!! Highly recommend. I finally found vegan butter!!

Like many people I really, really like cheese. After reading this book, which summed up and consolidated bits of information I'd read over the years, I went non-dairy. I sadly threw away cheese and salad dressings, replacing them with non-dairy "cheese" and salad dressings. The variety at my local big box store was a surprise. The non-dairy pepper jack was wonderful. It turns out I'm not missing the dairy cheese or salad dressings, and yes, I am losing weight without counting calories.

Clear, well-substantiated explanation of how cheese consumption has exploded over the last 30 years in the USA, how it's damaging to health, and why it is so addicting. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to improve their health - and for all who want to understand major underlying causes of the health crisis in the USA - especially politicians!

Great Information, especially for those that are not aware of how food can become addicting. No need to struggle with the S.A.D. And the yo-yo dieting that go with it when all we want to do is enjoy our food. With this book you are introduced to the truth about food and are steered to some delicious recipes to start from and see what these health advocates are trying to show all of us. This is not a book for just recipes, but more for education and some recipes to try. If you want to follow more Whole Plant Based recipes look for just cookbooks, but I think education followed by examples are perfect! More educational/example/DYI need to be incorporated for more people to venture in and not be discouraged, but instead excited to more change to a better lifestyle.

I bought this as a challenge to myself, when I joked with a friend online that I couldn't give up cheese & he sent me the link. Well, having read it I am seriously considering it... or at least considering cutting right back on it. I don't generally follow the American pattern of eating pizza or the UK Velveeta equivalents (Dairylea? Babybel?) but I am fond of cambazola and chaource as well as cheddar. I also know that a lot of milk upsets my stomach.Barnard has produced a very readable book which seems to present evidence that cheese is a villain in a yellowy, smelly disguise. He's honest about inconclusive findings, but argues that there is more evidence than not that cheese, and dairy products in general, are bad for us, and it's convincing. Where I'm less sure is his reiterated argument that milk 'must' be bad for us because it's produced to nourish a calf and therefore too rich. Well ok, but strawberries aren't produced to satisfy human hunger either and on the whole they don't tend to kill us. I think there's enough data about what is actually in milk, and especially in the man-made product of cheese, to argue his case without any additional surmising.I buy the trace-of-opiate argument too, since nature is generally very well designed and all infant milk is a must for any species. Barnard covers all bases with the animal welfare, or lack thereof, that goes into producing our alternative desserts and sandwich toppings, too. In a word, it's cruel. However, I am perturbed by the thought that if people don't want diary products, how many cows and goats, and to an extent sheep, will we have left?I usually have trouble with health books, because this year's fad is next year's discredited theory, and I don't have enough science to be sure of my own conclusions, but given the strength of his main arguments above, as well as the ethical ones around the environment (we grow a huge acreage of feed for livestock that we could use for human crops, and cows produce methane that is a major cause of climate change) I would say if you have health problems and/or worry about your weight, it is worth trying to cut out meat and dairy for a couple of months to see how you feel, albeit with a doctor's say-so. There are lots of case-studies to read and compare here.

Good book, gave a friend and will buy one for me too! Many good facts and it's a must buy not just to vegans.. I highly recommend

With so much affluent driven disease in the western world this book is a must read for anyone who wants to try and reduce their risk.

This is a great book, and so interesting. The information is science based and not just the latest gimmick info on what you should eat. I learned so much about the dairy industry, the different dairy options and how they impact the body due to their level of processing. I am so glad I got this book.

Highly recommend. I had been whole food plant based for over 2 years and still struggled the odd time with a particular cheese product. After reading this book, I had no problem dropping it for good.