In 1985 Dr. Neal Barnard founded the Physician Committer for Responsible Medicine “to bring a new emphasis on prevention and nutrition into medical practice and to improve how research is conducted” (without influence from Big Food and Big Pharma).

Dr. Barnard has published several books, including “The Cheese Trap, How Breaking a Surprising Addiction Will Help You Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Get Healthy.” Many people who go on a plant-based, whole food diet for health and/or environmental reasons have difficulty giving up cheese in particular.

It turns out that when cheese is digested it releases casomorphins, that attach to the same opioid receptors in the brain that heroin or morphine attach to. The fat and large quantities of salt in cheese are additional factors that make cheese addictive — salt, sugar and fat are all addictive.

There were no cheese factories in the U.S. until 1851. In 1909 the average American ate 3.8 pounds of cheese a year. Now cheese is everywhere — from snacks to pizza to cheeseburgers — and the average American now consumes more than 33 pounds a year.

According to “The Cheese Trap,” the following are the main health problems associated with cheese:

• The process that results in cheese concentrates calories. A cup of milk has 149 calories; a cup of milted cheddar has close to 1,000 — mainly from fat, which tends to make people fat.

· The cheese-making process concentrates dairy proteins, which are fine for baby cows but which in some humans trigger respiratory symptoms including asthma, migraine headaches, arthritis and skin conditions including acne.

· The cheese-making process also concentrates cholesterol and saturated fat — the latter causes the liver to make more LDL (bad cholesterol). Higher LDL levels contribute to cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s.

· Large quantities of sodium (salt) are added to cheese to stop bacterial growth and add flavor. Salt damages the endothelial lining of arteries and contributes to high blood pressure. Two ounces of Velveeta cheese contain 800 mg. of sodium — more than half the daily recommended maximum intake of 1500 mg.

Another problem with cheese is that it contains hormones. Cheese is made from milk, and to increase milk production dairy farmers impregnate their cows yearly, increasing the estrogen hormone estradiol 75-fold, and the estrogen estrone 45-fold. To increase milk production even more, many U.S. farmers still inject their dairy cows with bovine growth hormone, which is banned in most other developed countries. Women who eat lots of dairy products have higher estrogen levels, which contribute to higher rates of breast cancer.

Men who eat more high fat dairy products such as cheese also have higher levels of certain hormones, which cause abnormal sperm. These men also have a higher incidence of prostate cancer, thought to be due to IGF-1 (insulin growth factor one), a hormone that makes baby cows grow fast but which in humans stimulates growth of cancer cells.

If you need additional motivation to stop eating cheese and like the smelly varieties, consider the following: 1) Cheeses like Limburger contain Brevibacteria, the same bacteria that cause smelly feet. 2) Other odiferous cheeses contain Staphylococcus epidermitis, one of the bacterial species that cause human B.O.

Fake cheese is not as perfect a solution as avoiding cheese, because fake cheese contains processed ingredients and salt. However, grating a little fake Parmesan on pasta for example to enhance taste is not a problem.