Need help staying away from cheese

[Callalilly]

Hi,

I realized that cheese is like a drug to me. It is my vice, my guilty pleasure! I have been stressed lately and I keep running to cheese weather it is pizza or asiago cheese bagels from Panera, I NEED TO STOP! Any advice! I do't know what to do but I really want to stay away from all animal products, especially cheese.

Thanks

[Burgess]

If I had a true psychological compulsion to eat cheese, I would seek psychological counseling.

If I merely liked cheese a lot, I would try to find out what it is about the cheese that draws me to it. For example, as an experiment, I would trying eating salt-free cheese. Still like cheese? Probably not. For many people, it is the salt that they like most.

A second experiment would be to eat fat-free cheese, or as close as you can get to it. Doesn't taste so good? Hmmm, maybe it is the fat not the other elements of cheese that are -- or were -- so attractive.

With that information in mind, my next step would be to switch from "heroin" to "methadone" -- by sprinkling a little salt on an avocado before I eat it. In later steps I would cut out the salt, and then maybe reduce the number of avocadoes I am eating, if fat-loss is an issue.

Of course, there is an even simpler plan (assuming no psychological problem): don't buy cheese, don't use cheese, don't eat cheese.

Instead, eat the many delicious fruits, vegetables, and coarse starches available in whole-food form, adding as many coarse, natural flavorings as I need to make such foods even more attractive.

[margiereilly]

I think many of us have a cheese fixation. What about vegan cheese like VeganRella?
I freeze it, grate it, use less that way.
If I have to have cheese(seldom), I ask for 20% of what would be on a normal pizza. But usually, I am content with asking for no cheese on my pizza.
I know at one of the Study Weekends, there was talk of the morphine like effects that are in cheese. That opened my eyes.
Wish I had a better answer for you but cheese is really not good and chocked full of cholesterol.

[Carol]

Another thought would be to watch this one-hour video clip of Dr. McD giving his lecture to the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii on "Truth or Dairy". If cravings and taste pleasure are derailing your efforts, maybe this information will help. Just a thought. It sure did it for me! The smell alone helps me....it's so.....stinky now!

http://www.vsh.org/videos.htm

[mollyfisher]

You already know there are lots of excellent health reasons to avoid cheese. If that still isn't doing it for you, maybe take a look at it from the ethical perspective.

Milk is liquid veal. Dairy cows must have a calf in order to produce milk, but most farms do not allow the calf to stay with its mama at all. The calf is taken away and the cow grieves. She bellows and cries for days. The baby calf is either raised as veal or allowed to live on a feed lot for 3 or 4 years and then slaughtered for meat. Organic dairies may even be worse for the poor cows since they don't use the same drugs for the cows who suffer from mastitis and many other ailments frequently. (I've had mastitis as a nursing mom--it's awful) Most dairy cows are sick and miserable.

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/dairy_and_veal.asp
http://www.factoryfarming.com/gallery/photos_dairy.htm
http://www.woodstockfas.org/downon.shtml

You could also look at abstaining from cheese and milk as something you can do to help the environment. There's a whole discussion board here for that topic!

[fiddler3]

I wouldn't suggest trying to find a substitute for cheese. they are terrible, and might drive you back toward the real thing!

Don't make it easy to eat cheese, and eat when you are hungry, and I would also eat approrpriate foods when you are craving.

When you have a craving, ask yourself the old AA nugget...HALT...Am I Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired?

fiddler3

[Callalilly]

Where can I find this "Truth or Dairy" lecture, that sounds like something that will help. Thanks for all the other responses too. I don't think I need psychological help though. I think this is a common craving and I am using cheese for comfort, there are many things going on in my life right now, including death of a loved one. Thanks all for the words of wisdom.

[margiereilly]

I guess it is chock full of cholesterol. And, unless your numbers are under 150, you will be subject to heart attacks/strokes in the future as the cholesterol clogs up your arteries.

I, personally, do not want to have a heart attack or stroke that would cripple me. McDougall suffered a stroke at age 19, I believe and still limps as a result. Do you want to spend your days limping around with a piece of pizza in your mouth?

It may take months, it may take years but my advice is to persevere, persevere. I have been at it for three years and it does get better as I find new ways to eat and better food supply. For instance, I found the Sacramento Food Co Op and now I can vary my diet with more vegan options that keep me happy, satisfied, full.

[marybeth0051]

Read the excerpt from the China Study at www.thechinastudy.com which tells again of how milk protein is a catalyst for cancer cells. i have read that most people have caner cells in them....so just think when you eat dairy you are feeding cancer cells in your body.....does that help??

[Sher]

Where can I find this "Truth or Dairy" lecture, that sounds like something that will help.

Truth or Dairy

The link Carol posted has the whole list of videos; if you'll scroll down you'll see another by Dr. McDougall, July 2006...keep going and you will also see one by Doug Lisle on the Pleasure Trap-January 2005). Lots of other things to inspire you!

Sher

[dagnabit]

Most "Vegan" cheeses have casein (milk protein) added to help them taste right. Casein is the very protein that T. Colin Campbell has such problems with in The China Study. Look at the ingredients before you buy! Better yet, get used to not having cheese.

"Soy cheese products deceive consumers, violate vegans"
http://www.newstarget.com/003217.html

[Clary]

When you have a craving, ask yourself the old AA nugget...HALT...Am I Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired?

fiddler3

HALT!

Am I too Hungry?
too Angry?
too Lonely?
too Tired?

Thanks, for the reminder, fiddler3. I was first introduced to "HALT" in Overeaters Anonymous many years ago in CA, and found it very useful to use. Just the act of stopping and questioning itself can sometimes derail the craving. And, for me, using HALT often DID bring up a YES to one of the questions, exposing some formerly repressed or hidden thoughts or feelings that needed attention, and it also motivated me to stay with my journaling at that time.

[momof4]

There is a vegan cheese, Follow Your Heart, that melts and I think is an okay substitute for occasional use (I tried it on pizza--had to put it under the broiler for a minute to melt the cheese--and I made quesadillas). The funny thing is that now that I know it's out there, I have absolutely no craving for cheese.

On that great website, http://www.vsh.org/videos.htm, if you go to January of 2003, you'll find a lecture by T. Colin Campbell about the China Study--it'd be a great overview before reading the book. Dr McDougall also has some on April 2006, including Truth or Dairy.

I really struggled with giving up cheese. It was so easy to become a vegetarian, since I never liked meat. but I really liked cheese. For years I read about the health dangers of milk and the horrible factory farming, but I just couldn't give it up. Over the years I cut out most dairy (except for some with cooking), and tried to only eat it when I was outside of the house and it was harder to find all-plant meals. Well, since I did have to have cheese for DH, I'd eventually add a little to my taco, then a little to something else, and soon it was every day. I never thought I'd be totally dairy and egg free, since there were a few family favorites I thought I couldn't find any substitutes for. But when I made the decision that I wasn't going to eat dairy or eggs, somehow it was extremely easy. That was two months ago, and I'm still thinking that it was way too easy, and wondering why it took so long for me to do it! That same day I made the decision, substitutes for those family favorites (one used butter, and the other milk--and previous substitutions I'd tried didn't work), the answer (from my good friend, Mr Coconut) popped into my head and turned out to work great--no, it's not McDougall, but those are things I only make a couple times a year. It's really true that our tastes buds change over a relatively short amount of time.

The thing that finally did it for me was from "Skinny B*tch," which has been mentioned here before. Their factory farming stories were horrendous, and they really made it clear that these animals shouldn't have to suffer just so we can have a few moments of pleasure. I think that book, combined with the health part of The China Study (especially when you start to see casein as carcinogenic), is a great combo. There are a lot of factory farming videos online now--those are worth more than a thousand words.

Also, like mollyfisher, I thought about those mama cows. I'll never forget the screaming I heard from my sister's horse when her baby horse was taken away--it was horrific. I wasn't even a mom then--if it was now, I'd surely cry. As you probably know, the cows are artificially inseminated and kept pregnant for years so that they'll continue to produce milk--they're really being milked to death, and it's a horribe life and a slow death. And if you've ever nursed a baby, you know how important a "good latch" is, and how painful it is when it isn't--these cows have those metal things clamped on, they bleed and get infections, and it must be horribly painful. I didn't want to be a part of that any more, and that's what I think of when I see dairy products.

You've gotten a lot of good suggestions here, so hopefully something that someone said will click! It may not happen all at once, but eventually it will.

[Callalilly]

I just watched "Truth or Dairy" it was so good, I learned some things I never knew, for example the bovine leukimia and AIDS, very scary. I think this may have helped! Just like the tabacco industry.

[Caroveggie]

I too found a lot of the info here helpful. Also, I went to a Veg Festival and I think it was Dr. Esselstein who said that it takes our bodies 90 days -- 3 months -- to adjust to a low-fat diet, for the cravings to go away. It might help if you're trying to cut out cheese to also cut out other high fat items if you're eating them too, and see if after a bit your cravings go down. Also try other things to comfort you and keep the reasons you're doing this in your awareness. That tends to help me be a better low-fat vegan, although I'm not perfect.