NEW YORK CITY – The American love affair with cheese is showing no signs of slowing down, Bloomberg reports. While milk consumption has been waning for years, cheese production and consumption is rising. Total domestic cheese consumption has seen the biggest advance since 2000, with Americans downing the most cheese on average since 1975 (when the government started tracking the data).

“We’re just seeing a greater trend toward cheese consumption in people’s everyday diets,” said Matt Mattke, director of the Market360 Dairy advisory team at Stewart-Peterson Group. “With the beverage market, there [are] a lot more choices. But you can’t replace cheese on a pizza.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture noted that Americans are eating on average 35 pounds of cheese yearly—double the amount in 1980. Part of that consumption is tied to an uptick in pizza sales. The National Restaurant Association predicted that “artisan cheeses” will be a top trend in 2017.

“There’s been a shift in sentiment around milk fat, and it’s not just one category—high-fat yogurts to sour cream to whole milk,” said Tom Bailey, New York-based senior dairy analyst for Rabobank. That will lead to higher milk prices and cheese prices in the coming year.