REAL CHEESE AND YOUR HEALTH
BY: FITZ-GEORGE RATTRAY
Cheese has been on quite the rollercoaster ride in recent decades. Is it bad for your health? Isn’t it naturally filled with proteins and calcium for your bones and good for your health? Aren’t the saturated fats in cheese unhealthy? This debate has been going back and forth, so let us examine some of these issues and get to the core and figure out which cheeses, if any, are good for you.
Before we continue let’s be clear: if you have any hint of allergic reactions or intolerances to cheeses, avoid them altogether: if you would like to figure out which type of cheese may be safe for you- low lactose, lactose free, low fat and so on-see your physician and have your options examined.
In last week’s article we took a close look at cheese products and cheese foods which are made from 51% or less cheese and the rest made of some mixture of emulsifiers, oils, preservatives, coloring and so on. This week we are looking at real cheese.
What is real cheese?
Real cheeses are made from the addition of enzymes and bacteria to milk and allowing it to coagulate. Cheese making is a complex procedure. The type of cheese produced is dependent on factors including the type of enzymes, moisture content, stirring, draining, the source animal, the feeding of the animal, even the climate and the time of year, and so much more.
Why did cheese get a bad name?
Since real cheeses are so natural the only real cautions come from its dairy origins. As an animal source food, the sentiments surrounding the hormones, lactose and saturated fats contained in milk have fallen squarely on cheese. Special fears lay in the saturated fat and sodium content of many cheeses, and there is no denying that cheeses are rich in both.
A diet high in sodium and saturated fat is likely to increase the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.Clearly eating cheese and other saturated fat sources, red meats etc., to a high extent is highly ill advised, but, how much is safe?
The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) issued a report recommending limiting total daily saturated fats to less than 17 grams per day, or7% of total calories based on a 2,000-kcal diet.
How can cheese be healthy?
Cheeses contain almost as much protein as it does fat, making it relatively high in protein. Unfortunately this does make cheese a protein source, but not an ideal one, since the closer you get to your protein requirements the more you exceed your safe daily saturated fat intake. Cheese also contains minerals such as bone building calcium (roughly 200 mg/ounce of cheddar cheese), potassium and magnesium and vitamins such as, riboflavin, vitamins D and the all-important B12.
It is also good to know that according to a 2016 paper published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, in reasonable quantities, ½ to 2 ounces, cheese may actually be beneficial to your health. Perhaps also in part to the presence of palmitoleate, a very special fatty acid abundant in full-fat dairy products. Palmitoleate has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties and neutralizes the damage caused by saturated fatty acids and acts on sugars with insulin type actions.
Additionally, as a fermented food, cheese contains good bacteria which might be beneficial to your gut microbiota which reduce inflammation and improve gut health and metabolism.
