Cheese is rich and creamy, and that is the reason most of us love the stuff. So much so, that the average American guy consumes nearly 42 pounds of the dairy product each year, an amount that has been inching upwards in recent years. Sliced, shredded, melted, crumbled, or baked, we can’t get enough of it.
Cheese is a staple in cultures all over the world, as before industrialization and refrigerators, fermented dairy products (cheese, kefir, yogurt) were common ways to keep dairy around for longer. These days, there are thousands of varieties ranging from rather pedestrian to truly funky.
As much as we adore this dairy product, though, most of us are a little weary of that block of cheddar or oozy mozzarella. “Cheese is my weakness” might be the way you think of it as if you are committing a dietary sin by digging into game-day nachos. It’s considered more of an indulgence than a health food. It’s easy to see why people might feel conflicted about this food group. Yes, the various types can be dense in calories, fat, and salt. But it’s also a source of protein, calcium, B vitamins, and other nutrients you want more of. That makes it a challenge to pigeonhole it into the healthy or unhealthy category.
Luckily, it appears as if cheese is something you can feel good about eating for health and muscle, as long as you play by the rules. Read on for the cheese facts you need to know before you make another call to Domino’s.
How To Eat Cheese Without The Guilt
If you always want more Parm on your pasta and can’t imagine your turkey sandwich minus the slice of Swiss, know this: Modern day research suggests that even full-fat cheese won’t necessarily harm your ticker or make your midriff more soft than solid.
Firstly, it appears that cheese doesn’t raise (or necessarily reduce) your risk for some of today’s biggest killers, such as heart disease. This review of research even suggests that there could be an inverse relationship between cheese consumption and heart disease death. A large meta-analysis of 15 studies published in the European Journal of Nutrition that looked at cheese’s impact on heart disease found that people eating the most (1.5 ounces per day) had a surprisingly 10% lower risk than those who didn’t eat any. One reason might be the impact it has on our cholesterol.
In a six-week randomized clinical trial it was discovered that when people consumed full-fat cheddar cheese they did not experience the same rise in smaller LDL-cholesterol particles as they did when eating the same amount of fat from butter. Small, dense LDL particles are believed to be more strongly related to cardiovascular disease risk than larger particles.
Experts have varying theories about why cheese might be more benign than perhaps butter or a slab of fatty steak. One thought that makes sense is that it has a lot more than its saturated fat content – an ounce of cheddar has about 5 grams of saturated fat. For cheese, a nutrition matrix effect exists, where different nutrients and compounds such as sphingolipids within the food work in concert to produce a net positive (or, at the least more of a neutral) health impact and essentially cancelling out the potentially deleterious effects of saturated fat.
When milk is transformed into cheese, the process alters the way the nutrients and other components in it are chemically arranged. This may affect how cheese is digested and processed by the body, which can lead to varying health effects that are different from the effects of eating dairy in altered forms, such as butter. All of us should be putting more emphasis on entire foods and how their nutrients, antioxidants, and other components interact with each other.
Many of the studies on cheese and health use it in a non-melted form, which is different than eating cheese on pizza or in cooked dishes like lasagne. Though there is some initial research to suggest that it might be more advantageous to eat un-melted cheese for heart health, it is not yet fully known how melting impacts the overall cheese matrix structure, and if this can alter the nutrition and health impact. This would be good to know since so much of the cheese in America is consumed in melted form as is the case with pizza.
Let’s not overlook that when its made it can gain some beneficial compounds, too. For instance, Vitamin K2 can form during the fermentation process and this harder to find form of the nutrient can be important for cardiovascular health. Just don’t expect much in the way of vitamin K from Velveeta.
Different cheeses are made with different types of bacteria, which, in large part, are responsible for the unique flavors. These same micro-critters may have beneficial effects on our microbiome, which, in turn, could lead to improved health outcomes including some relief from digestive concerns like irritable bowel disease. With this said the impact of eating cheese on the microbiome is yet to be properly studied. It’s not known if you get anywhere near the concentration of beneficial microorganisms from a slice of Gouda or blue cheese as you would from a cup of yogurt.
Despite being a concentrated source of calories, some studies suggest you don’t need to skip cheese to keep your six-pack well stocked. In one research paper, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers set out to determine which foods were linked to weight gain by following 120,877 men and women in the U.S. for two decades, examining their weight every four years. While they found that consuming more of certain foods such as refined grains (hello, white bread) and sugary drinks was associated with weight gain, eating more of others, like nuts and fruits, helped with weight loss.
Cheese wasn’t associated with either gain or loss, even for people who increased the amount of it they ate during the study. One reason cheese may help with weight control is that its protein and fat content may help moderate appetite. Still, there is a dearth of quality research examining the impact that it has on body composition and whether its source matters. It’s likely only problematic if it contributes to an excess of calories and is part of ultra-processed food at which point you should be questioning how wise it was to order a second helping.
And here is some awesome news for cheese lovers! It can help you get more buff. In a recent Journal of Nutrition study, 20 healthy males took in 30 grams of protein provided as cheese or milk protein concentrate following a bout of weight training to determine if there would be any differences in the rate of post-training muscle protein synthesis. Despite there being higher peak concentrations of blood amino acids with the milk protein concentrate there was no difference in the rate of muscle-building between the cheese and milk protein powder.
This has been supported by other research showing that cheese protein can help with muscle-making efforts when combined with resistance training. A single ounce serving of cheese has about 6 to 8 grams of high-quality protein (most cheeses is higher in protein than saturated fat) that can certainly help you pack on more lean mass. However, you may not want to get 30 grams of protein solely from cheese after pumping iron. But it certainly can be a significant part of your post-training protein intake, maybe just not all.
As you might be all too aware of, lactose, a naturally present sugar in milk, can be difficult for some people to digest, leading to digestive woes like gas and bloating. However, the bacteria used to make cheese digests most of the lactose in the milk. Much of the remaining lactose is present in the whey, which is separated from the curds toward the end of the cheese-making process and drained off. This means many types of cheese have very little to no lactose and are safe to consume for sensitive tummies. In general, the higher in moisture a cheese is, the higher in lactose it is. That means harder cheese like provolone or cheddar will have less than cottage or ricotta cheese.
Which Cheeses To Avoid
Where cheese can fall off the rails is when it is part of a diet too rich in ultra-processed foods and contributes to an excess of calories, saturated fat, and sodium. Fast-food pizza, cheeseburgers, mac and cheese, and pizza pockets are not the way that we should be getting our daily nutrients. Sadly, this is exactly the way too many people are eating the stuff. So when its a fixture of a 500-calorie slice of pizza or triple-decker burger it’s no wonder it is often considered a dietary villain.
It’s also problematic when we consume more processed products than the real stuff. American cheese slices fall well short of actual cheddar, and Velveeta is not the way you should be dressing your broccoli. There is a good chance that these products don’t give you the same nutritional benefits of better quality cheese.
As for those cheese flavored products on supermarket shelves such as crackers and chips, these rarely contain any cheese and instead rely on mystery cheese flavoring. Again, not cheese.
For those watching their sodium intake, certain types can be pretty salty. Some versions like feta, halloumi, Parmesan, and cotija are especially salty. If your diet contains a lot of other salty foods, then adding a couple of servings of cheese can push you over the top. If you’re eating about an ounce or two a day and eat mostly lower salt whole foods, however, it’s not a big concern. But there are some individuals like those with hypertension that may need to scale back their intake of higher salt foods.
How To Choose The Right Cheese For Your Diet
Overall, there’s no need to steer clear of cheese—unless you are getting largely hails from ultra-processed foods at which point you need to revaluate how much you are eating and where you are getting it from. If all this (mostly) positive news has you ready to dig into a wheel of Brie with a spoon, here are some cheesy tidbits worth knowing.
Watch Your Portions
To keep saturated fat and calories in check, most guys should limit their daily portion of cheese to no more than 2 ounces, which is about 200 calories and 10-12 grams of saturated fat. Yes, that is some tough love. But most of us have no idea what this amount looks like, which can lead to portion distortion. A smart move is to weigh your portions for a few days so you can get a sense of how much you are serving yourself. Much of the research suggesting a neutral or beneficial effect to eating cheese involved subjects consuming roughly an average of 1.5 ounces a day. Not the mega-amount you’ll get from a slice of deep-dish.
There is No One Best Choice
The internet is rife with articles about the healthiest cheese you can buy. But, truth be told, any and all real cheese is fine in moderation and the nutrition content does not vary greatly among the varieties. There are a few exceptions, like cottage cheese which is much higher in protein than other varieties, but then again many of us don’t consider this to be the same as Camembert or Swiss are.
Be a Softy
Softer styles of cheeses such as fresh mozzarella, goat, and brie typically have fewer calories per ounce than harder types like cheddar and Parmesan. That’s because with more moisture comes less calorie density. So if you want to enjoy a daily cheese habit but also keep calorie intake more on the down low then you can gravitate toward those you can cut through with almost zero effort. After all, I’ve never met a salad that wasn’t made way better with a scattering of soft goat cheese.
Swap it Out
There’s a big difference between grating some Parmesan over a salad and feasting on a greasy pepperoni pizza. In some studies, the health benefits of cheese were found to be the greatest when it replaced other less beneficial foods like processed meats or refined grains. So you could swap out some of the bacon for a chunk of cheese and come out ahead. Not so by blanketing a bowl of white pasta with a bag of shredded three-cheese mix.
Add it to Healthier Foods
The best way to eat your cheese is to use it as a flavor enhancer for nutritious foods. Add a few chunks of feta to a veggie-rich salad, grate some aged cheddar over homemade chili, drape a slice of fresh mozzarella over a lean turkey burger, or blend ricotta into a smoothie for added protein and to make it taste extra decadent. Using cheese to make these foods more exciting to eat increases the chances you’ll eat higher amounts of healthy meals and snacks. That’s a win-win.
Don’t Sack the Fat
When it comes to choosing between low-fat and full-fat cheese, you need not settle for the former. Undeniably, full-fat cheese will be more satisfying, both from a taste and texture perspective, and most of the research suggesting cheese ain’t so bad for us has involved subjects eating regular cheese. Sometimes fillers are added to accommodate the lack of fat in lower fat cheese at which point you start venturing further away from what cheese should be. There is also evidence that people tend to eat larger portions when choosing lower-fat (light) cheese, which could cancel out any calorie advantage.
As long as you aren’t going overboard on saturated fat intake elsewhere in your diet you will have room for the saturated fat you’ll get from a generous grating for Pecorino Romano. With this said, there is nothing wrong with opting for part-skim ricotta or mozzarella if you want to scale back your calorie and saturated fat intake. These also have a beneficial nutrition profile including protein and micronutrients like calcium.
Imitation Is Not Flattery
Short-cut cheese is not the way to go. On the whole, you want to focus on eating higher quality cheeses made the way it should be. You can read ingredient labels of packageg and look for products that contain questionable items like emulsifiers, cellulose, coloring, and modified corn starch, and then choose to give these a pass. Seeing “cheese product” on the food label should make you cut the cheese. Note that some American cheeses — the super melty, yellow-sliced processed variety you loved on toasted bread as a kit — is made from mostly water, so it has fewer nutrients than other cheeses. Processed cheese food slices are only required to have a minimum of 51% cheese. Why settle for less?