Nutrition in cheese?

Iristxo

Hi

Just wondering if someone can outline to me the nutritional value of cheese? We were never big on dairy but have gotten into it a bit more now and so far have not notice any adverse effects. Just wondering from the thread about living on eggs, cheese and beef (not looking to enter into another discussion about that) but is cheese so nutritive that someone would consider living "partially" on it? Anybody can point out to me the "benefits" of it? Apart from calcium of course.

These days we're buying mozzarella cheese and cottage cheese after seeing it mentioned in here, only where do you guys put your cottage cheese on, or do you just eat it out with a spoon?

jam_mac_jam

off the top of my head I would say protein would be a benefit as well, but its very high in fat and calories so I would say limit it to a certain amount. The soft cheese you mentioned generally has less fat than cheddar. I would eat cottage cheese with ryvita or with a salad if I had to but find it very tastless and would rather a small bit of real cheese in an omelette say rather than more of tasteless cheese but that's just personal taste.

moonage

The benefits are that it is high in fat and protein, low in carbohydrates and has a range of vitamins and minerals.

The protein in cheese is a complete protein, which means it contains all the eight essential amino acids.

It has Vitamin A, some of the B vitamins, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium and others.

The soft cheese I use is Philadelphia which I put on bread or Ryvita.

Low fat cheese should be avoided, as you lose some of the benefits.

Darkginger

I spent many of my 20s and 30s eating low fat cottage cheese, and have to agree it is pretty tasteless. A few years back I stopped being concerned about fat content, - and wow! Full fat cottage cheese was a revelation - it actually has a taste, and creaminess I enjoy it with hardboiled eggs in a salad, or just straight from the pot.

metamorphosis

Cottage cheese is an excellent source of protein. I get mine from aldi - 200gms and 26gms protein.

I get ryvita, put on a bit of peanut bteer and cottage cheese, maybe smash a banana on it too - favorite pre/post training snack. NYOM

dxhound2005

The advice from the people who believe in the Food Pyramid is that a matchbox size piece of cheese per day in a balanced diet is about right, more for teenagers and pregnant women. If you had no cheese but ate a balanced diet otherwise it probably wouldn't matter but if you ate a lot of cheese you would be going against the advice of most qualified nutritionists and dieticians. I happen to believe in their advice and it works for me but I know most people here are against it.

Iristxo

dxhound2005 wrote: »

The advice from the people who believe in the Food Pyramid is that a matchbox size piece of cheese per day in a balanced diet is about right, more for teenagers and pregnant women. If you had no cheese but ate a balanced diet otherwise it probably wouldn't matter but if you ate a lot of cheese you would be going against the advice of most qualified nutritionists and dieticians. I happen to believe in their advice and it works for me but I know most people here are against it.

Well I'm no low-carber but I have as of recently (a few months) quit most grains (bread, pasta and the likes) and I (we) do feel all the better for it. We won't be eating enormous amounts of cheese every day but we do try to eat some protein at every meal as recommended and so looking for variety in this cos we don't eat that much meat, also we don't ingest a lot of fat so some fat from dairy would be fine. But yes, while I'm no low-carber I suppose you're right, we do not believe in the food pyramid as it's traditionally intended, no. We eat carbs from fruit and veg but don't really see why it should be the base of the pyramid, at least if you include grains in it. Discussed to death in this forum, I know.

Sapsorrow

Iristxo wrote: »

Well I'm no low-carber but I have as of recently (a few months) quit most grains (bread, pasta and the likes) and I (we) do feel all the better for it. We won't be eating enormous amounts of cheese every day but we do try to eat some protein at every meal as recommended and so looking for variety in this cos we don't eat that much meat, also we don't ingest a lot of fat so some fat from dairy would be fine. But yes, while I'm no low-carber I suppose you're right, we do not believe in the food pyramid as it's traditionally intended, no. We eat carbs from fruit and veg but don't really see why it should be the base of the pyramid, at least if you include grains in it. Discussed to death in this forum, I know.

You're better off getting your protein from eggs, meats, fish, nuts and seeds IMO. Milk is for baby cows, sheep and goats not humans. Dairy and cereal proteins are the two biggest sources of allergens worldwide, it's not a coincidence (or a suprise) that these are the two food groups we've only been eating since the agricultural revolution (~10,000 years ago) and so haven't evolved to eat. In terms of trying to eat as naturally as possibly dairy doesn't have a place, and it's generally still a processed food in my books. I can't see that it's a nutritional necessity in any way either. Not trying to start a debate here (I don't have time and am way to easily distracted as it is! :pac:) just my two cents!

moonage

khrystyna100 wrote: »

You're better off getting your protein from eggs, meats, fish, nuts and seeds IMO. Milk is for baby cows, sheep and goats not humans. Dairy and cereal proteins are the two biggest sources of allergens worldwide, it's not a coincidence (or a suprise) that these are the two food groups we've only been eating since the agricultural revolution (~10,000 years ago) and so haven't evolved to eat. In terms of trying to eat as naturally as possibly dairy doesn't have a place, and it's generally still a processed food in my books. I can't see that it's a nutritional necessity in any way either. Not trying to start a debate here (I don't have time and am way to easily distracted as it is! :pac:) just my two cents!

Of those listed eggs, meat and fish are the best. The protein in nuts, seeds, cereals and legumes are incomplete proteins so they have to be mixed in the right proportion to get the correct amino acid combination.

While dairy isn't a nutritional necessity, I don't see why it shouldn't be eaten, provided you're not allergic to it.

Sapsorrow

moonage wrote: »

Of those listed eggs, meat and fish are the best. The protein in nuts, seeds, cereals and legumes are incomplete proteins so they have to be mixed in the right proportion to get the correct amino acid combination.

While dairy isn't a nutritional necessity, I don't see why it shouldn't be eaten, provided you're not allergic to it.

The idea that amino acids need to be combined is a nutritional myth, the author (Francis Lappe Moore) who pioneered the idea initially in the seventies has even gone so far as to republish her book on it with the updated information. They contain all amino acids, just in different proportions to animal products, also the body can break proteins down and make what it needs if they're not being supplied through the diet. There's also more good reasons to eat nuts and seeds above and beyond their protein contents, minerals and fats being the obvious examples.
Dairy has more going on than just the casein or lactose,they're any number of chemicals in there some of which are psycoactive. I'm not saying they're all bad, some seem to have potential health benifits but overall not worth it in my opinion when other healthier foods are adequate protein sources.

moonage

khrystyna100 wrote: »

The idea that amino acids need to be combined is a nutritional myth, the author (Francis Lappe Moore) who pioneered the idea initially in the seventies has even gone so far as to republish her book on it with the updated information. They contain all amino acids, just in different proportions to animal products, also the body can break proteins down and make what it needs if they're not being supplied through the diet.

But doesn't the body need all 8 essential amino acids in the correct proportion?

Say you just ate legumes (which are low in the amino acid methionine) as your main protein source, after a while wouldn't the cell rebuiling process stop?

Sapsorrow

moonage wrote: »

But doesn't the body need all 8 essential amino acids in the correct proportion?

Say you just ate legumes (which are low in the amino acid methionine) as your main protein source, after a while wouldn't the cell rebuiling process stop?

No because protein is in every food to some extent (except maybe celery ) and like I mentioned the body can rearrange molecules to make the amino acids it needs. Even amongst vegetarians, vegans and fruitarians protein deficiency is unheard of in the developed world, it only occurs in the case of anorexia or starvation (and in that case it wouldn't be restricted to veggies either!). Believe me protein deficiency is some thing you'd know about!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Kwashiorkor_6180.jpg

http://www.cs.stedwards.edu/chem/Chemistry/CHEM43/CHEM43/Leukotr/Kwashiorkor.GIF

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/Kwashiorkor_dermatosis.jpg

They're pictures of protein-energy malnutrition is children (it's called kwashiorkor), see the distended abdomen, edema and dermatitis, now honestly have you ever seen a vegan that looked like that!?

corkcomp

it depends on the cheese, personally I wouldnt bother with cheddar, unless it was on a pizza or something:D a lot of hard cheeses have a greater fat content than protein .. but cottage cheese is a great source of protein ..