Before You Eat Your Next Slice of Cheese

Everyone has at least one food weakness. Like if you were on death row and given your choice for one last thing to eat what would it be? Well for me that would be cheese. I am a cheese-aholic. Well, I should say, a reformed cheese-aholic. That’s right. I’ve been 3 years sober from cheese! Except for the occasional off the wagon for a party or something. But even then it is just a sliver or two.

The reason why cheese is so good is that it is loaded with fat. Saturated fat. The artery clogging kind of fat. And that is exactly the reason why it is a bad thing to indulge in.

So for the purpose of making a point I conducted a little food experiment. I melted 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese in the microwave allowing the fat to “oil off” from the protein mass. The result was pretty doggone disgusting.

Check out the first picture of the separated liquid saturated oil. Then the second picture of the oil that solidified at room temperature. Diets high in saturated fats drive up harmful LDL cholesterol which prompts blockages in the arteries.

Let’s face it, we all probably have some degree of plaque in our arteries. But switching over to plant-based eating can put the brakes on continued plaque formation and possibly even reverse the process.

The separated oil
Solidified at room temperature

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5466936/

Author: DIANA ZATT

Hi everyone! It's no secret. I'm pretty addicted to eating clean and leading a healthy lifestyle. I am a registered nurse and chronic condition educator (diabetes, heart failure, hypertension, obesity & COPD). Nothing excites me more, personally and professionally, then helping others take control of their health. It really is a passion of mine. That's why I created this blog! When I am not in the kitchen creating healthy eats or digging through scientific literature, I enjoy hiking, biking, gardening and spending time with hubby Dennis. Oh and I am a mother to a loud mouthed parrot named Pickles, a 20 year old black cat named Charlie and about 50,000 honey bees.

8 thoughts on “Before You Eat Your Next Slice of Cheese”

    1. Tell me about it Wendy! That’s why I prefer to just make my own meals where I have ingredient control. Sure – I enjoy eating out every now and then – but I just make the best choices that I can.

  2. This is an amazing site. Full of information, set up nicely and with Diane humor to keep the reading interesting.
    Great Job!

    1. Thank you so much Kim! I try to make things interesting. Feedback, good or bad, it important to me. And you don’t have to necessarily switch completely over to WFPB. Maybe try one plant based meal for the week “Plant Based Wednesday” or something where you eat completely clean for the day. Give it a try!

  3. Wow. That’s pretty disgusting, it’s all oil.
    What about the solid block cheese the non processed ones. I love cheese too, honestly do not eat it much anymore, but heard if you do eat some cheese pick the solid whole milk types. Thoughts on that ?

    1. Consumer.org.nz has a chart of the fat content in various cheeses. The lowest is cottage cheese 4% fat/100mg, ricotta 7%/100mg. Mozzarella is 21%, smoked cheddar 28%, colby 34%, smoked cheddar 36%, mild cheddar 37%. Brie and blue cheese top the charts at 44%. The sodium content is also pretty mind boggling. I guess if you want to add cheese as an ingredient go for the reduced fat varieties. Sometimes I might add Kraft zero fat mozzarella to top my casseroles but to tell you the truth I’m phasing away from that because of the salt content. Now I’ve learned how to make crazy delicious cheesy sauces using raw cashews or white beans which I will post. I know what you are thinking – cashews? white beans? Trust me it is delicious and totally 100% healthy in every possible way.

    1. Totally agree Paul! I traded all that cheese for mouthwatering plant based cheesy sauces and the more I eat the healthier I actually am. Pretty amazing.

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