Oh, cheese. If I have any say in the matter, cheese will be a significant part of my last meal. The fattier, the saltier, the better. But not everyone agrees. In fact, in the last few years the cheese industry has been under enormous pressure to produce low-fat, less-salty products that appeal to consumers. Unfortunately, they haven't been that successful, and here's why: when you take the fat out, you essentially turn cheese into an eraser...
...or so says Gregory D. Miller, president of the Dairy Research Institute in this New York Times article. Fat and salt are critical ingredients in cheese, way more than consumers realize. Salt controls moisture content and bacterial activity, acts as a preservative, and flavors the cheese as it ages, while fat determines texture (and a myriad of other things), so it's incredibly difficult to make a tasty, "cheese-like" cheese that's low in both. To put it bluntly: "If you really want to make bad cheese, make a low-fat, low-sodium one."
The National Salt Reduction Initiative aims to have a 5 percent sodium reduction in most cheeses by the end of this year and a 15 percent reduction by 2014. Will the industry be able to meet these goals? Only if they slowly lower the salt content of their products, so as not to turn off the general public. Mark Johnson, senior scientist with the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says it this way:
"If I gave you [a cheese with 10 percent less sodium], and gave you a full-sodium one, you'd know the difference... But if I didn't ever give you the higher one, and gave you the lower one, you'd go, 'Mmmmm, that's not bad.'"
What do you think about these lower-salt-lower-fat endeavors? Despite my love for cheese, I actually don't have it on a regular basis, which means when I do indulge, it has to be the real thing. Otherwise, I'd rather not eat it at all, you know? That's my opinion. What's yours?
Read More: Asked to Get Slim, Cheese Resists at The New York Times
Related: Why It's So Hard To Create a Truly Cheese-Like Vegan Cheese
(Images: BW Folsom/Shutterstock)
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I would rather eat less full-fat full-salt cheese than eat lots of plasticky 'new' cheese. Moderation!
Just eat 15% less cheese, or eat it 15% less frequently. There's no way you're taking away my cheese. I already don't eat meat basically at all, I mostly eat whole grains, legumes and fruits and vegetables. A cup of milk or yogurt for breakfast (skim milk, low or nonfat yogurt). I deserve the occasional few tablespoons of Brie, or a chunk of salty aged provolone one or twice a week.
The problem is when you get a pizza with cups of gooey, cheap mozzarella on it, and you do that several times a week, on top of your bacon double cheeseburgers and salads with blue cheese dressing. Again, a slice once a week isn't a problem, but we need to moderate our cheese intake, not replace full-fat cheese with low-fat cheese.
Salt is not the enemy. Excess is the enemy. If they want to take away my cheese, they're going to have to pry it from my dead, salt-swollen fingers.
Eating less cheese, but eating good cheese when you do eat it, is definitely the way to go.
The goal to reduce salt is based on faulty and outdated science: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html. Let me have my salty, fatty cheese!
I don't know a lot about cheese, but I know a lot about searching for low-fat and low sodium cheese, and it's a fool's errand.
There IS one exception: Weight Watchers makes a delicious string cheese stick (mozzarella) that even non-dieters would like for a snack. It tastes much better than the regular string cheeses on the market, and makes a great snack. I wish Weight Watchers would make it in slices.
Yeah my mother eats low fat cheese in massive quantities it's so gross. Just have some self control and eat the real thing, it's so much better for you and more satisfying
I eat low and no fat cheddar and mozzarella cheese quite often...melted. If I'm making macaroni and cheese, or homemade pizza or the like, it's not that bad. I can taste the difference, but only if I think about it.
Straight up on crackers where the cheese is the whole point? No.
I agree. I'd rather have a full-fat, full-sodium, full-flavor cheese every once in a while that I enjoy and that's a satisfying experience, than something that tastes like an eraser. For me personally, it's important to be mindful about fat, calorie and sodium intake, but eating is also an experience not just a necessity.
Agree agree agree. I wish this trend would DIE. I go to Weight Watchers, and people are always discussing the dreck the cooked "and nobody can tell the difference!" Oh honey...it's just that we're polite. Low-fat, and it's undead cousin, nonfat cheese, lite mayo, cakes baked with diet soda...Lord, just STOP.
REAL food, just less off it. Simple plan, hard to follow
I like Cabot's low fat cheeses
Eat whole real foods, in normal portions. Get plenty of exercise. It's crazy but it works!
Why can't we just eat food as it was intended, instead of food sciencing everything to death??
"Cheese," regardless of what cheese one may choose to eat, is not by any stretch of the imagination, a natural product. Fatty, salty cheese, ripely oozing cheese, and Cheeze Whiz are just as manipulated as low-fat, low sodium cheese. The "natural" "real" "food as it was intended" is a matter of semantics, AND remarkable food science :)
If they're taking the fat and the salt out, what are they adding to still make it appear like cheese? :O
Meatified: they add thickening agents; xanthan gum, locust bean gum and/or guar gum. Not exactly "food," but also not additives known to do anything harmful, unless you happen to have an allergy to whatever they fed the bacteria that made the xanthan gum.
I agree with a lot of other commenters -
EAT REAL FOOD BUT EAT IT IN MODERATION. I'd rather fill my body will full-fat cheese than flavor-chemical laden crap cheese that only tastes okay if I swallow really fast. I don't diet. I cook and eat what I want (granted I don't drink soda and I love most veggies), but I watch my intake. Calories in vs. Calories out. That way I am never missing out on the real pleasure of cooking and eating a great meal.
I have been to dinner parties where the host is on a perpetual diet and therefore makes "lite" versions of foods for everyone. I understand, I guess, but I sometimes feel bad for them that they don't allow themselves to eat the REAL stuff - ever. And I don't like to eat all the chemicals that inevitably get added to fake, light, or low-fat foods.
By the way, I use LOSE IT (the app) for calorie counting and it works great :) Free, too!
I sometimes buy light cheddar or light havarti from Trader Joe's and I think they're both very tasty. I'm sure it helps that the fat in them isn't cut drastically. If I'm buying cheese for appetizers or a special meal, I get the good stuff, but if I want a quick grilled cheese sandwich for dinner on a random weeknight, this stuff fills in very nicely and helps me keep my calories for the day in check. I get the impression that I should be ashamed of this fact, but thankfully, my own judgement is all that matters when I'm in the privacy of my own kitchen.
Boooooooooo! I say eat nibbles, not chunks and enjoy cheese as is it. Don't mess with something that has been so right for centuries upon centuries.
I don't worry about the sodium in cheese, but the saturated fat in full-fat cheese is a problem. My boyfriend loves his cheese, but his cholesterol tends to be on the high side, so we use mostly reduced-fat cheeses. I occasionally use a mix of his favorite extra-sharp full-fat cheddar and the reduced-fat and that works well.
It concerns me that we're going through another one of these "chemicals are bad!" fads right now, the problem being that most of the people pontificating about "evil chemicals" have no idea about what those "chemicals" actually do, just that they're "bad." EVERYTHING is made up of chemicals, people. EVERY food is processed. Just because it's a type of processing--such as making cheese--that you grew up with doesn't mean it's any healthier than a newer type of processing.
I live in France, and I've never seen low fat cheese here... and I personally know lots of French people for whom dinner is not dinner if they don't eat some baguette and cheese at the end of it. (I might add that none of these people have weight problems)
then again, raw milk cheese here is very common (mmm, and delicious), and I've heard the idea floated about that the fat in raw milk cheese is somehow not absorbed by the body. (could be a nice fairy tale?)
in any case, the French approach seems to be 'a bit of really good stuff is better than a load of crap' - I concur.
btw, @STH - if you've ever been to a fromagerie up on an alpine meadow in the middle of nowhere, you might realize that the "processing" that takes place is quite minimal - cheese normally has 3 ingredients: milk, rennet, salt. (the mold is naturally occuring) Xanthan gum, guar gum, all of those "chemicals" have no place in cheese, which in its true form is a natural product.