# Hard or Soft Cheese - better for ya?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-or-soft-cheese-better-for-ya/87974>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 17, 2001, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-or-soft-cheese-better-for-ya/87974 "2001-10-17T13:46:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-or-soft-cheese-better-for-ya/87974/1 "2001-10-17T13:46:16Z")

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Which (generally speaking) variety of cheese contains less calories and/or fat? Harder or softer cheeses?

Thanks  
Gp

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-or-soft-cheese-better-for-ya/87974/2 "2001-10-17T13:51:34Z")

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Hard and soft cheeses contain the same basic ingredient–milk. The difference between them is that some cheeses are allowed to age longer than others (to “ripen”). The longer they age, generally speaking, the harder (and more flavorful) they get.

The amount of fat in both hard and soft cheeses depends on how much fat was in the milk. It’s got nothing to do with whether it’s “hard” or “soft”.

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**Author:** ![Popup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@Popup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Popup)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-or-soft-cheese-better-for-ya/87974/3 "2001-10-17T14:42:15Z")

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It’s hard to give general rules. A good place ot find out about cheese is the web.🙂 Especially [cheesenet](http://cheesenet.wgx.com/cheesenet/wci.asp).  
There one can find out that Roquefort “the King of Cheeses” cointains 36% fat, whereas a normal Camembert only has 21%. (both soft cheeses)  
Looking at hard cheeses we have Emmental and Parmesan at 37% and Cheddar at 32%.

These figures I come as a surprise to me. My favourite Camembert claims 45%MG on it. Can it be that the fat content on the cheese carton is the fat content (dry matter)?

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**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2001, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-or-soft-cheese-better-for-ya/87974/4 "2001-10-17T18:19:34Z")

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Check out the goat cheeses.