I’m not much of a cheese-eater in general- most cheeses flat-out gross me out- but I have a couple of exceptions that I really enjoy. One of those is Parmesan cheese.
I’ve taken to bringing large chunks (about a third of a wedge) of my favorite brand of Parmesan as lunch at work, because it’s a low-fuss food. (The rest of my lunch is nuts and dried fruit, plus a third random thing). So I’ve been wondering- what are the long-term health effects of eating large amounts of cheese for at least three days a week?
PS. Mods: this is not a medical advice question. This is just something I’ve been curious about.
Depends on how much is a “large amount,” and what else you eat during the day. It says here one ounce (28g) of hard Parmesan cheese has 5g saturated fat (7g fat total) and 449mg sodium. Not horrible, but 5 ounces of it will max out your recommended daily intake for both.
My aged MIL is 91. She takes no medications. She has no chronic conditions except arthritis and wrinkles. Her parents owned a cheese factory and cheese shop and she eats a good 4 ounces of Italian typed cheeses every day and has for 80+ years.
Many societies believe real cheese properly made from real ingredients is a very healthy food. Kraft American singles are not cheese; they are petroleum distillates cleverly disguised as a food-like substance not immediately fatal. There is a difference.
I eat at least 2 pounds of cheese a week … have so about all my adult life … no ill health effects yet … but there’s still time … it’s just not a taco unless there’s cheese in it … just saying …
Nicely put. I’ve never forgotten being at a talk where a doctor described Kraft Velveeta as possibly the most expensive “cheese” in the world when you factored in the cost of having its consequences scraped out of your coronary arteries. And for those who insisted that modern medicine can deal with such issues, he brought out something that looked like a small harpoon that might be used to subdue one of the smaller specimens of whale. It was one of the instruments potentially used for intracardiac injection in the event of cardiac arrest, stabbed into your heart in a last-ditch effort to get the thing started again.
ETA:
Yes, but hyperbole is the essence of spirited writing that helps to convey a basic idea.
Hmm. Maybe all that cheese is what’s been making you abuse that poor ellipsis within an inch of her life? Every time you post. :eek: It’s all been a cheese allergy!! Of course! It makes some sense now.
I’ve eaten at least several ounces of cheese every day of my life - but I’m not lactose intolerant, my cholesterol/lipid levels are good, I don’t have high blood pressure (some cheeses have a lot of sodium), my weight is under control, and so on. In other words, for me my level of cheese consumption is not a problem and likely healthy for me.
For other people… not so much.
For the lactose intolerant, those with lipid problems, and so on cheese might not be a good idea.
Whether or not cheese consumption at a given level is good for you is something that depends on you. If you start having problems that might be connected to cheese eating you might need to cut back, but as I am neither a dietitian nor a doctor (and especially not your doctor) I don’t feel I could give more definitive advice than that.
The more factual assertion is that this has digressed from the OP question about cheese. Synthetic goop that has the word “processed” before “cheese” or, worse, the legally mandated phrase “cheese food” in place of “cheese” – to refer to stuff that is artificially constructed, pressed together, flavored, and colored – that stuff is not cheese. That’s my point, even if it may contain among its surging chemical constituents some remnants of actual cheese. It’s essentially a form of synthetic compound, colloquially referred to as “plastic”.
Parmesan cheese is extremely low in lactose. Really just trace amounts. Same with many other aged cheeses.
High protein - a 3 oz chunk has 30 grams of it. Plenty of calcium, basically RDA right there. Yeah fairly high sodium, but not much more than an 8 oz bag of potato chips and with a quarter the calories. Fat content up there but still less than a bag of chips. And something about the way fat is packaged in cheese seems to make it less well absorbed.
High satiety. Especially having it along with nuts (hopefully unsalted) and high fiber dried fruits. That’ll keep you satisfied a good while.
As part of a diet that also includes vegetables at other points … long term health effects likely positive for most on average. Excepting maybe those with salt sensitive hypertension.
And at a GQ level - American cheese, including Kraft singles, are cheese, often several varieties actually … and also a few other things like extra whey, cream, and emulsifying and acidifying agents, intended in part to make it “plastic” in the sense of able to be molded into shapes, and to help it melt without turning greasy. They do not contain petroleum distillates. That’s not hyperbole; it’s just a false statement. Nutritionally they are pretty much the same as the cheddar they originate from with a bit more sodium and some added paprika and annatto (both real foods) for coloring. Would it win a contest with a slice of cheddar? Not to my mouth. But any “doctor” who told you that it was so much worse for you than a similarly sized slice of cheddar was a goof.
While processed cheese definitely isn’t straight from the cow, the idea that it is plastic (or the more common “it’s one molecule away from being plastic”) has little basis in fact. It is made from either cheese or some other unfermented dairy product, plus emulsifiers (typically something like sodium phosphate, which is not plastic), vegetable oil, salt, whey, and sugar. While you can definitely argue that it’s not “real” cheese, there’s no plastic in it.
I can’t think of anything wrong with it. Your lunch of cheese, nuts, fruit, and a bit of something else (bread? meat?) sounds just fine, balanced, and tasty. I am a huge cheese gourmand, and while noshing on a rather large chunk of Parmesan seems a bit odd to me (as opposed to a few oz. of, say, an aged Cheddar or a double or tripe creme French–Parmesan/granas are more accent cheeses to me) it sounds like it would fit in with a healthy diet as you have described. Enjoy!
I’ve always loved cheese, but a few years ago I made my first visit to a real cheese shop. There was a knowledgeable cheese monger who discussed the various cheeses. She sliced tiny tastes of cheese and carefully wrapped our purchases.
It makes some sense now.
Enjoy!