The fresher the cheese, the more water it contains and the less fat it has.
Some people are addicted to it and won’t consider a single meal without it. Considered high in calories, too fatty and too salty, cheese is often demonized, especially in the case of weight loss or an anti-cholesterol diet. However, cheese provides proteins and minerals interesting for health, such as calcium useful for bones and teeth, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, selenium or iodine which are all essential for our cells.
A meta-analysis of 15 scientific studies published in theEuropean Journal of Nutrition showed that daily cheese consumption (moderate) was beneficial for the heart and could protect against certain cardiovascular and coronary diseases such as stroke. If you like it, there is no reason to ban cheese. On the other hand, you should not overdo it and not all cheeses are equal from a nutritional point of view.
They do not all have the same composition or the same fat content. The fresher the cheese, the more water it contains, and the less fat it has. And vice versa. For example, the Goat Fresh or Ricotta only have 8 to 12% fat compared to 35 to 40% for cooked pressed pasta such as Parmesan, Comté or Beaufort. Between the two, there are soft cheeses such as Brie, Camembert, Gouda or Reblochon which contain around 20% lipids. On the other side of the circle, there is Cancoillotte which only has 6% fat. As part of a slimming diet or if you have too much cholesterol, you will favor the least fatty cheeses and without adding butter to your bread.
Concerning the quantity, the authors of the study advise consuming a maximum portion of around 40 to 50 g per day of non-fat cheese, which represents around 1/5 of a log of Goat cheese or 2 large tablespoons. of Ricotta. “If the cheese is particularly fatty (Brie, Camembert, Brillat-Savarin, Ossau-Iraty, Gouda, Cheddar, etc.), we weight its consumption to a maximum of 30g per day, which is approximately 1/8 of Camembert“, recommends our nutritionist Raphaël Gruman. In case of hypertension, you should avoid very salty cheeses such as Feta or Blue Roquefort type. For hypertensive people, the tip is to always accompany your cheese with a green salad, because the potassium it contains helps lower blood pressure.