Would Grok Chow the Cheese Plate?
Is cheese healthy? I get asked this question a lot, and I do want to preface it by stating that if there were a definitive answer, we’d probably know it by now. I’m not a big dairy advocate, especially not in light of the way so much of it is processed and manipulated to death, but I don’t completely avoid cheese, either. My personal view of cheese is that it’s on the “okay” list. I eat it occasionally, but it’s not a major source of my calories. But let’s consider the issue further. This post is by no means the last word on cheese, but I hope these thoughts will be helpful to you if you’re debating whether or not to keep cheese in your diet. (And I welcome your thoughts as always. Even you vegans.)
There’s no doubt Grok would have devoured a cheese plate. To be fair, Grok would have devoured nearly anything, including Captain Crunch and cupcakes. Food was hard to come by before the advent of agriculture, let alone grocery stores. Humans have been utilizing the milk of mammals outside our own species for at least 8,000 years, and possibly longer than that (probably coinciding with the shift away from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to our modern grain-based agricultural system). Milk, and its various processed varieties – e.g. sour cream and cheese – surely provided useful fat and protein for old Grok, and it follows that we can benefit as well. Humans haven’t changed significantly since the agricultural transition. However, we know that the human body did not evolve on a grain-based diet; grain was introduced after the final blueprint, as it were, had already evolved. If you can make a case against grains, you can possibly make a case against dairy as well. My personal opinion is that – to be blunt – while humans come with our own milk and don’t “need” the milk of other animals, a little cheese is not something to fret over. Really, my only major concern is the type of cheese you’re eating. You can take any “natural” food and with enough processing, dyes, flavorings, homogenizing and pasteurizing turn a perfectly dense source of fuel into empty calories. Cheese is very high in saturated fat – again, for me personally, this isn’t a huge nutritional concern – but the major issue I would caution you to consider is the heavy processing most modern day “cheese” goes through.
There’s a good amount of debate about the superiority of some cheeses vs. others. Those who follow Atkins or very high fat diets will actually go for the higher fat triple creams such as brie (I’m making myself hungry here). Others recommend only sparing amounts of aged cheese for flavor. In general I would say stay away from the processed and reduced-fat varieties and go for either raw or minimally-processed cheeses. There are plenty of raw producers now, if you do a little web searching. It’s wise to check out the facilities of the raw dairy farm if you can; though raw dairy, and cheese, is richer in nutrition by far than the pasteurized stuff, cleanliness is paramount. As for minimally processed cheeses, many European favorites fit that bill. I personally enjoy a little manchego or feta from time to time, but I’m just not a big cheese guy. Further, I really recommend yogurts and kefir over cheese. The former are fermented and highly nutritious, while the latter is processed in a way that increases acidity. Now THAT gets us into pretty interesting territory, and I think another post is warranted after you jump in.
The only other major issue here is the digestion factor, which brings us back round to our evolutionary history. Not everyone produces lactase, the enzyme necessary to digest lactose, a sugar in milk. The benefit of cheese is that it is fairly low in lactose in comparison to milk, so for die-hard dairy lovers or vegetarians, cheese may be a reasonable choice. What I don’t recommend is relying on cheese for your calcium needs or loading up your kids with it (although I think raw is probably just fine). You don’t “need” cheese. Remember, bone health is about so much more than calcium. You need a whole host of vital minerals, some of which Americans are shockingly deficient in. Moreover, reasonable sun exposure and frequent weight-bearing activity are just as important to bone health as calcium.
Those are my thoughts. What are yours?
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
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I don’t know if cheese is healthy but I love so much!!!!
The bad news is that the cheese I eat is processed but the good news is that I eat very little of it. My breakfast at work is two eggs on Canadian bacon with just a little shredded mozzarella (from a bag) on top. I’ll also have a little cottage cheese with fruit two or three times a week as an evening snack. I’ve been trying to find Greek yogurt here without luck. Our local Sun Harvest which was bought out by Wild Oats which was bought out by Whole Foods used to carry it; however, they dropped it before I got a chance to try it. I would like to try that as a substitute for the cottage cheese.
I am pro dairy when it is raw dairy and un-processed. But I totally agree with Mark, what is typically sold as “cheese” just ain’t cheese folks and it still is more a “flavor enhancer” than a caloric staple, and raw goat-milk keifer is a great probiotic
Bottom cheese line for me… “A flavor enhancer”
Every now and then some feta in my salad. (Or in my tomato, cucumber and feta salad.)
Last night I made a ratatouille with zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper and a splash of tomato sause, to make it extra tasty, I put three small thin slices of fresh mozzarella on top and put it under the broiler.
I don’t buy the manchego much….because when I do, I eat too many olives and drink too much wine
I’m all for the unprocessed cheeses, because they are utterly delicious. And generally, one small piece is enough. Kefir, though, I can drink the whole bottle at once. Mmm.
I like your thoughts Mark.
Dave-sometimes if you ask, a health food store will order it for you. I’m always asking for stuff(win some, lose some). I like fage greek yogurt.
Good word Mark…I concur. I don’t avoid cheese, but it isn’t a major part of my diet either. Sometimes I’ll pick up a small block of some cheese that I love at the farmer’s market from a raw producer, usually their amazing bleu cheese. I then either chop a small slice and eat it alone or crumble some on my salad.
That said, I also think that dairy is not necessary. Dairy is only “necessary” because people are convinced they need the calcium, yet Americans consume the most (or nearly the most) dairy in the world and have one of the highest rates of osteoporosis…something doesn’t compute. I think our nutrition advisers missed the day they taught acid-base balance and that magnesium and vitamin D are necessary for bone health, along with load-bearing activity.
My order of preference is no dairy, then raw dairy, and finally pasteurized dairy. Although pasteurized doesn’t have much nutrition remaining.
Cheers
Scott Kustes
Modern Forager
Crystal:
Thanks! Fage is what the store used to carry. I think that there is a large supermarket cross town that might have it–I’m going to try and hit it this weekend.
Personally a glass of Bordeaux with kefir does not appeal much
But on that note, as Mark says, most of what masquerades as cheese these days doesn’t go well with fine red wine either.
As with wine(and EVOO and balsamic vinegar), cheese made the right way should cost much more than cheese made the wrong way. So compare the price per pound of a bag of Kraft shredded to Widmer’s 6-year aged cheddar and you’ll see what I mean. The taste will also be an indicator in comparing the two – why does anyone even LIKE the taste of that crappy kind of cheese on their food?
And that last paragraph will ensure that you don’t eat too much of it anyway…
Let me just say I love cheese. I get my cheese from a farmer down the road. They use raw milk from grass fed cows. If you want they will let you sit and watch them make the cheese. I eat a lot less cheese now that I am on a paleo diet.
How many of you who advocate consumption of cow-milk-derived foods would drink the breast milk of the nursing human mother who perhaps lives next door to you or even in your own home? Probably none. And yet, you eat and drink foods derived from the breast milk of a four-legged, cloven-hoofed, snot-nosed, stupid animal that couldn’t recognize you if you played kick-the-can with it every evening at seven for ten years. Why do you want to drink milk designed to nourish the young of an animal like that?
Cows have tails: If you want to drink milk, drink it from you own species! KEW
Kew you are not quite right, cows definitely recognise people, which is why some get shat on every time they try to milk them and others, get walked up to for a scratch please. I guess being on grass they can feel your vibes man… And mostly it is by the noise you make and the way you move.
You are not allowed to sell unpasterised milk in NZ, (but most herds are 90%+ grass fed), so the only ones who get it are people like me who drink full cream milk directly from their own Mrs Moo herself.
Jacqui: You have your own Mrs. Moo? I’ve never met anyone before who had their own Mrs. Moo!
But wouldn’t you agree that it’s a bit strange to drink the breast milk of a four-legged creature? Don’t you think that’s weird? I do…
But!
I like cheesecake. =) Plain is best.
And sometimes I put Moo Milk (half&half specifically) in my Tall Decaf Triple Shot Cafe Americano. But that’s only because…
The coffee shops in the States don’t serve Coconut Milk…
Yet.
I’m working on that. KEW
P.S. It’s highly appealing that 90% of Moo Moos in NZ are fed a natural diet of grass. Maybe I should move there.
well drinking the breast milk of another creature is not all that weird. It makes sense that when humans discovered they could drink the milk of another species they did it, because in paleo times we tried to get the maximum amount of calories with the least effort. Plus milking cows and consuming the milk as opposed to killing it and eating the meat, means you can get more food per cow.
Although, farming grain may also mean easier access to calories, but obv that is not healthy.
so is eating raw dairy healthy?
I think it’s MUCH better than grain because it’s an animal food, when fermented it has few carbs, and milk from grassfed animals has all sorts of good stuff like that found in the animal’s body fat such as vitamins A and D, CLA, etc.
So I consume raw dairy occasionally mostly in the form of raw butter or ghee, as that’s where the good stuff is!
To my knowledge, vitamin D doesn’t occur naturally in milk. And it contains only 7% vitamin A. A serving of kale contains over 300% vitamin A.
The trouble with moo milk is that it tastes so good! It’s hard to resist sometimes. Fortunately, I’m getting much better at using coconut milk instead.
Are you speaking about raw milk? And the amount of D in a serving of kale doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bio-available. Lots of vegetables do not release their vitamins without some kind of animal fat like butter.
Hi Lindsay,
Kale doesn’t contain Vitamin D. There are very few foods in which Vitamin D occurs naturally. The only foods that I’m aware of are certain fish.