The Low-Down on Cheese

[shelley]

The Low-Down On Cheese

One of the first things you want to cut out from your diet when cleansing is cheese, and if you’re anything like me, it’s one of the first things you’ll want back once you’re into the rebuilding or maintenance management stage.

It helps to know your cheese. There’s processed cheese, the rubbery kind that usually comes individually wrapped. That kind you shouldn’t ever eat. It is not a real food.

Fermented cheese is any cheese that has been worked on by friendly microbes. Most people know that the blue in blue cheese is due to a friendly organism that gave us penicillin, but some non-blue cheeses involve fermentation also. The texture and appearance is the giveaway – if it’s full of holes, it’s been fermented. The gas created pockets. These gas pockets can be large like in Swiss cheese, or tiny as in hard, aged cheddar, the kind that flakes and breaks off like an iceberg when cut.

Because the milk proteins have been fermented, these cheeses are low in lactose and may be tolerated by lactose intolerant people. They may even be enjoyed in small quantities during the cleansing stage every now and again on your “days off” from a long cleanse, but otherwise they are best left to the rebuilding stage and maintenance stage. Candida people can have parmesan after 1-3 months on a totally sugar-free anti-candida diet.

How to Eat Cheese
It’s important to consider how to eat cheese properly, because if you do it wrong you will suffer. Cheese is a very unforgiving food with little margin for error. At basically 100 calories a mouthful, vigilance in calorie counting alone is a must. High in fat and somewhat stressful to the liver, total fat intake and the power of digestion must be considered.

Since cheese is high in fat and calcium both, it’s best to enjoy cheese on its own or with a small meal with simple contents. This is because calcium neutralizes stomach acid. It helps to drink peppermint tea with all of your cheese-rich meals, or fix the cheese with a pungent or carminative spice. Red pepper flakes, basil, rosemary, thyme, green chilies, go well with white or cheddar cheeses. When I make my special quesadilla with three or four different cheeses I sprinkle the grated cheese with basil and thyme. When I want something a bit more Tex-Mex then it’s green chilies, jack cheese and avocado. I only eat quesadillas maybe 6 times a year so I try to make them count flavor wise, and the right herbs help with that part of it too.

A rich blend of fats, protein, minerals and vitamin A, when just a small amount (one ounce) is added to complex carbs like vegetables, whole grains or pasta, the meal will leave you feeling so much more sated you won’t miss dessert and shouldn’t need to snack before the next meal. It should cure all cravings. This is the magic of the burrito, of veggie omelets and fettuccini primavera. I can’t imagine having a quality life without the enjoyment of these meals occasionally.

There is a benefit to allowing high-calorie foods in your diet once you have a balanced relationship with your food. Fats pack a punch because each gram has nearly twice as much fuel power as a protein or carb. This is terrible when you want to eat more calories than your body needs, but it becomes a boon when you want to survive on fewer calories, fewer meals overall. It’s much less work for the body, and that means much slower aging.

I still enjoy macaroni and cheese and other cheese sauce dishes, I just make sure to only eat them alone or with a simple salad. Or I make things that taste incredibly cheesy but really don’t take all that much cheese, such as a cheese soufflי, which is just ¾ cup divided between four or more people. A slice of cheese is a good late night snack for those nights you’re allowed to eat late because you can’t sleep due to lack of calcium and calories. The calcium and comfort should put you out in no time.

An Excerpt from the “How to Survive Our Food Choices” Chapter in upcoming book tentatively titled Vital Health Management: Notes from the Ask Shelley Forum.

[ivana]

Hey Shelley,

this is a good post, that cleared up a lot of questions that I had regarding cheese. Didn't know that Candida people are allowed to eat it after 3 months, in moderation . I myself am not so crazy about the cheese, my family is not a big consumer (my moms kitchen was healthy one, I see now why she did not allow us to eat too much sweets), but this is good to know and pay attention

All the best,
ivana

[shelley]

Glad you enjoyed it! Just about any food can be made safe with the proper preparation, so if you have any favorite foods that you would like to add back to your diet let me know what they are and I'll give you any tips I can come up with.

[AgnesT]

Thank you for the wonderful and informative post on cheese! I have such a love/hate relationship with the stuff. I have always stuffed myself with it, and now I feel that it has been a big factor in clogging me up. I know I feel better without it, but I really do crave it....

[shelley]

So glad you enjoyed it, Agnes! Let me know if there are any other food options that are giving you grief and I'll see if I can help there too.

[AgnesT]

How does cottage cheese fit in? Is it cultured? Clogging? Thanks

[shelley]

Good question! I didn't go over every type of cheese, did I?

Cottage cheese is the simplest of fermented cheeses. It is basically just sour milk as it first curdles without any aging.

Because of the very soft texture, it can leave a kind of temporary coat that is noticeable on the tongue. If this lasts longer than an hour or two, or doesn't appear until the next morning, then it's clogging for you. It's usually only clogging for Kapha people. Pitta people thrive on it, do better on cottage cheese than kefir. Vata is soothed by it, especially if mixed with pineapple. Pineapple is the perfect fruit to eat with cottage cheese because it has an enzyme that dissolves proteins. People over 40 may need to increase their stomach acid ratio (wait until very hungry, drink peppremint tea) to digest it properly.

If you're not sure whether cottage cheese is appropriate for you, just start out with a small bowl as the only thing you eat and see how you do.

[AgnesT]

Interesting! I have always loved cottage cheese with pineapple!

One more question....Do you make your own kefir or buy it? Is the store-bought stuff good? Is there a brand you can recommend?

Also, I tried to make yogurt using a kefir starter, but it would never firm up. Was I doing something silly?? (blush) I thought I could just use a tablespoon of kefir instead of yogurt and grow all those extra bacteria strains that are in the kefir...

Making real kefir just sounds complicated...Maybe you could teach us?

[shelley]

Homemade yogurt never gets as firm as store-bought. So it's not your fault. we all had that problem in microbiology. Turns out most commercial yogurts have all kinds of binders in them.

I live in a house with 5 other adults, and we just recently got a second fridge in the garage! So I may have space to do my own Kefir. Definitely considering it. Not sure it's necessary tho, because I can get Alta Dena, Organic Farms, Harmony Farms, dairy, which all have Organic Unsweetened versions of Kefir and Yogurt, Goat too. Ah the advantages of California!

Making kefir is easy - you just have to get kefir grains, culture one batch, save some of that batch for the next batch. You should get good instructions with the kefir grains and I highly recommend Nourishing Traditions, it explains how to culture/ferment many many things, yet also includes regular recipes too so it's a good all-in-one cookbook.

[Dawnie]

Hi Shelly, What about Fetta? I'm on the first stages of the Candida diet, and I'm crumbling in to my midday salad mix ( toms,avocado,beets,snap peas,cucumber, roasted capsicums with a lemon juice/flaxseed oil/garlic dressing..yummy!!) but I'd miss the fetta in it
Dawn

[shelley]

If it is organic, raw feta cheese then it's okay in small amounts. Living and fermented is the rule.

[spo1977]

What is your take on raw/nonpasteurized cheeses that are now available at whole foods. I was wondering if these are easier to digest.

[spo1977]

No opinion on the cheese made from nonpastuerized milk, huh?

In theory I think it would be easier on the digestion because the bacteria activity must be higher. Not really sure though.