Cheese might be my absolute best food to eat, especially now that I’ve quit sugar for so many years.
It’s not as if quitting sugar causes cravings since that depends on the person, but I can appreciate cheese in ways I never could or ever have.
That makes the benefits that much more relevant and ideal.
Let’s talk about it.
Underrated Benefits of Cheese:
1. One of the best Vitamin A sources (high absorption)
I’m surprised to see so many health sites, especially the more professional and “medically reviewed” websites still spitting the same foolishness about Vitamin A.
Meaning the lies that vegetables like carrots have high levels of Vitamin A and that vegetables are the best sources for vitamin A.
This is not only a lie, but a very clever one that only fools people who don’t know the difference between beta-carotene and Vitamin A.
Beta-carotene is something found in plants and gives them their colour. It’s also something your body converts into Vitamin A when absorbed by digesting vegetables or fruits.
According to Science Direct, the absorption rate can be between 5% and 65% for humans. These poor rates are hard to measure, and getting to the higher end of the spectrum means adding fat to vegetables.
Or having a body that converts it that high, which is unlikely.
Even then it still won’t compare to eating a pure fat like cheese because there’s no “risk” of poor conversion, and plant compounds can potentially interfere with the absorption (fibre and so on).
Cheese is the highest vitamin A source with the highest absorption rates, aside from eggs, butter, or organ meats.
Vitamin A, after all, is a fat vitamin, which means you can only absorb it through foods that are naturally fatty or have good levels of fat at the very least.
Compare that to plants.
Plants of any kind have beta carotene which may turn into vitamin A once eaten, but the percentages are so small you’d have to be foolish to not eat foods like cheese to load up on this underrated nutrient (as far as cheese goes).
Eating only vegetables for Vitamin A is nonsensical, and adding butter but not even fats like cheese is mental gymnastics at best.
1000 IU of Vitamin A or more is achievable depending on how much cheese you eat, and how much you eat at a time.
100g of cheddar cheese has over 1,002IU’s of Vitamin A, according to the USDA.
Parmesan cheese has 865IUs of Vitamin A per 100g.
For Feta cheese, it’s 422 IU’s of vitamin A per 100g.
Lastly, Brie cheese has 592 IU’s of Vitamin A per 100g. The latter of which you could eat 200g and get over 1000IU’s of Vitamin A.
Or over 2000IU’s of Vitamin A by eating 200g of cheddar cheese, etc.
2. A surprisingly good source of magnesium
When I didn’t know any better, like most, I thought cheese was a dead food when it came to magnesium. I thought what’s the point of it only having 10mg per 100g or whatever.
But it turns out not all cheese is like this. There are select cheeses that can contribute to your daily magnesium intake in a legitimate kind of way.
Those cheeses are:
- Parmesan cheese.
- Cheddar cheese.
- Grana Padano.
- Edam.
- Gouda.
- Muenster.
- Brie.
- Feta.
- Goat’s cheese.
- Mozarella.
Starting with Muenster cheese, there is 27mg of magnesium per 100g. This is a US based cheese and is not to be confused with Alsation French cheese.
200g of this will get you nearly 60mg of magnesium.
Grana Padano cheese, one of the healthiest in the world, has 63mg of magnesium per 100g. This is very high for cheese, which means just 200g of Grana Padano will net you over 120mg of magnesium.
Few animal products aside from seafood have numbers this good for relatively low amounts.
Next, we have Parmesan cheese, which has about 38mg of magnesium per 100g of this cheese. A good 200g of this cheese will get you nearer to 100mg of magnesium with parmesan alone.
The more authentic it is, the more magnesium you’ll get as well since food closer to the source is always better.
Feta cheese while on the lower side does have 20mg of magnesium essentially, and 200g of this cheese is doable which doubles the amount.
Feta will also get you other nutrients as well, of which magnesium is just one important factor.
Cheddar cheese is higher than Feta with magnesium content. 28mg per 100g, along with its other nutrieitonal benefits besides magnesium.
Still, it’s another good source.
Gouda cheese has 29mg of magnesium content per the USDA guidelines. I’d say if you eat it from Europe or surrounding areas, you’ll get much more than this.
200g of this cheese gets you close to 60mg.
Edam cheese is similar but with 30mg of magnesium content per 100g of it.
That’s on top of the other benefits you get unique to these European cheeses.
Brie cheese has 20mg of magnesium content per 100g, which is easy to raise to 40mg with 200g of brie.
It’s a small cheese and usually comes in small packages. It’s higher fat content works well for ketogenic diets.
Mozzarella cheese is 26mg per 100g of this cheese, but with whole milk, the amount becomes 20mg of magnesium content per 100g.
Always choose the purest form of mozzarella, since what you’ll get from other nutrients on top of magnesium will always be better (for example, vitamin D works with Magnesium).
Goat’s cheese has 29mg of magnesium content, and that will vary depending on the type of goats cheese you eat.
Some goat’s cheese is blended with Gouda or Edam cheese, some are aged more, etc. But this is a general guideline.
And finally, there is Camembert, one of the lowest on the list but NOT the lowest out of all cheeses you can eat (cottage cheese is less than 10mg of magnesium).
With 20mg, it’s an additional amount of magnesium for your daily intake, and 200g of camembert cheese bumps it up slightly.
3. Potassium in high amounts?
Another area of cheese that’s underrated and not spoken about enough is the potassium content you’re able to get from it.
Of course, not every cheese is equal, but with the right cheese and access to them, it can be comparable to vegetables which are a legitimate source of potassium, along with meats like beef (they happen to go together).
200mg or even 400mg isn’t farfetched when eating Grana Padano cheese. Then there’s parmesan as well.
Let’s look at the facts.
Grana Padano has 120mg of potassium taken from their website. That makes it one of the most ideal cheeses alongside its higher magnesium content when compared.
Especially if you eat 200g of this cheese on any given day.
Mozzarella cheese has 95mg of potassium per 100g, making it almost 200mg per 200g of this food.
Not too bad at all.
Parmesan is even more impressive with 125mg of potassium per 100g of this cheese, making it 250mg for a 200g serving of food.
This is the kind of level you want from cheese, along with its other benefits.
Cheddar, one of my favourites, has 98mg of potassium making it almost 200mg per 200g serving.
Cheddar is everywhere, but getting the most genuine version of cheddar, preferably local and not pumped full of shit will always get your potassium levels higher than the average.
Camembert has 187mg of potassium content, which puts it in a league of its own. 200g of this food will give you shy of 400mg of potassium content.
This is comparable to drinking milk of a certain size, having certain tinned fish, having bacon, and so on.
Brie cheese, one of the highest fat content of any cheese, has 152mg of potassium, making it over 300mg for a 200g serving.
As part of a whole meal, you’re only doing yourself favours.
Similar in range, Goat’s cheese gives you 158mg of potassium per 100g. And more than 300mg for a 200g serving size.
This will help your energy levels along with its magnesium content.
Muenster cheese per 100g gives you 134mg of potassium content.
Close to Brie and Goat’s cheese, and either way you look at it, it’s better than you’re told.
Edam cheese straight from the Netherlands has 188mg of potassium, making it the highest on this list. 200g of this cheese will get you very close to 400mg of potassium.
Gouda cheese has 121mg of potassium according to the USDA. Meaning 240mg of potassium per 200g of this cheese.
As we can see, cheese shouldn’t be written off as a food that can’t give you potassium or magnesium in good amounts.
Edam Cheese has more potassium per 100g than oranges do, as well as apples and many other fruits.
4 Healthy sources of Iodine and Zinc (which many are deficient in)
On Iodine deficiency:
“Iodine is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies and is estimated to affect 35–45% of the world’s population.”
And Zinc deficiencies:
“An estimated 17.3% of the global population is at risk of inadequate zinc intake. The regional estimated prevalence of inadequate zinc intake ranged from 7.5% in high-income regions to 30% in South Asia.”
As we can see, both minerals are a problem for many millions upon millions of people worldwide.
Cheese can play a role in healing those deficiencies.
Here are the BEST cheeses for Zinc and Iodine content:
An average RDA for Iodine is 150mcg, and Cheddar cheese has 42mcg or ug (same thing) in a 100g serving.
According to checkyourfood, Cheddar has 1.64mg of zinc, and the RDA is around 14mg.
With Feta Cheese, the amount of iodine you get per 100g is harder to trace. We can only assume the amounts are good.
Zinc on the other hand with FETA is 2.88mg per 100g, which is even better than Cheddar (according to the USDA).
Grana Padano, being the beast of an Italian cheese that it is, has 11mg of zinc per 100g. That’s not just comparable to shellfish, but it surpasses shellfish like Mussels per 100g.
Even Beef can’t compare per 100g for zinc content, and barely organ meats, which tells you how healthy and loaded Grana Padano is with ZINC (100g of this cheese is basically the zinc RDA).
As for the Iodine content, Grana Padano has 35.5mcg or ug, which is slightly less than cheddar, but far more balanced when you consider how high Grana Padano is in other nutrients.
Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano) has over 8mcg or ug of Iodine content. Which is a little lower than let’s say, Cheddar or Grana Padano, but still relevant (the fresher the cheese, the better).
According to the official website, there is 4mg of zinc per 100g of Parmesan cheese.
That makes Parmesan cheese one of the best for zinc content.
Gouda cheese has 3.9mg of zinc per 100g, according to the USDA. Putting it on par with some other cheeses on this list like Parmesan.
Iodine for Gouda is yet again harder to trace to an actual number, but given how good this cheese is, expect only good things if you eat plenty of it.
Edam cheese, like the brother of Gouda, has 3.75mg of zinc which is similar to Gouda.
As for its Iodine content, you can expect 13mcg or ug per 100g which isn’t bad at all.
Muenster cheese has less than 3mg of zinc per 100g, and the Iodine content is harder to trace to a relevant number.
The fresher the better as always.
Emmental cheese, which is a Swiss cheese, has around 18mcg or ug of Iodine content. Which is one of the best there is for cheese.
As far as its zinc content, the number sits at over 4.5mg per 100g.
It’s fairly balanced, not including all of its other nutrients.
Brie cheese which is from France has almost 3mg of zinc per 100g of it.
As for its Iodine content, there isn’t enough data but that doesn’t mean it’s useless.
Other cheeses in this section were ignored as they have low zinc and iodine (less than 1ug or mg).
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In the end, cheese is a staple for a reason. It’s not going anywhere and it shouldn’t.
It has one of the healthiest nutritional profiles out there, and for those who are pursuing healthier foods and healthier fats, cheese is the way to go.
And if you’re pursuing a ketogenic diet, cheese is the perfect choice to stay full and feel healthy.
Especially if you can get your hands on Grana Padano and Parmesan, 2 of the greatest cheeses there are aside from Cheddar.
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