Cheese might be healthier than believed

 WASHINGTON: Cheese, which is rich and creamy, tastes delicious on a cracker, with fresh fruit, or sprinkled on top of a bowl of chilli. The majority of Americans simply love it. The annual per capita consumption is 40 pounds, or slightly more than 1.5 ounces per day, suggests The Washington Post, an American daily newspaper.

However, when people talk about their fondness for cheese, it's often in a guilty way, as in, "Cheese is my weakness." "Cheese is packed with nutrients like protein, calcium and phosphorus, and can serve a healthy purpose in the diet," said Lisa Young, an adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University, according to The Washington Post.

As per the outlet, research shows that even full-fat cheese won't necessarily make you gain weight or give you a heart attack. It seems that cheese doesn't raise or reduce your risk for chronic diseases, such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, and some studies show it might even be protective.

Good bacteria, lower saturated fat risks

It's easy to see why people might feel conflicted about cheese. For years, the U.S. dietary guidelines have said eating low-fat dairy is best because whole-milk products, such as full-fat cheese, have saturated fat, which can raise LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, a known risk for heart disease. Cheese has also been blamed for weight gain and digestive issues such as bloating. It turns out, though, that cheese may have been misunderstood.

Yes, it's high in calories: Some types have 100 calories or more per ounce. And it's rich in saturated fat. So why is it okay for most people to eat it? "Cheese is more than its saturated fat content," saID Emma Feeney, an assistant professor at the Institute of Food and Health at University College Dublin who studies the effect cheese has on health.

Old-school thinking on nutrition has been focused on individual nutrients — such as fats or protein — that either promote or prevent disease. It's not clear that this is the wrong approach, but nutrition experts are now putting more emphasis on the entire food and how its structure, nutrients, enzymes and other components interact with one another.

When milk is transformed into cheese, the process changes the way the nutrients and other components in it are chemically arranged. This has an effect on how it's digested and processed by the body, which can lead to health effects that are different from the effects of eating the same nutrients in another form, such as butter.

In 2018, Feeney led a six-week clinical trial in which 164 people each ate an equal amount of dairy fat either in the form of butter or cheese and then switched partway through the study.

"We found that the saturated fat in cheese did not raise LDL cholesterol levels to the same degree as butter did," she said.

Experts have varying theories about why the saturated fat in cheese is less harmful. "Some studies show that the mineral content in cheese, particularly calcium, may bind with fatty acids in the intestine and flush them out of the body," Feeney saID. Other studies suggest that fatty acids called sphingolipids in cheese may increase the activity of genes that help with the body's breakdown of cholesterol. (ANI)

Also Read:  Check out the five health benefits of cheese

Also Watch: