is cheese bad foryou?

Question

i love cheese and i eat a lot of it and some people say its really bad and fattening but others say its a good source of calcium!! plz help!

Answer 1

Everything in moderation!

Answer 2

Contrary to what a number of these folks are saying, cheese is NOT good for you and NOT a good source of calcium.

Cheese is highly concentrated milk. It takes around 1 gallon of milk to make a pound of cheese. Pound sounds like a lot. There are only 16 ounces in a pound. That's like taking a gallon of milk and cramming it into a can of cola.

While unprocessed milk is very high in calcium, once that milk goes through all the processing needed to turn it into cheese - NONE of that calcium is available to your body.

Look at it this way, there is 350 milligrams of calcium in raw milk. After pasteurization - only 35 milligrams are "bioavailable" - that means, your body can use it. You get more calcium than that from 5 almonds. With far less calories and fat. By the time that milk is processed into cheese there is nothing good for you in it.

Cheese clogs your arteries. America's favorite way to heart disease. Did you know your average American eats only a little over 100 pounds of beef a year - but close to 600 pounds of cheese?

No wonder we're all obese and diabetic.

Did you know eating a lot of cheese causes your body to conserve dopamine? Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. Which means if you're eating a lot of cheese you aren't functioning properly.

Feeling sleepy? Feeling clumsy? Can't quite focus? You've had too much dairy!

Eating a lot of cheese also causes your body to excrete calcium in order to digest it. So it CAUSES bone loss. Another reason NOT to count it as a good source of calcium.

Let's talk about digestion. Did you know some 15 hours after you've had pizza the CHEESE will still be in your belly? Everything else will have been digested. But your body is still trying to make heads or tails of the cheese.

Answer 3

a lot of anything (besides water) isn't good for you. Because it is a dairy product it does have calcium in it, but not all cheese is fattening.

"There are many cheeses with lower fat contents, e.g. Brie has a fat content 1/3 less than cheddar and fromage frais is 1/3 less than Brie. Unfortunately, because cheese is known to be high in fat, it tends to be one of the first things we cut out or cut down on, yet many people find that there is little change in their weight. Why? Because cheese rarely accounts for more than a small percentage of the actual fat eaten in a person's diet."

http://www.thecheeseweb.com/contentok.php?id=22

Answer 4

Cheese, like Yoghurt, is a diary product. Both come from milk and both are healthy. Suggesting cheese is unhealthy normally comes from the suggestion milk is unhealthy; something which is completely untrue.

Now, why do you think human's naturally produce milk for youngsters? They produce it because it is so nutritious and their youngsters can live off it for the first period of their life. Why would they purposely make a food that was unhealthy?
Yes, I know cow's milk is different, but it isn't very. It has all the same nutrients, vitamins and minerals as human's, just different proportions, and thus it isn't inherently any unhealthier than human's. The anti-milk brigade really contradict themselves on this when claiming cow's milk is bad because it is so similar to human's, and if they tried to denounce breast milk they really wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
Whole milk is (albeit calves). It is also useful throughout childhood because, while it isn't needed per se beyond infancy, people still need the nutrients it contains throughout life, and it is an excellent source.

To quote wikipedia

"Milk began containing differing amounts of fat during the 1950s. A serving (1 cup or 250 ml) of 2%-fat milk contains 285 mg of calcium, which represents 22% to 29% of the daily recommended intake (DRI) of calcium for an adult. Depending on the age, 8 grams of protein, and a number of other nutrients (either naturally or through fortification):
Vitamins D and K are essential for bone health.
Iodine is a mineral essential for thyroid function.
Vitamin B12 and riboflavin are necessary for cardiovascular health and energy production.
Biotin and pantothenic acid are B vitamins important for energy production.
Vitamin A is critical for immune function.
Potassium and magnesium are for cardiovascular health.
Selenium is a cancer-preventive trace mineral.
Thiamine is a B-vitamin important for cognitive function, especially memory
Conjugated linoleic acid is a beneficial fatty acid that inhibits several types of cancer in mice, it has been shown to kill human skin cancer, colorectal cancer and breast cancer cells in vitro studies, and may help lower cholesterol and prevent atherosclerosis; only available in milk from grass-fed cows.

Studies show possible links between low-fat milk consumption and reduced risk of arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease, and obesity. Overweight individuals who drink milk may benefit from decreased risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes."

As for having fat, well yes, but so do many foods. If you don't eat too much fat, or excersise enough so that it's burnt off (and frankly just walking 20 minutes a day's enough to burn off quite a bit of fat) there's no problem whatsoever.
If you eat half a stone of cheese a day while sitting in front of the box then yes, it's bad.

@ Barebackrider

Yes, cows never meat for us to drink or eat their milk, but then again they never meant for us to eat their meat. Humans have drunk milk into adulthood for so long that we have adapted to it. Most mammals become lactose intollerant when they reach adolsence, but most humans no longer do, particularly in areas where dairy products are usually consumed most like Europe and America, and this is a direct result of us evolving over the last few thousand years.
As such, it is pretty natural to us.

The Masai in Africa consume almost nothing but blood, meat and milk. Much more milk than pretty much everyone else in the world, and their rates of osteoporosis are very low. We can only assume their are other causes, for instance les weight bearing activity than we should be having.

Many people claim dairy causes osteoporisis because it has so much protein, which has been shown to cause it as protein is acidic an your body leaches alkali calcium from your bons to neutralise it.
In fact, protein hasn't been shown to cause it. Experiments have shown it, but they used high concentrate protein powders, a form of protein your body isn't equiped to handle. When done with tural proteins the same results weren't shown at all.

Answer 5

It is good in moderation. It is a good source of calcium, protein, potassium, and vitamins A & D. However, it can be fattening, and eating too much cheese will cause constipation.

Answer 6

Too much if anything is bad for you. Cheese is an excellent source of calcium, but too much will leave you constipated. Eat Fibrous foods to counter act that.

Answer 7

it is not really a good source of calcium...animal fats cause calcium to leach from your bones so when you get calcium from animal products you have to eat more and you inevitably do more damage..
and then there is the pus and blood in it...

Answer 8

Not in moderation its not, and if you are vegetarian, it is a great source of nutrition. If you are veggie, tho, make sure you eat cheese made with vegetable rennet, as opposed to animal rennet, which comes from the stomach of slaughtered young calves. I like the taste of the veggie rennet better anyway.

Answer 9

I used to believe eating dairy products was good for my body, but I have come to learn about the other side of the story and I found it to be far more believable, and logical. I will leave you a few interesting things that some doctors and scientists have found out.

Ever wondered to yourself why we are the only mammals who need another mammals milk to keep healthy? I am a very think outside of the box type person and this was one of those things I always found strange about humans, this way of thinking brought me to learn about vegetarianism, I became a vegetarian at age 12. Other wild animals seem to keep fit and healthy without the milk from another species, in fact osteoporosis is so uncommon in wild animals it almost never occurs. My grandmother always preached milk to me and my sisters when growing up, and she herself consumed allot of dairy products. But yet like many other elderly she ended up getting osteoporosis, she is 72 years old and has already fractured a hip, and even cracked her ankle bone. This was one of those things that really got me thinking.... So I did researched about human health and came to learn many many eye opening things that really made sense!

One example

The countries (a few examples the US, the UK, Canada) who consume the most animal products (meat, dairy, eggs) also suffer the most osteoporosis as well as many other health problems and diseases. The countries (few examples China, Japan,) who consume the least animal products suffer the least osteoporosis and other health problems.

Other studdies have shown that dairy products and linked to other unatural health conditions like runny noses, ear infections, skin problems like acne, osteoporosis, heart disease, kidney stones, kidney failure and many many more problems. The average American consumes 2 to 5 times more protein than needed. This extra protein becomes acidic in the body, to bring down the acid your body uses the calcium in your bones to nutralize it. Then the calcium and protein sent out from your kidneys (this is very hard on kidneys) Over time getting kidney stones (almost all kidney stones are made with 95% calcium) and osteoporosis can be a problem.

We are lucky in the wealthy countries to have a good health care system.

Anyway there is lots lots more information about dairy and other animal products. But a quick and logical way to sum it up.... Each mammal species produces speacialized milk for their young, when the young become old enough they are weaned, its part of natures way. Many humans on the other hand never get weaned and continue to consume the milk of another species for their whole lives even! Why do humans do so many things against nature? I don't think humans are so flawed that they require cows milk to stay healthy, I now believe that a human can be perfectly healthy living on a balanced vegan diet. If other huge boned and powerfull animals like elephants, cattle and horses can get enough calcium and protein on a plant based diet and sustain themselves and produce milk for their young, then why can't humans? I used to get a skin rash that just would not go away, only after giving up dairy products for a 2 weeks it was all cleared up. I just feel better overal and plan on being a vegan for the rest of my life (=

http://www.drmcdougall.com/medical_hottopics.html
http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_hot_calcium.html
http://www.milksucks.com/index2.asp
http://www.4.waisays.com/index.html

Answer 10

CHEESE IS GOOD DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU OTHERWISE ...lol no really, if we were afraid to eat anything fatening, we wouldn't survive. cheese is a good source of calcium, and, as long as you exercise, it could boost metabolism... the only thing you really should be worried about eating, fat-wise, is trans fats... they are poison... they never leave your body and cause all types of diseases, the same goes for partially hydrogenated oils- if a food says no trans fats, still check for oils:)

Answer 11

Well yes regular cheese is fattening but it does provide you calcium and protein. The low-fat(not fat-free) is not bad and its a lot lower in fat