Cheese is amazing, and anyone who says otherwise is lying.
It's great with wine, perfect on the side with some crackers, and it can improve almost
any savory dish you care to add it to.
But not all cheese is equal, and there's some that you should leave sitting on the shelf
in the grocery store.
We're talking about cheese that's not good for your waistline, bad for the environment,
exposing you to a high risk of food poisoning, and one that's even got more in common with
foot funk than with anything else in your fridge.
So, which cheese should you be skipping?
"HAHA.
I just can't ignore the cheese!"
Queso fresco
Queso fresco is a staple of Mexican cuisine, but there's a dangerous side to this cheese:
it can be a breeding ground for listeria.
Both homemade and commercially produced queso fresco is likely to grow bacteria, and it's
been linked to numerous food poisoning outbreaks.
Even if you buy and unwrap a perfectly safe batch of queso fresco, it can easily pick
up a contaminant from your home or fridge, where it doesn't take long for a problem to
develop.
The CDC recommends pregnant women, people with compromised immune systems, and the elderly
don't eat queso fresco at all, the risk for listeria is so great.
The consequences are serious: it can be fatal, and has been linked to miscarriages.
This is definitely one case where it's better to be safe than sorry.
Mascarpone
Mascarpone isn't just a pretty pricey cheese, it's also about 50 percent fat.
That fat content is what makes it an excellent dessert cheese and thickening agent in savory
dishes, but it's also what makes this one deserving of the unhealthy reputation cheese
can have.
If you were to eat a single tablespoon of mascarpone, you'd be eating about 10 percent
of your daily allowance of dietary cholesterol in addition to all that fat.
Since most people are trying to lower their cholesterol, not raise it, that makes being
aware of mascarpone's potency pretty important.
Fortunately, you can swap out mascarpone for low-fat ricotta in many dishes, and cream
cheese and Greek yogurt are also viable replacements.
You can also replace just part of the mascarpone to keep the flavor and lose some of the bad
stuff, and that's good, because there's a lot of bad stuff.
Sheep cheese
If you think sheep cheese would be more environmentally friendly than cow's cheese, you're mistaken.
It all comes down to just how much milk and cheese a sheep can produce.
When researchers from MTT Agrifood Research Finland looked at how much methane was produced
by sheep, cows, and goats and compared that to how much cheese was ultimately produced,
they found sheep were the least efficient of them all.
If you want the most environmentally safe option, go with a goat cheese: not only are
they the most efficient animals, but soft cheeses that haven't been aged for a long
time are the best when it comes to energy consumption as well.
Cheddar
There's no denying that cheddar is a favorite cheese, both versatile and delicious.
"Of course Cheddar cheese makes all the difference, Hooray!"
But because you can easily eat way more than a few servings in a single sitting, moderation
is key here.
It can quickly become bad for you, especially considering it can contain a huge amount of
salt.
The Food and Drug Administration recommends that adults consume no more than one teaspoon
of salt per day.
When the UK-based specialist group "Consensus Action on Salt and Health" tested various
types of cheeses, they found that while salt content varied across brands of cheddar, some
had a higher concentration of salt than actual seawater.
A single, matchbox-sized serving of cheddar contained about one-sixth of the recommended
daily allotment of salt...and how many of those servings do you put on your nachos?
Skip this one if you can.
Velveeta
As amazing as Velveeta is in queso dip, you should still skip it for a few different reasons.
A single serving of Velveeta has 80 calories, which doesn't seem like much.
But 50 of those calories come from fat.
Now let's put serving sizes in perspective.
One ounce is considered a serving of Velveeta, and there are 16 servings in that block.
Given that it's easy to sit and pick away at a bowl of queso dip all night, you know
you're going to be getting more than a single serving if this one's on the menu.
It's also incredibly high in lactose, making it a problem for not just those who are lactose
intolerant, but also those who might be sensitive to dairy.
While milk has between 3.7 and 4.8 percent lactose, Velveeta has a whopping 9.3 percent.
Not only are you going to pack on the fat and calories, but you're going to feel bad
afterwards.
Just don't do it!
Limburger
Even if you can't stand the idea of limburger, you probably know someone who loves nothing
more than putting some on a sandwich, and grossing out everyone else in the room.
Fortunately for you haters, science is on your side.
If you're having a picnic and want to keep the mosquitoes away, put some limburger out
away from the party.
The mosquitoes will choose the limburger over you, and that's because they think it's an
extra-strong version of what they're attracted to in people: bacterial foot funk.
Researchers at a Dutch university have found that the bacteria that turns limburger into,
well, limburger is the same genus of bacteria that's between your toes.
It grows when cheese makers wash the outside of the cheeses with water, which then nurtures
the bacteria in the same way our sweaty feet do.
That doesn't explain why some people love it, but if you hate it, there's your scientific
explanation as to why it's gross.
You're welcome.