I made an exciting discovery a few weeks ago while doing my weekly online grocery shop. I found a cheese that’s low in saturated fat (so won’t raise your cholesterol levels), high in protein and 100% natural. The only ingredient in it is unpasteurised British cow’s milk (plus some salt), so it’s also a great source of calcium.
It sounded too good to be true, but I decided to give it a go because I’ve had to cut down the amount of cheese in my diet to keep my cholesterol low…and to be honest I miss it a lot. Turns out it tastes really good – by far the best low fat cheese I’ve ever tried. It’s got quite a rubbery texture and doesn’t melt as nicely as full fat cheese (you can’t have it all I guess!), but it tastes great eaten in slices on its own, on crackers or in sandwiches.
It’s called ‘eatlean Protein Cheese‘, and after googling it I discovered that it’s part of a whole range of high protein cheeses (see their website here). The blocks, snacking portions and grated cheeses are all cholesterol-friendly, as they contain less than 1.5g saturated fat per 100g, but the spreadable and shaker cheeses aren’t.
You can buy the blocks of cheese online from Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose – they currently cost £3-4 for 350g. They also stock the grated version at my local Tesco Express, but I haven’t tried it yet. I doubt it will melt as nicely as full fat grated cheese, but still might be good to try on a pizza or jacket potato for a low cholesterol dinner option.
Here’s the nutritional information per 100g of the cheddar cheese block:-
- Energy = 715kJ / 169kcal
- Fat = 3g
- Saturated Fat = 1.3g
- Carbohydrate = <0.5g
- Protein = 37g
- Salt = 2g
- Calcium = 992mg
(Note, it’s lactose free and suitable for vegetarians).
So as you can see it really is good for you and can be eaten regularly as part of a low cholesterol diet. One thing to be mindful of though is the amount of salt in it. It contains 2g per 100g, which is a third of the recommended daily intake for adults. So it’s probably best not to eat the entire block of cheese in one go (!), and make sure you’re careful about how much salt you eat for the rest of the day.