Are you a cheese lover? Is your idea of heaven a platter filled with your favorite indulgent cheeses. Do you struggle to find a healthier cheese and one that actually tastes good?
Well?
Today, on the Nutrition Couch Product Review, you are in lap because Leanne and I have researched hard, and when I mean hard, We've eaten lots of cheese to help you identify some of the better options nutritionally. I'm Sussie Burrow and Wood and it's two of austray as leading dieticians. We bring you the Nutrition Couch Product Review, a weekly chat or new products and old favorites that you can find in supermarkets. Now, cheese, Leanne, you and I both
love cheese. When we get together, we will often enjoy a bit of a flatter with some bubbles, and I know that your favorite is a pretty gooey, a gooey free or camon beer or something. I myself love a goats cheese and I love a truffled to hype of cheese as well. What's your go to that you have to hide from David so it doesn't eat it all at home?
I do love a bree, but I will be honest, I only really buy it if we're entertaining, because I am partial to eating half the half the round of Bree, which is not not fabulous for fat loss or postpartum fat looss like I was achieving many months ago. So I do love a good quality a triple Bree. I also do love lately I've found this. I think it's a truffle Sheep's cheese in Coals and Woolworths in like the you know, the fancy cheese type section, not the
normal sort of sliced cheese section. I just buy a little bit of that, and that's absolutely amazing in a couple of whole grain crackers. And the other one I really do love is Swiss. Like if I'm making a rapperous sandwich or I've got some beautiful, fresh, crusty saldo, I will put in some Swiss cheese into that. I do. I am very partial to some Swiss cheese.
Yeah, and I do include cheese regularly with my clients plans. You know, I'll al shnate between. I often say cheese once a day, and that's sort of whether they want to include it in a salad or on a sandwich. So when we've come to speak today. Because cheese is cheese, you know, it will range between thirty forty percent fat. Obviously, there's more indulgent cheeses. Cheddar is cheddar. Even though the differences are in flavor, the actual nutritional profile very very similar.
So what I wanted to do was highlight some of the ones we would define as a bit healthier for different reasons, which will go through, but also ones that still taste good, because there's nothing worse than being told to have, you know, a low fat product that doesn't taste anything like full blown cheese, because cheese is a high fat food, and so we want to leave some fat into retain its flavor. So the three that I've chosen for those reasons a sort of specific on the nutritionals.
So the first one we're going to go through is the bigger, tasty, fifty percent reduce fat, and it's called Country Light. Now, the reason we've chosen this one is that there's quite a few light cheeses out there which are what we will call reduce fat or twenty five percent less fat, whereas this product is fifty percent reduce fat. And this is the only one I can find that's that's a lot lower. So when we take a look at the nutritionals on it, and you can buy it
in blocks and also slices, and the prices range. The block that I'm looking at now is retailing for about nine dollars fifty per five hundred grams, and then you can get a big jumbo pack, can't you for like thirty for nine to fifty? Is that right?
Thirty slices for nine dollars fifty.
And of course the prices do differ depending on what the sale is at the time. And now the serving size is. Interestingly, and because it's still twenty five grams, sometimes in the cheeses will look at they make the slices really really thin and the service small so it looks less. So I quite like this because they're still basing it on a reasonable serve, which is about thirty grams. We would say, is a cheese serve or a couple of slices?
Mine seventeen grams on my nutrition seventeen grams.
Are slice, So I've got the block, so it's twenty five, so it depends if it's slice, so your slices are saying fifteen.
I'm looking at the slice pack of thirty slice packs and as a slice is seventeen grams, so which is quite random because traditionally a slice of cheese has always been about twenty grams.
Then I do wonder, because of the cost of milk and dairy that they're sort of shaving a little bit off each slice slice size the way they've done with chocolate without us noticing. So that's a bit cheapy in itself. But what I do is I look per hundred just as a comparison, and then we can look say per slice, so per hundred grams, that comes in just shy of three hundred calories thirty four grams of protein, So cheese
is a high protein food. But this is fifteen grams of fat per hundred grams, which is yes, definitely half a regular cheddar that's about thirty and about twenty twenty five for a light so certainly higher than ten percent fat, but sort of in that middle ground. Or per twenty five grams serve here is three point eight grams, so that would be less than what two grams per slice of cheese, which is really very low as we would expect.
The carbohydrates insignificant, The sodium six hundred milligrams. Cheese is a relatively high salt food, but the calcium is also massive, so you're getting nine hundred and forty milligrams per hundred or that translates into for a couple of slices about just shy of two hundred milligrams of calcium, which is a great which is why if you like cheese and you have high calcium knees and perhaps and not a milk drinker, it's a great way to get a serve
of calcium. So for a product like this leanne the benefit for me is because it's a bit lower in calories because it's like sixty calories per slice, and then lower in fat. I could probably get away with a little bit more of it as opposed to just recommending my clients have twenty grams of it. They could probably get away with a little bit more. And I've had it tastes pretty good.
You know.
If I was buying sliced cheese, which I can't with my husband because he just eats them like just one after the other. I tend to buy grater just for portion control for sandwiches. But if you are a sliced cheese person for the family and a cheese that still
tastes good at keeping the calories a bit lower. I'm a big fan of this product, and it's not easy to track down, but if you can find it, it is sort of nutritionally really high in protein and a bit lower in fat and calories than regular sort of cheddar cheese.
I do like sliced cheese because it is portion controlled. And I'm the opposite of you. You were saying, oh fair that you don't tend to buy sliced cheese because crystal eat the whole thing, but you buy a block instead, Versus if I bought a block, no joke, David would cut the world's largest hunk offered and call that, you know, a little bit of cheese and put that on a
little bit of a cracker. So I buy the slices because it is more portion controlled, and I find he just takes one or two, puts it on some crackers and walks away. Versus if we buy a whole block, that block disappears very fast. And cheese is not something that you would call a cheap food like dairy, and cheese is more expensive. You know, you look at thirty slices here for nine dollars fifty. It's definitely not cheap, it's definitely not budget friendly, but this is one of
the better products on the market. I do buy it. I quite enjoy it. I really like the nutritionals. The nutrient label is very clean. You know, the ingredient list is only a couple of products long, like you would expect in cheese. It's milk, it's salt, it's some cultures and some enzymes just to run it being the enzyme from dairy. So there's nothing unclean, and that ingredient list
put it that way. But it is definitely a good calorie save if you're somebody who likes cheese, who eats regularly and does require is that extra boost of calcium.
So I'm very much a fan of giving my clients a serve of cheese, a serve of milk, and a serve of yogurt most days if they choose to taste and eat dairy, and if they are happy to have it and they tolerate it, well, I'm definitely a fan of something like a nice cheddar cheese, particularly put on crackers to put into a wrap, to maybe put with the eggs for breakfast as well. So this gets the thumbs up for me. I recommend it, I use it myself, and I think it tastes pretty good as well.
Yeah, i'd give it really high got eight or nine, just because it's such a nutrient dense food and still tastes pretty good and the fat is lower, and definitely for someone with heart disease, someone who was really trying to keep their fat intake controlled, it's a great product for you. But that leads me onto my next product, which is a product that I've been in love with
as a dietician since I first graduated. And the reason I liked it then and it's not dissimilar from the Bear, is that it was always significantly lower in fat, but it tasted really good. Now it's the Yelsberg Light. Now, Yalsberg is a Swiss style cheese land, but it's not from Switzerland, as we've spoken about it. It's from Norway. It's a Norwegian brand.
Now.
The reason I've always loved this product and I've loved it less recently because it's so expensive, But in the good old days when it was retailing for four fifty when I first started as a dietitian, the reason I loved it was it had such a beautiful flavor and it was so thin and portion controlled. So now the price has just gone up so much. It's now seven dollars for one hundred and fifty gram, so much thinner
as you can see. Or you can actually get two for ten dollars in some supermarkets, which makes it a bit more budget friendly. But it is only one hundred and fifty gram thanks to those very thin slices. It's a secret recipe that comes out of Norway from the nineteen fifty, so it's one of their big exports in the dairy area. And it's very thin slices, just fifteen grams ten slices per serve. But when we take a look at the nutritionals very similar to the bigger fifty
percent reduced fat. So the protein's high at thirty one grams per hundred. It's only sixteen grams of fat and ten saturated, which is really low for cheese. The sodium, it doesn't list the calcium on it, but calcium would be pretty similar to across the board. For a couple of slices, you'd be getting close to two hundred milligrams. And again it's pasteurized cow's milk. The enzyme salt back to your culture. So it's just a cheese I find,
which is really flavor from on sandwiches. It's really thin, it's delicious. It's got a really nutty flavor, so it's not as easy to overeat and you can find it in blocks as well, and I've just always loved it. But yeah, my only downside now is it expense wise, you know, for people on a budget. It's really not that cheap for families, but yeah, if you enjoy cheese regularly and want to include a couple of slices a day.
I'm a big fan of Yelsberg in general, and the Yelsberg light is that little bit lighter in fat.
Overall, I'm like you, I've been in this for years. I remember putting this in my school lunch box and being the weird kid that ate the smelly Swiss cheese.
Do you think it smells?
Do you reckon? It smells well a little bit. Yeah, it's definitely stronger than like a cheddar or something, but it's delicious. I love Swiss cheese. I used to call it the holy cheese on the mouse cheese, and I was when I was younger, but you know, I recommend this for my clients as well. I think it adds a beautiful taste into something like you know a Turkish you know, turkey wrapp with sala in a bit of Yelsberg light or something, and I'm like you, I get
the light varieties as well. It's just that slightly lower and calories and fat because I am a cheese lover and I would probably have about two serves a day of cheese on most occasions, so I do tend to go for a lower fat variety because my portions of cheese are more than what I would generally recommend for my clothes. I mean for that loss.
And anyone who saw me twenty years ago, I remember how I always we've gone about the Yeldsburg life. But I will say, if you can find it on sale, you're going to save a bit of cash. And I would also say, coming into party platter season, that is a great cheese to include because you can roll it really easily. It looks great on a platter, and it's a lot lighter than the big chunks of cheddar that
we have in a cube and often include. All rightly, and well, the last one is a new player actually, and I like it as well, and it's the Woolworth Swiss Light Cheese. Now it's very similar I guess you would say nutritionally to y Alsberg. But the reason I like it is it's got a good price point of five dollars for two hundred grams, So that's one of the cheapest that we've looked at, because as we've spoken about, it's one of the more expensive items in supermarket. It's
got five health stars. Interestingly, whereas I think the others. I think the Beaker came in at four from memory, but you don't see a hot of food with five health stars very often as you do on this product.
That's interesting. It's got forty percent less fat on the label and similar nutritionals as we would expect from a lighter cheese, about thirty grams of protein per serve just shive three hundred calories per hundred grams, I should say thirty grams of per hundred grams, about sixteen percent fat, eleven point five percent saturated, and again we don't have the numbers on the calcium, but we would assume it's
close to two hundred milligrams per serve. But sodium is that bit lower, which is perhaps why it's tick the box on the Health Star ratings. It's coming in very low per serve at just one hundred milligrams, which is incredibly low for a cheese and hence, I yeah, I would say definitely that's a great choice for people with heart disease or blood pressure issues because not only is it less fat, it's got the flavor we've spoken about.
It's still a twenty gram size serve, not a seventeen in the bigger range, and sodium is really low, like just one hundred milligrams per slice is incredibly low for a piece of cheese. It's sixty milligrams for the fifteen gram serve of Yelsberg Light. Oh, they're pretty similar across the board, actually about one hundred milligrams per serve on them. So it's a great choice. My clients actually told me
about this cheese. I hadn't seen it. They've got a whole range in these kind of packs, but this is the only light one that I found. It's got regulars with cheese. You do have to check out and find the light one with the five health staff. But a great addition and a great budget friendly cheese choice to include frequently if you love it on your wraps or sandwiches or even with your breakfast as a really nutrient dense food that still tastes good for a bit less fat.
This is on high rotation in my household. I buy it, use it, I recommend it. I love it. It's delicious. It is a lot more cost effective than the Alsberg one, and I think it's similar taste. If I'm being honest, I do think Elsberg does taste a little bit nicer, but from a budgeting perspective, I do often buy the
wool worst one. I have just looked up the specs in terms of calcium, so one twenty gram slice has nearly two hundred milligram, so roughly between sort of twenty to thirty percent of the recommended calcium intake for most people. So as we would expect, it's got a good whack of calcium in there. So if you are someone who needs a little bit of a boost of calcium and you like your cheese, this one is a very good product.
And yeah, I think it's it's something again big green light for me, Like it's rare that we review three products that we actually really like. But today I think you know, being cheese lovers, we really wanted to show our listeners which ones we go to you know, regularly, and really do recommend.
True because you know, we know that things like Columium brea are a little bit heavier, and we don't want to bag out cheese in general. It's such a nutrient rich, fabulous whole food. But I do want to highlight that there are some good options that are that bit lighter, as I said, particularly coming into party season and platter season. So we will put photos all of those on our social media, on our Instagram feed and give them a
go and let us know what you think. But thumbs up from us on all of those varieties, and you know, there's only a handful, but they're pretty good. And just as a final point, the other cheeses that I tend to go with with my clients, remember mozzarella is that a little bit lighter in fat as well, and you can find that in graded varieties, as is ricotta. Let's not forget Ricotta's really high in protein, it's a much lower in fat. It's delicious, it goes beautifully with toast
and tomato, so don't forget your recotta as well. As another great slightly lighted cheese that has all the nutritional benefits of regular cheese for a bit less fat and calories. All right, well, that brings us to the end of the Nutrition Couch product review. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe, and we love when you put photos up of you listening to us. We love to reshare those on our social media and build our following. So thanks for your support and feel free to share
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