News From The Cheese Caves

There is little that gets me more riled up than the denigration of cheese. The fact that many writers do not include cheese in their recommended lists of beneficial foods is almost as frustrating.

In his article, Cheese and the Obesity Epidemic, Dr. Neal Barnard (who is a psychiatrist, not a dietician) states that people have been told that the problem with their attempts to lose weight is a lack of exercise. It is a contributing factor: the increasingly sedentary lifestyles of most Americans (combined with the number of empty calories we consume); that lack of exercise tips the scales. He goes on to state that cheese is 70% fat. Anyone can read the fat content on a cheese label. Is he suggesting that the reported percentages are terribly inaccurate?

Triple-crèmes are the only cheese types that reach that level, and they are mostly water. 75% of the weight in those triple-crèmes is not fat; rather it is 75% fat after the water is removed. This is standard practice in the industry – that the fat content is measured by the amount contained in the cheese without the water; the water content is variable. Yet in his article he says cheese (assuming that he means all cheese) is 70% fat. False!

I agree that our changing eating habits have contributed to our weight gain. We should stop and look more closely at the lists of ingredients on our foods. Those lists may leave out the genetically modified organisms, the trace amounts of pesticides and herbicides; yet at the top of the list or very close to it, you will find sugar. Besides all those unnatural chemicals we find in our groceries, the sugar itself is beginning to look like a particularly serious poison.

Dr. Barnard is attributing the following claims to whom?

“First of all, people trying to lose weight have been lied to” and “They have been lied to about food, with quick-fix, low-carb advocates pointing a finger to blame at bread and fruit…”

Who is saying this? The low-carb advocates have already lost some credibility. By the way, we cheese people love our whole grain breads and fruits. We appreciate all those nutrients; all of them are found in cheese except for vitamin C and fiber.

Here’s another quote from the article:

“That’s why people in Asian countries stayed thin and healthy until Western fast-food chains brought in meat, cheese, and other junk foods…”

The cheese brought in by fast-food chains is a weak facsimile for actual cheese. This is an example of how the standardization of foodstuffs have lumped all cheeses together, as though there is only one kind. I must admit however: given a choice among the foods available in our grocery stores I would still choose one on those industrial process cheeses over most everything else. One of the growing problems with the Asian waist lines is there own adoption of fast foods with the “empty” calories they contain. And of course they have their own increasingly sedentary lifestyles.

Another quote from his article:

“But most of all, they have been lied to by the meat and dairy industries, which aim to convince us that we need cheese and other unhealthful foods”.

Here he is attributing the claim to these industries. The dairy industry does not suggest that consumers need cheese, though most of us know that we are much better off with it. I believe that we should have cheese, not that we need to have it. When I am around someone that says they cannot eat cheese I know that there will be more for the rest of us who can.

I suppose Dr. Barnard has only been exposed to the more industrial styles of cheeses, bereft of important nutrients. If one of these less pleasing and less nutritious cheeses was all that was available it would make it more difficult to argue the pros of cheese. Fortunately there is growing appreciation of cheese in this country; the availability and quality of fine cheeses has improved immensely. The bar has been raised, Dr. Barnard. Many of us in the industry have been addressing the bad-mouthing for such a long time that we have armed ourselves with strong evidence on behalf of cheese. We have surveyed the results of statistical research conducted at various institutions and we like what we find. Those institutions include Harvard College of Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, the University of Texas, Iowa State University, the University of Wisconsin, the United States National Library of Medicine, just to name a few.

The results keep coming in: cheese is not the cause of our obesity epidemic; in fact the fattier cheeses can actually help us to lose weight. Those fats stimulate the production of cholescystokinin which gives us a sensation of satiety.
Conjugated linoleic acid, a fatty acid available in cheese, has been shown to be an effective weight reducer in multiple studies, and a cancer fighter in many others. The type of CLA found in cheese reduces the risk of diabetes and reverses arteriosclerosis. Not to get off the obesity challenge, but there are plenty more outstanding nutritional qualities available in cheese. Eat a little bit of cheese and you eat less other foods, foods that are much less nutritious but still provide the calories.

Dr. Barnard’s charge that cheese elevates our cholesterol levels is disputed by the presence of CLA, higher concentrations of some amino acids such as taurine and lysine, and calcium, which all help to improve our overall cholesterol levels.

Anecdotally, when you look around the ballroom at the annual American Cheese Society conferences you will see one of the healthiest and happiest groups of people anywhere, and their waist lines are thinning.

Max McCalman

A question came up recently; actually this question comes up almost daily:

“Is it okay to eat cheese when you are pregnant”?

The short answer is: Yes, same as it is for everyone else, except that it is not only okay; it is imperative that you eat cheese when you are pregnant.

The questions are frequently centered on raw milk cheeses.

“Which cheeses should I avoid while I am pregnant”? The underlying question is which ones are made from unpasteurized milk?

We do not advise you to ignore your obstetrician of course, yet as I mentioned in a recent post: cheese is not taught in medical school. Obstetricians should certainly know a lot about nutrition, and I am certain that most of them do. My fear is that some of the diet guidelines recommended may be based on incomplete or imprecise science.

One of the pitfalls I encounter with the assumption that pregnant women should only eat pasteurized cheeses is that this gives a false sense of security, as though pasteurization is an absolute, that the cheese is squeaky clean so there should be no concern whatsoever.

I have been asked these questions hundreds of times so I wanted to get to the bottom of it. I also happen to be a parent.

Part of the problem with this issue is one of nomenclature. To hear that a cheese is made with raw milk sounds a bit sinister. The “raw” word is associated with things that are unclean: raw sewage, or for the more puritanical in us, raw sex. This is why I prefer to call the cheeses made with unpasteurized milk (which also suggests “unclean”) as uncompromised cheeses.

Besides diminished aroma and flavors, cheeses that are crafted from pasteurized milk have altered textures; more importantly: some of their nutritional values are reduced, especially the fat-soluble vitamins and some of the minerals chelated to denatured proteins, denatured by the heat of pasteurization.

The premise of pasteurization is that it eliminates the bad bugs, which it does, to an extent. It kills most of the bad bugs in milk, but it also kills a large population of the “good” bugs. For anyone that does not realize that we are surrounded by good and bad bugs (that an entire civilization of each kind resides in our alimentary canal) they should know that it is okay not to know this because we can count on those “good” bugs; they outnumber the “bad” ones. If it were the other way around we would not be here. Bad bugs can be more serious when they have their brethren around; in other words, they fight like bullies.

Yet we want to know that the environment where the fetus is growing is clean, and that the mother is providing “clean” nutrients all along. Of course we don’t want the mother to consume foods that are riddled with pathogens: harmful to the fetus and potentially harmful to the mother too. Expectant mothers have been consuming raw milk cheese for millennia. Of the rare cheese contamination problems, the majority of those few problems have occurred with the pasteurized varieties. It is important to remember this: that cheese continues to enjoy an excellent track record for food safety, far safer than fruits and vegetables, safer than most of the foods we find in our grocery stores. Sad. Yet in a way, this is good for cheese.

Again, pasteurization does eliminate most of the pathogens that get into milk. Rarely are these pathogens present in the dairy animal’s milk to begin with. The contamination, when it does occur, happens post-production, regardless of whether or not the milk used in the cheese production has been pasteurized. The relative importance and strength of the good bugs should be preserved, for their presence should be better able to defend the cheese from pathogenic contamination. Without those lines of defense, the pasteurized cheeses are more susceptible and potentially more inviting to contamination.

The serious pathogen a mother should be concerned with is listeria monocytogenes. This particularly tenacious bacterium can cause miscarriages and meningitis in newborns. However it should be pointed out that the incidences of contamination in cheese are few and far between. Food borne illnesses attributed to cheese are far fewer than those derived from other foods. Fewer illnesses have been caused by cheese than have been caused by bread and baked goods, by fruits and vegetables, by eggs and egg dishes, by multiple-ingredient foods, by juices and other beverages, by poultry, pork, beef, and far fewer have been attributed to cheese than have been caused by seafood.

So what should the expectant mother include in her diet?

Cheese supplies all those nutrients that the fetus and the mother require, including the best source of bio-available calcium, all of those nutrients except for vitamin C and fiber. If any doubts remain regarding which types of cheese to avoid, I recommend that the mother avoid the softer cheeses. The softer cheeses with their higher water contents are more hospitable to listeria monocytogenes. Stick to the drier cheeses.

Max McCalman

A recent post in the WSJ suggested we try white wine with our cheeses; as though we had never thought of it?

White wine and cheese have actually been partnering for many centuries. If we only had red wines with our cheeses all this time we would have experienced many disappointing matches. Of the few bad matches that occur in pairing cheese and wine there are more clashes with red wines that there are with whites. Those disappointing matches can be largely blamed on the elevated tannins in red wines. Granted, not all red wines are particularly tannic. The softer tannin reds are the types that tend to pair better with most cheese types.

There are some cheese types that have the characteristics to mellow those tannins, cheeses that can round out the edges, softening the astringency to smoother finishes while maintaining the fruit in the wine. The basic pressed cow cheeses are usually the best bets for those chewy reds; the aged Goudas can usually soften the blow, and some of the salty blue cheeses are up to the tannin challenges too.

One of our guests at a Cheese & Wine 101 came up to me after a recent class and said that he was surprised to discover how well the white wines paired with the cheeses, something that he had not thought possible, that white wine and cheese could work well together. We all have our preferences for wines, as well as our preferences for cheeses. Yet when you find a successful marriage with a wine that you might not ordinarily choose, or with a cheese you might not usually have, the good pairing can enhance your appreciation for each.

Or maybe it was not his preference for red wine but instead it was something that he had heard or read – that only red wines pair with cheese. There certainly is plenty of dogma about cheese pairing. Some people insist that only white wine pairs well with cheese, or that Ports pair well with all cheeses. The suggestion that cheeses and wines must be from the same region to pair well is one that I hear far too frequently. The terroir idea may make a good idea on paper but there are many excellent pairings from opposite sides of the globe. One of the more amusing tidbits that I heard recently was that cheese only pairs with beer, and not with wine. LOL, as they say.

We may have assumed that red wine is a more appropriate partner than white wine simply because the classic cheese course after the meal (and before dessert) is more often a period when we have gravitated to the reds. The cheese course is served while we still have red wine in our glasses. And because cheese and wine do work well together in more cases than not, we naturally assume that this is the way it works: cheese with red wine. Some people find it refreshing to have a white wine at the end of the meal, after the heavier red wine. Saving a little red wine offers the opportunity to have a little informal cheese and wine comparison: noting how the white wine works with a particular cheese, and then trying the red to see how it rates. This exercise can be take dinner conversations in many different tangents; it can introduce a pleasant discussion about the facets of the cheeses and wines, as well as facets of their pairings. Cheese has its calming effects, especially when it is accompanied with a little wine, so these occasions are generally amiable; the disagreements about the relative success of the different pairings are rarely acrimonious.

There are a few fundamental principles of successful cheese pairing. A saltier cheese usually pairs better with a fruitier or sweeter wine, or beer. A bigger flavored cheese will usually work better with a bigger flavored wine, otherwise the cheese can easily overwhelm the wine. The more acid cheeses usually pair better with the more acid wines.

Again, in more cases than not, cheese pairs nicely with wine. The successes far outnumber the misses. Choose the wine you like and have a range of cheeses alongside it. If any of the pairings are unsuccessful, please don’t blame the cheese!

Max McCalman

Reminds me of some memorable lyrics: How are you going to keep ‘em down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paris?

For the next few weeks France’s McDonalds are rolling out hamburgers with fine cheeses, instead of the process yellow cheese slices we know too well. Their cheese choices include Fourme d’Ambert, St. Nectaire, Cantal, and a generic chèvre. This is coming at a critical time in France, when many of the young people are shunning much of the grand French culinary tradition in favor of fast food like McDonald’s. For many people (not only French) the arrival of a McDonald’s on the Champs d’Elysées was an inauspicious occasion.

Might there be a French resistance to the Americanization of the French diet, while here in America we are witnessing a new interest in quality foods, cheese especially?

So once they have enhanced the hamburgers with finer cheeses, how are they going to go back? If this fancy cheese thing works it could spark a revival of cheese appreciation in France, something along the lines of what is slowly happening here in the U.S.

I give the company credit for trying to improve their public image. If this were offered at their American stores I am afraid that most of us would not credit the company for the nutritional enhancements these cheeses offer, even if we did recognize the improved flavors in the hamburgers. As much as I want to believe we are beginning to recognize “real” cheese as a “near-perfect” food, I know that most Americans still believe that cheese is bad for us, especially the fancy French ones.

Alors!

Max McCalman

Our friends at Huffington Post are recommending “rare” cheeses! Most of them are produced right here in the U.S.! We have witnessed dramatic improvements in artisan cheese making here, especially within the past decade. As we have been saying – this is where the excitement in the cheese world is occurring, right here within our shores.

There was a time not that many years ago when superior domestic cheeses were harder to find; they simply were not that many! I recall thinking that I could skip the American Cheese Society’s annual conference every other year; the cheeses were all pretty much the same: some excellent cheeses could be found but the dramatic improvements in cheese making were just beginning to take hold.

Just a few of these phenomenal cheeses were around over a decade ago. Can you identify which ones?

Harpersfield Tilsit
Grassias
Dulcinea
Windsordale Truckle
Cremont
Nettle Meadow Kunik
Thomasville Tomme
Pawlet
Berkshire Blue
Bonne Bouche
Laurier
Helen
Dorset
Uplands Pleasant Ridge
Bijou
Hudson Red
Rupert
Seven Sisters
Barely Buzzed

This is a select group of some of the best cheeses in the world today, and they are all produced here in the United States. Some of these cheeses’ recipes are based on old world styles, yet they are unique, inimitable, and outstanding. Since they have not been around that long, some of these names may be unfamiliar. With the way things are going, expect to see many more “rare” cheeses in the near future.

This year’s American Cheese Society conference will be in early August in Raleigh, North Carolina. We expect to see a new record number of entries; my forecast is 1,900. Even if we see 2,000 entries in the competition, there will be many more that do not enter. You will find hundreds of “rare” cheeses at the conference’s Saturday Festival of Cheeses, and on Thursday evening’s Meet the Cheesemaker session.

This is a conference that cannot be missed every other year any more. Along with a grand selection of cheeses, the conference will include several informative seminars, including one that I will moderate on cheese nutrition.

The first exam for Certified Cheese Professionals will be held at the conference too, a certification the ACS has endorsed and one that we have been developing for nearly a decade. The interest in the certification effort exceeded expectations; the first year’s exam seating has sold out. If you are interested in taking the exam in 2013 you should apply soon!

In the meantime, should you want to prepare for the exam, this year’s or next year’s, you should sign up for the Master Series here.

Max McCalman

It is a pity that cheese is not a subject taught in medical school. Several physician friends tell me that nutrition itself receives little attention. We would like to hear our medical professionals expound the advice of Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, who said “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.”

Most cheese we know today is so far removed from that primordial life-sustaining mammalian milk that it should be no surprise that a group of physicians in upstate New York is targeting dairy as a cause for America’s burgeoning obesity problems. They have correctly noted that the per capita cheese consumption has tripled since the 1970’s. Concomitantly a growing rise in obesity has occurred, yet these two trends are not directly related. The causes of obesity are not linked to the effects of consumption of dairy products. Some of the larger culprits in this weight gain are not the types that most people suspect: whole milk and full-fat cheeses. Instead, a significant part of the blame rests with the low-fat and skim-milk dairy products, and their depleted weight-reducing qualities.

The Albany area Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has launched a graphic billboard campaign depicting grossly oversized abdomens and thighs, warning that cheese contributes to high obesity rates and poses health risks. The group has gone so far as to write the Albany school board asking the city to cut down on dairy products served in schools to help students reduce the risk of childhood obesity.

PCRM President, Dr. Neal Barnard, said in a news release “Typical cheeses are 70% fat,” which is blatantly untrue. The only cheeses that reach that level are the triple crèmes, which happen to have their own excellent weight-reducing qualities. Further he claims “…the type of fat they hold is mainly saturated fat — the kind that increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes.” It is embarrassing that our physicians are so terribly misinformed. Suffice it to say, many of today’s western medicine practices are treating symptoms instead of recommending effective dietary prevention methods.

The president of The New York Farm Bureau quickly pointed out that Dr. Neal Barnard who heads up this group is in fact a psychiatrist, and not a dietitian.

Regardless, even among dieticians there appears to be more cheese phobia than cheese appreciation. For the many that do accept dairy, the low-fat varieties are the ones that are usually recommended. These low-fat products may be some of the biggest shams the food industry has ever thrust on mankind. It is increasingly being recognized that it is not the fat itself that puts the pounds on, it is the consumption of excess calories that go unexpended. Calories can be derived from protein (which cheese contains) carbohydrates, as well as fat. It is too simplistic, as well as inaccurate, to say that fat that is consumed will automatically go to your abdomen or thighs. In otherwise healthy people our digestive systems have grand plans for the utilization of fats; the systems are not straight-shot conveyor belts to our waist lines.

Fat actually curbs our appetites by triggering the release of cholecystokinin, a hormone that yields a feeling of satiety, and one that is directly involved in the metabolysis of proteins and fats. Other hunger suppressors found in cheese include certain peptides and their amino acids. Many of the proteins (including their building-block peptides and amino acids), as well as many of the vitamins and minerals that cheese contain, all help to metabolize the foods we consume. After all, cheese is preserved milk – our first and only food for the first several weeks or months of our lives. This is one of the fundamental reasons why cheese can help us reduce weight if we choose to; it is a near-complete food which (except for vitamin C and fiber) provides all the nutrients we require.

Speaking of fat, the higher fat cheeses provide more conjugated linoleic acid, the valuable fatty acid. CLA has been shown to be an effective weight reducer in multiple studies. This fatty acid (which happens to be a beneficial trans-fat) is a by-product of lypolysis – the breakdown of the fats. Fat slows the release of sugar into our bloodstream, reducing the amount that can be stored as fat. Our LDL cholesterol levels can be raised by dairy consumption, however there is more than one kind of LDL and dairy fat affects only the benign kind.

Cheese is such a near-complete food (especially the high-fat cheeses) that we can reach satiety long before we have consumed excess calories, calories which in turn lead to weight gain if not expended.

The low-fat dairy products contain additives which are high in dangerous oxidized cholesterol which can form arterial plaque. The pasteurized low-fat dairy products are nutritionally depleted through protein denaturing and the elimination of significant levels of fat-soluble vitamins; just to list a couple of the losses.

In 2005, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health studied the weight and milk comsumption of children. Contrary to their hypothesis, skim and 1% milks were associated with weight gain, but dairy fat was not.

Cheese does not claim to be a “perfect” food but there is no more complete food available to us. Cheese also continues to enjoy an excellent track record for food safety, safer than fruits and vegetables.

To the PCRM group I say: “Find some other food to pick on. Cheese production offers the only viable enterprise remaining for the family farm. Cheese has suffered enough.”

Max McCalman