by N. A. Hernandez

Created on: June 30, 2007   Last Updated: November 29, 2011

Many people believe that eating cheese as part of a low fat diet is out of the question. However there are choices that you can make to continue to eat cheese. Many cheeses are loaded with saturated fat, at the same time they are an excellent source of calcium and protein.

Limit the quantity that you add onto your foods. You can still eat the cheeses that you love, just in smaller portions. Many people tend to use cheese as a main ingredient in many dishes, use it as an accent instead. This will allow you to get a taste of the cheeses that you love so much without all the fat that they contain.

There are choices that you can make while buying cheeses that are lower in fat than the regular choices that many make. Cheddar cheese itself contains 9 grams of fat per ounce, 6 of those grams are saturated fat. So when you buying cheese look at the fat content listed on the package.

Here is a list of some cheeses that contain less fat then regular choices that many of us buy.

Goat cheese (contains less fat than cow's milk cheese)
Part skim mozzarella
String cheese
Farmer's cheese
Lacey Swiss cheese

There are many cheeses that are more common to people that come in low fat choices such as Cheddar, American, Monterey Jack, Brie, Swiss, Muenster etc. Although the low fat selection of cheeses do tend to be a bit more rubbery than the ordinary selection of cheese they can still be quite tasty. So give them a chance, you may be surprised.

You do not have to completely cut out the foods that you love from a low fat lifestyle. Splurging once in a while is good for you, since you will get the taste that you love and that will help you to crave it less. If you completely omit a certain food from your diet then you will end up splurging more freely leading to you overeating it.

Of course eat it in moderation and do treat yourself to your favorite variety of cheese here and there. It is hard for cheese lovers to completely stop eating it at all, and they don't have to.

I have personally tried the fat free versions of cheeses and I would have to say that they were not very good. I stick to the low fat versions and they are very tasty, almost like the real thing but with less fat. Just make sure that you do not overload your food with cheese. Just use it as an accent to your dish.

So go ahead and enjoy your cheese. There are health benefits to eating cheese, we all need the calcium! Cheese is definitely a hard thing to give up, and you don't have to!

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