Tag Archives: cheese

Dietetics Association Shames Their Own Members Over Deal with Kraft Singles

This year’s National Nutrition Month, held every March, has been a disaster for registered dietitians. I speak for myself as one of the rank and file when I say our professional association, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, threw us under the bus. Again.

The fiasco started on March 12th when The New York Times ran an article titled, A Cheese ‘Product’ Gains Kids’ Nutrition Seal. It described how the Academy gave Kraft permission to add our ‘Kids Eat Right’ logo to Kraft Singles, those individually wrapped slices of pasteurized prepared cheese product. ‘Kids Eat Right’ is a nutrition education program run by the Academy’s foundation. Kraft Singles is the first product to carry the logo, in the form of a seal. It looks like a product endorsement, but the Academy maintains it’s not. Unfortunately for them, it quacks like a duck.

Due to the absurdity of an organization of nutrition professionals promoting Kraft Singles, major news outlets, including ABC News, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, US News and others, picked up the story. They called into question the credentials of registered dietitians. It was guilt by association for us. But none was worse than Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, who quipped while pointing to a package of Kraft Singles, “the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is an academy in the same way this is cheese.” Oh, the shame! (more…)

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Natalie K

17 Most LOL Food and Fitness Puns, Featuring Michelle Obama

Sure, they’re super cheesy and a little overplayed at times, but you know you can’t help but crack a smile and a you-got-me laugh when the perfect pun comes along. With as heavy a scene as we all try to paint when it comes to our food and fitness, it feels good to look at all of it from the lighter side. And this week, we have first lady Michelle Obama to thank for the cunning reminder that puns, are in fact, fun!

Enjoy our favorite actual laugh out loud puns!

1. FLOTUS throws it down.

She’s nacho average first lady! #turnipforwhat

2. Oh my Quad, Becky!

…It’s like one of those rap guys girlfriends.

FitBottomedGirls

3. What the Kale?!

So many kale puns, so little time.

(more…)

Posted on October 24, 2023 by Katie McGrath

Work it Off: 3 Ways to Burn off a 481-Calorie Cheese Plate

More and more, when I talk to people about the one food they could never give up the answer is cheese. I don’t know if this is generation, geographical, or what, but the hard-to-break habit keeps coming up in conversation. People like their cheese, and I’m no different. I like a gooey triple cream brie on apple slices, a chunk of cheddar on crackers, and a thick dusting of parmesan on most pasta dishes. But mostly I like cheese with wine.

In the past I tabulated a Work it Off: Wine edition. Since we know exactly what it takes to burn off a couple of glasses (and 250 calories) I’m going to turn my attention to cheese. The cheese plate, to be exact, such as the two I helped take down this past week while sipping wine in the sun with various groups of friends. (This isn’t typical for me: The weather turned warm right as my birthday week hit, which led to a little extra indulgence!)

The cheese on a typical cheese plate adds up to around 481 calories, which no doubt explains why it tastes so good and goes down so easily.

How, exactly, could I have burned off these 481 extra calories? (more…)

Posted on May 18, 2023 by Jessica Cassity

Creamy Parmesan White Wine Sauce with Pasta for a Guilt-Free 419 Calories!

If I were going to be stranded on a desert island, and I could take only one food with me, it would be macaroni and cheese. It is the single most comforting comfort food. With its chewy noodles, gooey sauce, and creamy mouthfeel, I’d have no qualms about eating that every day.

But here in the real world, that’s hardly an option. The stuff in a box actually tastes terrible and is laced with chemical ingredients that kind of ruin the whole experience when you think about it. And if you really go for it at a restaurant, a bowl of chicken Alfredo at Olive Garden has 1500 calories! The classic mac at Macaroni Grill has nearly 700 calories… in the kids serving!

Nah, that’s not going to work. I’d like a big bowl of pasta, tossed in cheese sauce, and I’d like it for less than 500 calories.

This pasta in a white wine Parmesan sauce is very real, much more likely to happen that the desert island scenario, and comfort food I can enjoy without any discomfort of guilt. Why? It rings it at 419 calories for the whole bowl! (more…)

Posted on September 30, 2023 by Natalie K

Lactose Intolerant? Discover Which Dairy Products You Can Still Enjoy

If you’re like us, you’ve started to think more seriously about your diet than ever. And not just for weight loss purposes, but for the sake of optimum health and pinpointing which foods may be doing more harm than good.

My primary cause for concern is dairy as I was lactose intolerant growing up. Despite seemingly “outgrowing” my intolerance as an adult, I still notice that dairy can make me feel poor from time to time.

Lucky for me the National Dairy Council (NDC) is perking its ears to the cries of people like me and thousands of others who face similar intolerances. The good news is, these diet discrepancies don’t necessarily mean you have to give up dairy. It just means you have to learn which products may work best for you.

To spread the word about National Lactose Intolerance (LI) Month, the NDC held a Twitter party in late February to equip the LI population with helpful tools and resources to better manage their dietary needs. The council sought to inform the public of the important nutrients dairy can provide in our diets, as well as the many dairy products that those with LI can still consume. (more…)

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Dana

Kid-Approved Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese Launches ‘Pimp That Recipe’ Makeover Series

By Abra Pappa for Nutritious America

The idea behind most recipe makeovers is to take out or replace the “naughty” foods with “lighter” versions in order to reduce the big numbers from calories and fat. While reducing numbers is a piece of the health puzzle it doesn’t tell the whole story. Specifically since high fat/high calorie items are frequently replaced with chemically processed or highly processed “lite” versions which leaves a recipe that, quite frankly, can have a negative impact on your overall health.

This recipe makeover, however, is based on a non-reductive food philosophy; one that doesn’t just rely on taking high calorie foods OUT but focuses on adding the right foods IN. Adding in real whole foods, clean foods, foods as close to nature as possible.

So off we go with a new way of re-doing recipes. Pimp That Recipe will take your favorite comfort foods and upgrade them to a new, wholly health supportive, nourishing, satiating, and delicious version. Surely you’re on board with that!

Pimp That Recipe Mission 1: Macaroni and Cheese

I am jumping right out of the gate with a tough one. Macaroni and cheese is delicious. There, I said it. I understand why many of my clients are in love with this rich, creamy indulgence. But, holy cow traditional macaroni and cheese is not a waist-friendly food. It typically weighs in at 600 calories and 30 grams of fat per serving, with very little micro-nutrients to speak of. Additionally, the standard white pasta and heavy dairy will wreak havoc on gut health, blood sugar stabilization, and your body’s ability to effectively burn fat. Let’s turn this yummy delight into a health friendly, (yet delicious) masterpiece. Shall we? (more…)

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Nutritious_America

World’s Biggest Cheeseburger Breaks Records and Calorie Limits

There are some pretty crazy, weird and interesting records in The Guinness Book of World Records. This past Labor Day weekend, a ridiculous world record was broken when Minnesota’s Black Bear Casino made the world’s biggest hamburger. Why did the casino decide to make a colossal hamburger? They would say, just for the fun of it.

As reported by Eater.com, Jerry Bayerl – Black Bear Casino’s executive chef – recently decided he wanted to make the world’s biggest burger.

At first, he thought the record for the biggest burger was 200 pounds, but after some extensive research he found out the previous record for the world’s biggest burger was 881 pounds. In order to secure the new title, Jerry made sure his bacon cheeseburger clocked in at an amazing 2,014 pounds!

Cooking the cheeseburger was no easy feat. It required a crane, parking lot, and a gigantic homemade oven.

The diameter of the buns and meat patty measured up to a total of 10 feet. It took seven hours to bake the bun and four hours to cook and flip the meat patty. Stacked on top of the patty was even more ingredient madness. There were 60 pounds of bacon, 50 pounds of lettuce, 50 pounds of sliced unions, 40 pounds of pickles and 40 pounds of cheese. (more…)

Posted on September 5, 2023 by Samantha

Medifast Introduces Mocha Shake, Berry Crunch Cereal and Other New Meal Options

Dr. William Vitale developed Medifast in the 1980s. Since then, many other physicians have recommended the program to more than one million customers. As reported by RedOrbit News, Medifast recently introduced new types of cereal, cheese puffs, and shakes to the market. The new meal options are designed for weight loss and portion control, similar to the other meals Medifast currently offers.

Mixed Berry and Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cereal Crunch are two new breakfast items. The Mixed Berry Cereal Crunch contains 100 calories per serving with 0 grams of trans fat, 3 grams of sugar, 4 grams of fiber, and 150 mg of sodium.

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cereal Crunch contains 100 calories per serving with 0 grams of trans fat, 3 grams of sugar, 4 grams of fiber, and 140 mg of sodium. When compared, the Mixed Berry and Cinnamon Brown Sugar Crunch contain about the same amount of vitamins and minerals, but the Cinnamon Brown Sugar flavor has slightly less sodium.

Medifast has also introduced new cheese puffs, which include Parmesan and Chili Nacho Cheese flavors. The cheese puffs are a great way to indulge in cheesy goodness without tipping the scale on calories.

Medifast’s Chili Nacho Cheese Puffs contain 110 calories per serving with 0 grams of trans fat, 1 gram of sugar, 4 grams of fiber, and 360 mg of sodium. They also contain 20 percent of the daily requirement of vitamins A and C. (more…)

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Samantha

The Scientific Quest for a “Healthy” Cheese Leaves us Flavorless

By Abra Pappa for Nutritious America

In a world of endless food “science” it isn’t terribly surprising that even the mighty cheese is subject to investigation, processing, and testing in an attempt to create a cheese-like-food-product that scientists will deem “healthier” by reducing sodium and fat. In this never ending quest to make all food “diet worthy” and eternal dieters “happy” there is no food spared from their turn in the science wheel. Yet, each time we’ve attempted to replace a natural, whole food with a processed version of the food the results of “health” have not exactly worked out.

Case in point: changing butter to margarine. The partially hydrogenated fats that were originally thought to be much healthier then butter’s saturated fat have since proved to be the exact opposite. Why would a “new” cheese be any better?

The average American consumes nearly 30 pounds of cheese per year; that is an awful lot of fat and salt. But, cheese is so much more than a block of fat and salt, it has a story, a life, a history.

If you have ever spent time with a cheese expert or any amount of time in a real cheese haven like Murray’s cheese shop in New York City, you may have been graced with some of the history and story behind cheese. Stories of generations of sheep farmers in France creating glorious cheese from humble resources, or small American artisinal cheese makers who, with a much shorter history of cheese making, are taking this culinary world by storm. Cheese has been consumed as a traditional food in many cultures for literally thousands and thousands of years, and yet it is just in the last 50+ years that we are seeing the steep decline in the health of people. It makes us ask, is cheese really to blame? (more…)

Posted on August 15, 2023 by Nutritious_America

How to Cook with Goat Cheese

By now you’ve likely seen goat cheese on salads in fancy restaurants and in the dairy aisle at your local grocery store. But have you ever seen it in ice cream, pizza or on a tart? Perhaps you have, but these were little food discoveries that I was thrilled to stumble upon as I love the tangy flavor and creamy texture of this little-known cheese.

Health benefits: The health benefits of goat cheese are plenty, the first and most obvious being its calcium content. Health experts suspect that our body uses calcium to burn off fat after meals. And it’s well known that calcium helps maintain the strength and density of our bones. Calcium can play a role in various body functions such as muscle contraction and blood pressure regulation, and it’s even been linked to potentially preventing migraines.

Goat cheese is also high in phosphorus, vitamin B2, potassium and vitamin A. And according to Bellchevre, it contains 27 percent more of the antioxidant selenium than cow’s milk!

In addition, goat cheese is considered the ‘skinnier’ cheese as it’s much lower in fat and calories than other cheeses, such as brie and cheddar. (more…)

Posted on August 12, 2023 by Dana

Billboards Blame Obesity on Cheese. Do Your Thighs Agree?

If you love cheese, you’re not alone, and you may not want to read this.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) believes cheese to be the guilty culprit of our nation’s obesity problem. They believe it so much that they have recently began a billboard campaign in Albany, New York. Large billboards display dimply thighs or flabby guts and read, “Your Thighs on Cheese,” or “Your Abs on Cheese.”

Are they right? Is the ooey gooey goodness of cheese really the enemy?

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s estimates, Americans have tripled the amount of cheese they eat each year since 1970. Today, the average American eats 31 pounds of per year. Let’s be real, that’s a lot of cheese!

Neal Barnard is part of the PCRM and clearly stated how he feels about our cheese consumption, especially our children’s cheese consumption. “Cheese and other dairy products are the leading source of saturated fat that our kids are swallowing. And I think most Americans are totally oblivious to it.” (more…)

Posted on February 6, 2024 by Lacy

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