When It’s the Cheese, Go the Low-Fat Route

Here in California, the advertising geniuses have decided that it’s not our weather, it’s not our extraordinary coastline, it’s not even Disneyland that draws people to the Golden State. It’s the cheese.

Well, regardless of whether California is the cheese capital of the world, cheese is tied with beef for the biggest source of saturated fat in the American diet. If you substituted 3 ounces of cheddar cheese for the same amount of trimmed, broiled steak, you’d get almost twice as many calories, six times the amount of saturated fat, more cholesterol and a lot more sodium.

Look at these numbers for 3 1/2 ounces of regular cheese (that’s about the size of a deck of cards):

* Gruyere: 413 calories, 32 grams of fat, 19 grams of saturated fat.

* Cheddar: 403 calories, 33 grams of fat, 21 grams of saturated fat.

* Monterey Jack: 373 calories, 30 grams of fat, 19 grams of saturated fat.

Now look at the amount of calcium you get in the same 3 1/2-ounce servings:

* Gruyere: 1,011 milligrams.

* Cheddar: 721 milligrams.

* Monterey Jack: 746 milligrams.

Even though most people don’t eat 3 1/2 ounces of cheese at a single sitting, these are significant calcium numbers, especially for teenagers and post-menopausal women, who often consume far less calcium than they need to support growing bones and prevent thinning bones.

So here’s the dilemma: How do you avoid trading strong bones for clogged arteries? Well, the answer lies in the fact that reducing the amount of fat in cheese does not necessarily reduce the amount of calcium (most three-quarter-ounce slices still contain 15% of the recommended daily value). However, while it is easy enough to produce cheese with less fat (or even no fat), it is tough to do without losing so much taste and texture that nobody will want to eat it.

The original non- or low-fat cheeses tasted dreadful, and while they have gotten better, many still do not compare with good, old-fashioned cheese. Nonfat cheeses are particularly troublesome to cook with because they don’t heat well and often turn into something that resembles melted plastic.

But, as with nonfat hot dogs, which do not really taste like regular hot dogs, if you put enough stuff around nonfat cheese, you will hardly know the difference.

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If you are trying to cook with low-fat cheeses, the results may vary, but here are some helpful hints that might make it easier:

* Use the cheese when it is cold, and shred finely.

* Try to use low-fat cheeses in recipes offering a lot of moisture from other ingredients. For example, low-fat cheese in lasagna or other casseroles usually works fine.

* If you are trying to melt low-fat cheese, do it very slowly and for a longer period of time, stirring frequently. If you are trying to do this in a microwave, put the cheese in a dish, cover with plastic wrap and use one of the lower settings.

If you are looking for “real” cheese that is naturally low in fat, try the soft, unripened fresh cheeses. Cottage cheese made from skim milk, part-skim ricotta and farmer’s cheese do not have nearly as much fat and sodium as hard cheeses or other soft cheeses.