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How to choose the healthiest cheese spread from the supermarket
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We must avoid the ‘light’ versions, because although they have fewer calories, they have lower quality ingredients
El cream cheese It is a regular in kitchens. Whether it is to prepare a quick sandwich, some canapes or to include it in a cake, it is easy to find it in any refrigerator. Within this type of cheese, in supermarkets there are many options: from those ‘normal’, to the ‘light’ or those that have a special flavor.
And we are faced with the usual dilemma: What should I look for when choosing a healthy cream cheese? The first thing is to know what are the ingredients that this type of product contains. Dietitian-nutritionist Ana Amengual, from the Júlia Farré center, comments that spreadable cheeses are generally produced “based on milk, cream, salt and dairy ferments that help to curdle the product and give it that texture.
creamy. Likewise, we can also find this type of cheese with some complements, such as fruits, nuts, aromatic herbs or spices, to give it flavor.
Which is the best version
When choosing the healthiest one, the main thing is to make sure that the ingredients it brings are of quality. Once this is done, the nutritionist’s recommendation is to look at the amount of salt it has, and choose the lowest quality. “We can take into account as a reference that a product above 1,25g grams of salt per 100 is a product considered high in salt,” he says. Also, many of these cheeses have claims as ‘light’, but this does not mean that they are healthier. «Light means that the product has been reduced by 30% of calories based on a reference product. This is not a guarantee that it is healthy or low in calories ”, indicates Ana Amengual. He explains that in the case of cream cheeses, cream is removed to be able to label it ‘light’, but they add flour or starches (sugars) to give it texture. “In this case, the product will have lost quality in both ingredients and nutrients,” he points out.
On whether the versions of this type of cheese with extra flavors, such as fine herbs or salmon, are healthy or not, the nutritionist explains it depends, because in this case it is still the most important look at the rest of the ingredients, as you have already commented. “Telling us that it has other ingredients or flavors is not a guarantee of good or bad,” he recalls.
What kind of cheese is the healthiest?
Nutritionists Fernando Carrasco Galán and Carlos Rodríguez Valverde, directors of the Nutrygente center, comment that the cheeses with less fat are those such as cottage cheese, skimmed fresh cheese, feta or mozzarella. Even so, they assure that «a cheese is not healthier because it does not contain fat». Although there are cheeses that have more calories, such as curing, it is important to take into account the portion that we take of each one. “Normally the portions of cured cheeses are smaller than those of fresh cheeses, for example,” they point out.
An alternative to the more traditional cream cheese can be the skyr, which as Ana Amengual explains, “is a product that we consume with a spoon like a yogurt, however due to its production it is more similar to a fresh cheese”. This cheese is made with skim milk and the typical bacteria of yogurt. The difference, points out the nutritionist, is that rennet is also added, which gives it a creamy texture, being a low fat product and lactose and rich in protein. Even so, the nutritionist warns that because we are talking about skyr, it does not have to be a healthy product, as it can have many added sugars.
“As long as it is a healthy skyr, with no added sugar, we can use it as a substitute for cream cheese. We can also use instead of cream cheese the ricotta or cottage cheese, smoothie yogurts or Greek yogurts ”, concludes Ana Amengual.