iVillage

Healthy Food Swaps: Eat This Cheese and Shed Pounds

Eat healthy in a completely new way: Instead of cutting foods out, try adding new ones to your diet. Boost the nutritional value of your favorite recipes without sacrificing flavor by swapping some of your usual ingredients for these superfoods (10 Photos)

Regan Burns Cafisco on Jan 16, 2013 at 10:46AM

chime in now

Single View
View All

1 of 10

Healthy Food Swaps: Eat This Cheese and Shed Pounds

Richard Jung

Instead of Mild Cheese, Try Stronger Cheeses

Cheese is delicious and full of calcium, but it's also full of saturated fat and salt. Many people substitute lower fat cheeses for the full-fat kind, but these varieties are often loaded with stabilizers and fillers and require the use of more to get that cheesy taste. I've found that using a little bit of a stronger-tasting cheese (instead of lots of a mild one) grants way more flavor bang for your calorie buck. I'll take a pizza topped with a few shards of high-quality Parmigiano-Reggiano over one shellacked in a layer of uninspired part-skim mozzarella any day. And an omelet topped with just a crumble of feta beats one oozing with gummy American cheese.

Other cheeses that go the extra mile include: blue cheese, Pecorino Romano, aged cheddar, Gruyère, feta or smoked cheeses.

Recipes to try:
Asparagus and Mushroom Pizza
Blue Cheese, Pear and Caramelized Onion Pizza