Life Without Cheese: The Good, The Bad, and The Stinky

Cheese may very well be one of the hardest things to give up if you’re considering going vegan or cutting more animal products out of your diet and everyday life. We’re basically raised on it. Cheese in your sack lunch you take to school, cheese on pastas and salads when you’re having a meal at home, cubes of cheese in your fridge for a quick snack. It seems to have invaded our diets as if it were the most magical food of them all.

Some would argue yes. Cheese may be tasty, but it’s extremely high in fats and its downsides far outweigh the good. It was hard for me at first too. I know and understand the struggle of giving up something that topped your blue box macaroni, but there are some awesome, and even more delicious, alternatives to try out to quell any cravings you may be having.

The Good

Cheese is one of the main suppliers of calcium if you don’t drink milk or eat enough calcium rich foods like sesame seeds, spinach, or collard greens. According to a Harvard University Health Services nutrition information page, plenty of vegetables, legumes, seeds, nuts, and fruits contain enough calcium to meet our requirements with far fewer calories. So, try putting down that slice of cheddar and picking up a bowl of light vegetables or a homemade, calcium rich bowl of vegetables and getting the calcium without the added pounds.

The Bad

If we ate cheese as is, the effect would probably be less, but it usually comes on pizzas, poured over nachos, and stacked on high sodium crackers. Americans are eating more and more cheese without realizing how much saturated fat they are putting into their bodies. The cheese alone on a Domino’s small, cheese only (no other toppings) pizza works out to about 17 grams of saturated fat. The recommended daily intake is 20g. The serving size…a quarter of a small pie. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who orders a pizza, eats a slice and a half, and leaves it. There is some weird addiction to cheese going on here, and it’s weighing us down…literally.

The Stinky

I’ll admit it, I love cheese, in fact, the stinkier the better in my book. I no longer eat traditional forms of it because anyone with the Internet can find out how cheese is made (calf stomach linings and mold, anyone?). But these days, there are a whole host of different types of vegan and vegetarian cheeses available at the store, or recipes online that you can make at home. Yes, some are still stinky cheeses. And you know, something about homemade cheese just seems incredibly decadent. So just know, that if you are deciding to give up cheese, you won’t have to go without it completely. It won’t be exactly the same, but maybe that’s a good thing. And if your macaroni needs a delicious topping, try one of these five, yes I said five, different recipes for mac and cheese.

Image source: Chris Buecheler/Flickr