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Cheese Technology

Exceptional nutritional and therapeutic benefits of aged cheese

Dr. Mali Reddy

Dr. Mali Reddy serves as president of the American Dairy and Food Consulting Laboratories and International Media and Cultures (IMAC Inc.), Denver, Colorado. He holds several degrees including M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University in food technology and microbiology. He is a guest columnist for this week’s issue of Cheese Market News®.

While cheese consumption continues to climb in the United States, there is a subset of consumers who don’t want to eat cheese for health reasons. Some are under the impression that cheese is unhealthy due to high calories; others are concerned cheese is not good for heart health due to high saturated fat and cholesterol.

Still others are worried about dairy allergies or lactose intolerance. Cheese can be hard to digest and can cause constipation, especially for older consumers. And, occasionally, cheese may have pathogenic bacteria such as Listeria or E.coli, which particularly concerns pregnant women, and those caring for the elderly, children or immunocompromised individuals.

However, if you analyze the above, none of them are particularly good reasons to skip eating cheese, especially when it comes to aged cheese. Protein in aged cheese is broken down to easily digestible and absorbable peptides and amino acids. The fat is broken down to essential and non-essential fatty acids.

Contrary to the thinking of some medical doctors, fermented cheese has less than 0.5 percent lactose (more like 0.3 percent to none) and very small amounts of glucose and galactose (less than 0.5 percent to none).

Aged cheese also is the safest food to consume compared to other dairy products, in terms of the pathogen problems.

Aged cheese also has a number of health benefits in addition to being a great source of concentrated and easily digestible broken down protein and fat. It supplies essential amino acids to improve skeletal and neuromuscular strength and overall stamina; some of these amino acids serve as bases for the neurotransmitters, which can reduce pain. For example, glutamic acid in cheese gets converted to GABA (gamma amino butyric acid), which serves as a pain reducing neurotransmitter.

In addition, the lipolyzed fat fractions of cheese (such as butyric acid, etc.) serve as anti-carcinogenic agents in the gastrointestinal tract, and the abundant amount of enzymes present in cheese (both from residual rennet as well as starter and other adventitious flora) significantly improve digestion.

Aged cheese has bioactive peptides that have antibacterial, antioxidant and hypertension-reducing properties. In addition, the amino acid tryptophan present in cheese serves to improve sleep.

Because it is low in lactose, aged cheese doesn’t have the same negative effects on lactose-intolerant consumers as other dairy products. Due to its low glycemic index, cheese also is an ideal food for diabetics.

In addition, aged cheese is a storehouse of microbial synthesized natural vitamins, and it has bio-available calcium 290 mg/ounce as well as other minerals that reduce the risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis.

Aged cheeses also can be carriers of significant amounts of probiotics, along with their growth end products (immunomodulins), which can improve human health in a myriad of ways. Probiotics can assist in reducing serum cholesterol, hypertension, allergies, some cancers and other gastrointestinal diseases. In addition, they can improve immunity.

Let us look into the latest definition of probiotics according to Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization. Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms that when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host. Several research reports show probiotic strains belonging to non-starter lactic acid bacteria survive and get up to the highest concentration (billions/gram) during aging of cheese.

Aged Cheddar can have 2 to 8 billion live probiotic bacteria per gram. The following viable probiotics can be present in aged cheeses: Lactobacillus casei, L. rhamonosus, L. reuteri, L. plantarum, L. curavatus, L. paracasei, Streptococcus thermophilus, S. durans, L. helveticus, Propionbacterium shermanii and Propionbacterium arabinosum (mostly in Swiss cheese). Most of these probiotic bacterial names appear on the labels of the probiotic capsule bottles sold in the health food stores, of course at an exorbitant price.

Assuming that aged Cheddar has 2 billion live probiotic bacteria per gram, an ounce of cheese will have roughly 60 billion live organisms. Unlike the freeze-dried probiotics sold in capsules, the probiotics in cheese are extremely viable and adapted to survive at a low pH. Such probiotics embedded in the protein and fat of the cheese will survive better in the stomach and also adhere better to the epithelial cells of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition to the live probiotics, cheese also can have billions of paraprobiotics/gram. The paraprobiotic is defined as probiotic bacterium that is not viable. The genomic DNA of paraprobiotics is stable in cheese, and has a stimulatory effect on the human immune system.

Thus, eating 1 ounce of aged Cheddar can supply not only 60 billion live probiotics but also more than 60 billion or more paraprobiotics. The following aged cheeses may have a variety of beneficial probiotic strains in high numbers with excellent viability: Cheddar, Swiss, Parmesan, Romano, Edam and Gouda, as well as other fermented and aged cheeses.

Probiotics, paraprobiotics, bio-available calcium and other milk minerals, beneficial digestive aid enzymes, vitamins, essential amino acids and fatty acids etc., all can significantly improve health and overall immunity.

Aged cheese should be promoted not only as an excellent nutrient-rich food but also as an excellent health promoting functional food.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.

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