Cheese Rambling
When I was a baby, my mom used to hand me slices of Kraft American cheese to snack on in my high chair. Maybe that was the start of my love affair with cheese, a foundational piece (along with chicken nuggets) of my diet well through my twenties.
Okay, let's not lie. Cheese is still a foundational piece of my diet, despite my newly-found acceptance of vegetables. I love cheese. Cheese fries, cheese dogs, Cheez-its, quesadillas, queso, nachos, cheese pizza, cheddar goldfish crackers, grilled cheese, mac n' cheese. Now that I'm slightly fancier, maybe I've upgraded a bit to cheese plates, camembert & apple sandwiches, four cheese ravioli, sausage and ricotta flatbread, etc, etc, but really if it's got cheese on it, I'll probably like it. There's no denying that cheese makes just about anything better.
That doesn't mean all cheeses are equal—there can be bad cheese. Once my brother and I stopped at a gas station on the way to the lake because we reeeaaallllly wanted cheese dogs. All we got was a (un)healthy dose of cheese disillusionment and stomachache. No, not all cheese are equal. Some cheeses are best used sparingly, like goat cheese. Some must be used in the right combinations, like goat cheese again. Some are called cheese but are really pasteurized cheese product, like the aforementioned cheese dog cheese and the cheese that comes in those little Handi Snack cracker packages I adored in my middle school lunches.
But when it comes to good cheese, the more the better. Every Valentine's Day and birthday, Michael and I go to the Melting Pot. When our waiter takes our order, every single time the conversation goes like this:
"So, we do this a little differently."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, instead of the meat, we just do a cheese, and then more cheese, and then chocolate."
"....so, cheese and chocolate?"
"Cheese, salad, then another cheese, then chocolate."
"So no meat?"
"No meat. Just cheese."
"Okay. You guys really like cheese, huh?"
Yes, we do. Our first New Year's together, we spent a long weekend in a cabin in Tennessee with some friends. Sitting at the kitchen table one night, finishing up dinner, Michael reached out and took a slice of Kraft American cheese, took off the plastic, and folded it in his mouth.
"That's why we're a good match," I said.
"Because I just ate the slice of cheese?" he said, understanding immediately.
So you can understand why this article calling cheese "dairy crack" and talking about how it's addictive and horrible for your health upsets me. Let me pull a couple of noteworthy quotes for you:
"Barnard explains that dairy protein — specifically a protein called casein — has opiate molecules built in. When babies nurse, he notes, they're getting dosed with a mild drug: 'Milk contains opiates that reward the baby for nursing.'"
Okay, let's not lie. Cheese is still a foundational piece of my diet, despite my newly-found acceptance of vegetables. I love cheese. Cheese fries, cheese dogs, Cheez-its, quesadillas, queso, nachos, cheese pizza, cheddar goldfish crackers, grilled cheese, mac n' cheese. Now that I'm slightly fancier, maybe I've upgraded a bit to cheese plates, camembert & apple sandwiches, four cheese ravioli, sausage and ricotta flatbread, etc, etc, but really if it's got cheese on it, I'll probably like it. There's no denying that cheese makes just about anything better.
That doesn't mean all cheeses are equal—there can be bad cheese. Once my brother and I stopped at a gas station on the way to the lake because we reeeaaallllly wanted cheese dogs. All we got was a (un)healthy dose of cheese disillusionment and stomachache. No, not all cheese are equal. Some cheeses are best used sparingly, like goat cheese. Some must be used in the right combinations, like goat cheese again. Some are called cheese but are really pasteurized cheese product, like the aforementioned cheese dog cheese and the cheese that comes in those little Handi Snack cracker packages I adored in my middle school lunches.
But when it comes to good cheese, the more the better. Every Valentine's Day and birthday, Michael and I go to the Melting Pot. When our waiter takes our order, every single time the conversation goes like this:
"So, we do this a little differently."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, instead of the meat, we just do a cheese, and then more cheese, and then chocolate."
"....so, cheese and chocolate?"
"Cheese, salad, then another cheese, then chocolate."
"So no meat?"
"No meat. Just cheese."
"Okay. You guys really like cheese, huh?"
Yes, we do. Our first New Year's together, we spent a long weekend in a cabin in Tennessee with some friends. Sitting at the kitchen table one night, finishing up dinner, Michael reached out and took a slice of Kraft American cheese, took off the plastic, and folded it in his mouth.
"That's why we're a good match," I said.
"Because I just ate the slice of cheese?" he said, understanding immediately.
So you can understand why this article calling cheese "dairy crack" and talking about how it's addictive and horrible for your health upsets me. Let me pull a couple of noteworthy quotes for you:
"Barnard explains that dairy protein — specifically a protein called casein — has opiate molecules built in. When babies nurse, he notes, they're getting dosed with a mild drug: 'Milk contains opiates that reward the baby for nursing.'"
"[Cheddar cheese] is the most concentrated form of casein in any food in the grocery store."
"Loaded with calories, high in sodium, packing more cholesterol than steak, and sprinkled with hormones — if cheese were any worse, it would be Vaseline ..."
"Some foods are fattening. Others are addictive. Cheese is both — fattening and addictive."
Sigh.
My grandma sent me articles like this in the past. It's not that I can't accept that cheese isn't the most healthy food on the planet—I just don't want it to be true. What's a life without cheese? Is it one I want to be living? So what if I always have mucus in my throat and my ears are achy? So what if I can't absorb vitamin D well and my risk of cancer is higher? Whatever!
I guess it maybe wouldn't hurt me to cut back a little. Excuse me while I go die a little inside.
My grandma sent me articles like this in the past. It's not that I can't accept that cheese isn't the most healthy food on the planet—I just don't want it to be true. What's a life without cheese? Is it one I want to be living? So what if I always have mucus in my throat and my ears are achy? So what if I can't absorb vitamin D well and my risk of cancer is higher? Whatever!
I guess it maybe wouldn't hurt me to cut back a little. Excuse me while I go die a little inside.