8 Fun Facts About Cheese

Cheese, it’s a part of everyone’s diet. If you’re anything like us you eat cheese as a snack, add it to almost every recipe, and spread it on your bagels. For all you cheese lovers, here is a list of 8 things you might not know about cheese.

1. Ten pounds of milk go into making just one pound of cheese. Luckily the calories aren't 10 times more or our cheese hips would be quite a bit larger.

2. Cheese is a great source of zinc (this will boost your immune system) and also B12 (energy boosting). While you can take supplements, it's always best to get your nutrients from the foods you eat.

3. Soft cheese (such as feta and goat) has about one third less fat than hard cheese (like Parmesan). If you're watching your fat intake, it's easy to swap out soft cheeses for hard without losing any of the great taste.

4. The rind that comes on some cheeses is edible. It may not be tasty but you can still eat the rind. If you are going to eat it, make sure that you are eating the rind, and not packaging like cloth, paper and wax materials that some cheeses have tightly wrapped around them (mimicking a rind).

5. Non-pasteurized cheese is legal in the US as long as it has been aged at least 60 days in an environment held at not below 35°F (1°C). This process makes the cheese more acidic, killing most potential sources of bacterial infection.

6. Water buffalo milk is used to make traditional mozzarella. Mozzarella from water buffalo, or Mozzarella di Bufala is considered to be higher quality and better tasting than Mozzarella made from cows milk.

7. Penicillin is the name for mold you find in blue cheese. Many people are allergic to penicillin (the antibiotic version) but are not allergic to blue cheese.

8. Out of all the farm animals’ milk we use to make cheese, goat’s milk is used the most often. It's used as part of a “clean eating” plan, it has fewer calories than cow's cheese, it has more vitamins and minerals than cow's cheese, and it's easier to digest.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©iStock.com/monticelllo.