The pros and cons of a cheese sandwich
The Netherlands prefers to eat a cheese sandwich for breakfast and lunch. It seems like a healthy choice, but cheese contains a fair amount of fat and salt. What are the advantages and disadvantages of cheese?
Cheese contains a lot calcium. You need this mineral for building and maintaining your bones and teeth. It helps against osteoporosis (bone loss) and is necessary for the proper functioning of the nerves and muscles, blood clotting and the transport of other minerals in the body.
Vitamins and protein
There is also a lot in cheese vitamins A and D. Vitamin A is good for the skin, eyes, growth and resistance. You need vitamin D to absorb calcium into the body. The body can produce vitamin D in the skin itself under the influence of sunlight, but it is also found in full-fat cheese.
In addition, cheese contains protein, which provides amino acids. Amino acids are building blocks for the protein in body cells. In addition, protein saturates well. If you eat a lot of protein, you will be less hungry afterwards.
Fat and salt
Cheese contains a lot of saturated fat. This type of fat increases the ‘bad’ cholesterol LDL. This cholesterol sticks to your artery walls and thus increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Cheese also contains a lot of salt. Salt is not unhealthy, but you can easily get too much. People who are sensitive to it develop a higher blood pressure when eating salt. Salt is filtered in the body by the kidneys. Eating salt very often puts too much strain on the kidneys and is not good for your heart.
Cheese is sometimes used as a meat substitute, because both products contain protein. The disadvantage is that cheese contains hardly any iron, which means that it is not a full substitute for meat.
Fat content
You can see how fat a type of cheese is by indications such as 20+, 30+ and 48+. These numbers say something about the percentage of fat in the so-called dry matter, i.e. the cheese from which all the moisture has been removed. The moisture percentage of cheese can fluctuate because the cheese loses moisture during storage. The dry matter remains constant.
A 30+ cheese therefore does not consist of 30% Fat. Suppose this cheese consists of 40% moisture and 60% dry matter, then 100 grams of cheese contains 40 grams of moisture and 60 grams of dry matter. There is 30% fat in the dry matter, so 30% of 60 grams = 18 grams of fat per 100 grams of cheese.
The Nutrition Center advises adults not to eat more than one and a half slices of cheese (30 grams) per day. Preferably eat 20+ or 30+ cheese, because it contains less fat than in the full-fat varieties. It is also better not to eat light cheeses indefinitely, so resist the temptation to put an extra slice of cheese on bread ‘because it’s light’.
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