Cottage Cheese - Is It Good For You?

The simple answer to the question "Is Cottage Cheese Good for You?" is "Yes; as long as you can take sodium."

Cottage cheese has been made at least since Roman times, and is called cottage cheese because it is easy to make at home. You don't need any special equipment or ingredients. You can use low fat skimmed or semi-skimmed milk and buy low fat cottage cheese, which is fine, although you should look for the words "acidophilus" or "bifidus live cultures" on the label. These words mean that you are buying an organic brand which will aid digestion and boost your immune system. Cottage cheese has the same health benefits as natural yoghurt on the whole, and you can add things to it to suit your health needs and taste.

Because it mostly contains milk it has vitamins B2 (riboflavin), B6, B12 folate and vitamin A as well as the minerals calcium, phosphorous, potassium and selenium in it.

You will find sites on the Net devoted to telling you about the advantages of flax seed oil and cottage cheese, as the lignans in flax seed oil have been found to have cancer preventive properties, and the oil contains Omega-3 fatty acids which are sadly lacking in most Western diets. This diet was introduced in 1951 by Johanna Budwig who found that cancer patients had diets that were very low in Omega-3 fatty acids. She developed an Omega-3 rich diet hence the popularity of cottage cheese and flax seed oil. Whether or not such a diet can help to prevent cancer is open to question, but flax seed oil has been used effectively to combat PMT/PMS symptoms as well as some of the menopause.

One study conducted by researchers at Duke University Medical Center, published in "Urology" in July 2001 seemed to show that cottage cheese could help check prostate tumours, but this has not been proven.

The American Cancer Care Foundation has said that cottage cheese may help protect against some cancers but this has yet to be proved.

This type of cheese helps in a weight loss diet as it can be substituted for mayo in salads and is good used as a dip with raw carrots or cucumbers to scoop it up with. The problem is that it is bland so you have to spice it up a little with the addition of garlic chives (or plain ones), cayenne pepper, paprika and lots of freshly ground black pepper. You can add fruit such as blueberries or cranberries which are packed with health benefits or add small pieces of cooked chicken or ham. You can buy cottage cheese with ham and pineapple too.

If you have any left over milk at home why not make your own? You need a stainless steel of enameled pan, milk, lemon juice or white vinegar and salt and a sieve and some material to line this with. If you have two pints of skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, boil it in a pan, and stir occasionally while bringing it to the boil so that it doesn't stick. Allow it to cool for a few minutes and add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar and stir. The milk will separate into curds and whey, and you should allow it to cool and then strain it through the cloth and sieve. Leave the cloth, tied loosely, to hang over your kitchen sink overnight and eat the cottage cheese in the morning adding whatever of the ingredients mentioned above that you have to hand and a pinch of salt. Bon appetit!

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