Low-fat curd: benefit and harm, useful properties

We all remember very well how in childhood our grandmothers and mothers talked about what a useful and tasty product. Indeed, the use of cottage cheese is difficult to underestimate. It contains many vitamins, minerals, protein and amino acids that the body needs. All these indicators put cottage cheese on one of the leading places in terms of utility for the human body among other dairy and fermented milk products.

What is the secret of the popularity of low-fat products?

In the modern era, many people pay great attention to their health, especially to the weight index. Observing numerous diets, they choose foods with reduced caloric content. This circumstance pushes the producers of dairy and fermented milk products to produce food products with a lower energy value.

It did not pass this trend and our "old friend" - cottage cheese. The idea of making a tasty and useful product attractive to slimming people, was embodied in the creation of low-fat cottage cheese. This product differs from the classic counterpart with a lower calorie content. This is achieved by reducing the fat content in the feedstock - milk. Thus, it turns out skim curd, the benefits and harm of which cause constant controversy of both dieticians and ordinary consumers.

Features of the technology of cottage cheese production

As it was said earlier, the product loved by everyone produces on the basis of cow milk, subjected to pasteurization. The raw material is normalized whole or skim with the addition of buttermilk. In order to get milk from cottage cheese, a special starter is added to the starting products, consisting of a pure culture of lactic acid bacteria. Additionally, rennet enzyme, pepsin or calcium chloride solution may be administered. The clot obtained during the process is separated from the whey. This is a ready-to-eat product. It is packed in packages for sale to the consumer or serves as a raw material for confectionery production. It is important to note that in the production of cottage cheese, which will not be heat cooked before being directly ingested, only pasteurized milk, devoid of any microorganisms, is used.

What indicators should a good cottage cheese match?

Such a classic way to prepare cottage cheese. The benefits and harms of a sour-milk product directly depend on the feedstock, as well as on the correctness of the process, with observance of all controlled parameters. A quality product must meet the following requirements:

• The protein content is 15-20%.
• Smell and taste - pure and sour-milk, foreign shades are not allowed.
• Color - white, slightly yellowish, the presence of a cream shade is allowed. This indicator should be uniform throughout the mass.
• The consistency of the product depends on its fat content. For a cottage cheese with a high fat content, a gentle and homogeneous mass, a slightly smearing structure, is considered normal. Low-fat cottage cheese, the benefits and harms of which are not in doubt, should be in consistency friable, slightly heterogeneous, with a small separation of whey.
• According to the indicators of microbiological studies, the content of E. coli bacteria (SHGKP) bacteria in 0.00001 g and pathogenic microorganisms (including salmonella) in 25 g of the product is not allowed.

If you have just such a low-fat cottage cheese - the benefits and harms in it meet the standards. This means that there will not be any negative consequences from its consumption in food. An exception may be people with individual food intolerance and the presence of certain chronic diseases.

Types of cottage cheese

If you subject all types of cottage cheese to the classification of fat content, then we can distinguish the following products:

• Fat, 18%.
• Bold, 9%.
• Low-fat or low-fat, 0.1 - 1.8%.
• Peasant, 5%.
• Dining room, 2%.
• Dietary, 4-11%.
• Dietary with fruit and berry filler, 4-11%.
• Low-fat, with fruit filling, 4%.

Among the variety of these foods, you can pick up a cottage cheese that is acceptable for taste and quality . People who are inclined to count calories and scrupulously compose their daily diet choose a variant with less energy value. The use and harm of curd soft, low-fat skim causes some doubts. Is the dietary product inferior to its more calorie "colleague"? Does the original product, along with the extracted milk fat, lose its useful properties? Does not acquire harmful qualities?

Classic curd and its beneficial properties

Let's think about the composition of fat and low-fat cottage cheese. The benefits and harms of each of the products are determined by their composition.

Curd classic with a fat content of at least 9% contains the following substances, which certainly benefit the human body:

• Calcium. This mineral performs a lot of functions in the human body: it affects the contraction of muscles, carrying out nerve impulses, strengthens bone tissue, helps blood clot, and much more. A feature of calcium in dairy products is that it is in combination with lactic acid to form lactate. This substance is available to the human body and is digested quite well. The maximum absorption of calcium contributes to fat-soluble vitamin D, which is also found in dairy products with a natural fat content.
• Protein. This is the main building material. On the basis of amino acids, of which proteins are composed, all tissues and organs of the human body are built. The peculiarity of the protein cottage cheese is its digestibility.
• Therefore it is the cottage cheese that is advised to eat for children, patients with metabolic disorders and elderly people. Only in dairy products there is a special protein casein, which normalizes the exchange of fats in the human body.
• Vitamins. Cottage cheese is rich in various vitamins: D, E, A, B2, B1, B12, B6, PP. These nutrients contribute to the full functioning of the human body, regulating the activity of organs and systems. Vitamins E and A are natural antioxidants and prevent aging and the formation of serious diseases such as cancer.
• Minerals. In addition to calcium in curd contains potassium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium. All of them play a huge role in the functioning of the human body. Such a balanced composition puts all the dots over "and" in the question: "Cottage cheese is good and harm?" The useful properties of this sour milk product, of course, dominate over its possible negative impact.
• Unique substances - kefalin and phospholipids of lecithin - are contained in milk fat. They are remarkable for being a building material for all cell membranes and involved in neuronal regulation of vital processes.
• Among other amino acids in the curd is methionine. This particular substance has a hepatoprotective effect and protects liver cells from fatty degeneration. Also cottage cheese is useful for some endocrine disorders associated with obesity, gout, dysfunction of the thyroid gland.

The balanced natural composition of this product makes even skeptics stop disputing about the usefulness of cottage cheese. Cottage cheese, the benefits and harm of which are incommensurable with each other, is the most valuable product for people weakened by the disease, as it contributes to the speedy restoration and normalization of all the most important functions of the body.

Can cottage cheese harm the body?

Nutritionists still advise with some caution to consume cottage cheese in the following cases:

• When the disease is atherosclerosis.
• With individual milk protein intolerance.
• With severe kidney disease.
• With excess weight.

This group should limit use.

Do not forget about the expiration date!

Cottage cheese, made according to the classical recipe, can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than two days at a temperature below + 8 ° C. After this, the bacteria begin to multiply actively in the product, and the processes of decay of proteins occur. If you eat overdue cottage cheese, you can get serious poisoning. Be sure to pay attention to the expiration dates of the product! If the manufacturer specifies a storage period longer than 2-3 days, it means that the curds have been added preservatives. The only thing that can prolong the life of the product is vacuum packaging. In it, cottage cheese can be stored for 30 days. An important condition - the integrity of the package should not be violated. After opening the evacuated product, it should be consumed within 2 days.

What are the features of low-fat cottage cheese?

Now let's take a closer look at what the low-fat cottage cheese is. The benefit or harm lies in this mysterious product? As a matter of fact, this cottage cheese differs from the food and energy value described above. In low-calorie cottage cheese, the fat content is minimized. This gives him the properties of a dietary product. This means that all or almost all of the milk fat was removed from the raw material - milk - by separation. It makes it easier for slimming people to use this product and not be afraid for being overweight.

Is low-fat cottage cheese useful?

But did the whole curative benefits of cottage cheese survive? Low-fat curd along with a high-calorie component is partially or completely deprived of the following substances and properties:

• Fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E are practically absent in fat-free cottage cheese.
• As a consequence, the bioavailability of calcium decreases. From a low-calorie product, it is digested worse.
• Lecithin and cephalic also disappear together with milk fat.
• The content of proteins and amino acids decreases somewhat.

Judge for yourself, what can give the body a low-fat cottage cheese? The use or harm of cottage cheese with reduced calorie causes disagreement among nutritionists. Some say that this product is deprived of most of its amazingly beneficial properties along with fat. Others argue that a light product becomes available to people with obesity and atherosclerosis. Strange as it may seem, both are right in their own way.

Is low-fat cottage cheese harmful?

In itself, low-fat cottage cheese is not bad. When it is used for food, the body receives valuable easily digestible protein, vitamins, trace elements and other biologically active substances. But the thing is that not many will like the "lean" taste of such cottage cheese. To some it may seem empty or sour. Enterprising manufacturers of dairy products quickly found a suitable solution. In low-fat cottage cheese they began to add sugar or other sweeteners, flavors, fruit or berry fillers. Most of them are of a synthetic nature and are alien substances for the body. Think what is useful can bring your body such cottage cheese? Low-fat cottage cheese, the benefits and harm of which cause doubts is a product saturated with flavors and preservatives. Think, what is good about such a "low-calorie" diet?

Due to the addition of sweeteners, the energy value of the product may exceed the equivalent of the fatty classic curd. Chemical components that improve taste, can make an imbalance in the body, disrupt metabolic processes and cause some diseases. Thus, sweet deception can bring serious health problems.

What do dieticians advise?

Nutrition experts are advised to approach this issue reasonably. If you do not have a serious illness (atherosclerosis or kidney failure), then do not get into hysteria about the dilemma: what fat cottage cheese is better and more useful to eat? The fight against excess weight should be literate. It is better to eat classic curd, enjoy its wonderful creamy taste and enrich your body with unique natural nutrients. And calories can be very simply spent using exercise in the gym or jogging in a shady park. Be healthy and enjoy life!