food
good
AND
HEALT
HY
Everyone loves a holiday cheese tray. B ut ho w to nosh on
th e good s tu ff w ith o u t blow ing y o u r diet? Eat w isely and
well, as in these recipes fo r soup, toast, and salad.
S u re , ch e e se is good fo r y o u , and with a bit of portion know-how
you can savor big taste without packing on extra holiday pounds. Rather than
avoid this healthful food as a way to cut saturated fat, pay attention to serving
sizes. One ounce of most cheeses is the recommended serving size—and the
recipes here, by cheese expert Clark Wolf, feature that amount per serving.
Bold, pungent, aged cheeses satisfy taste, so less is better. These full-
flavor recipes, in right-size portions, make it easy to control how much you
eat—and that’s so much more fun than feeling guilty about whittling away
at half a cheese wheel.
by MARGE PERRY photos ANDY LYONS food styling JILL LUST
choose
big taste +
small bites
• A small amount of cheese is a
healthful choice. Just one ounce
provides 2 0 0 -3 0 0 mg of
calcium— about 2 0 % of the
daily requirement, and about
the same as drinking 6 ounces
of skim milk. “Cheese,
particularly aged cheese, has
very small amounts of lactose,
making it easier for those with
some lactose intolerance to
digest,” says Bethany Thayer,
R.D., Am erican Dietetic
Association spokesperson. For
protein, an ounce, from soft to
aged hard cheeses, ranges from
2 to 15 grams.
• To keep within one-ounce
servings while navigating party
tables, follow this rule of thumb.
One ounce of hard cheese is
about equal to the size of your
thumb. For spreadables and
crumbled cheese, visualize a
ping-pong ball.
• Cheese expert Clark W olf
recommends using your nose.
Sniff out “good, natural,
wholesome, and delicious
cheeses, and eat them in
reasonable amounts—you’ll do
right by body and soul,” he says.
A few stinky ones— blue
cheeses, Gruyère, Limburger,
and Cam em bert— offer big
taste in small bites.
• Serve cheese with healthful
accompaniments— apples, pears,
walnuts, dried fruit, fairly simple
crackers, Wolf suggests, “and, if
you can, always serve grapes.”
FOR MORE
The recipes on the
following pages
are from
Am erican
Cheeses
by Clark
Wolf (Simon and
Schuster, $25).
194 DECEMBER 2009 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS
