We love cheese, especially when it’s melted between a sandwich or on a tasty meal. However, the melted version always feels a bit unhealthier than a brown sandwich with ‘regular’ cheese on it. But is melted cheese really unhealthier than those cold, hard slices? A dietician provides clarity.
Melted cheese
If we had to choose between a brown sandwich with a hard slice of cheese or a sandwich with the cheese melting nicely? Then of course we go for the latter option. Yet that feels a lot unhealthier, because you often see the fat in a sandwich with melted cheese. However, cheese is already high in calories on its own, both melted and hard. This is how Guido Camps, nutrition researcher at Wageningen University, explains to the AD. The molecules or calories do not change when you heat cheese.
Nutritional value
Dietitian Desiré van der Kruk can also tell you more about how unhealthy melted cheese is or isn’t. She states that the nutritional value does not differ between melted or regular cheese. “Many of my clients often think that a sandwich is unhealthier than a normal sandwich, but if you just use the same cheese and the same bread and don’t spread any butter on it, nothing changes,” explains Van der Kruk. Margaret. A small side note here is that fatter cheeses often melt more easily. So it doesn’t matter whether you eat the cheese warm or cold, the difference lies in the type of cheese you choose.
seems unhealthy
Although melted cheese is not necessarily unhealthier than the hard version, it often seems less healthy. How is that possible? “When you heat the cheese, the fat droplets come to the surface, making it only seem fatter. That fat is also in the cheese when it’s cold,” says Desiré. “It really depends on the perception of food, if something looks a bit greasy then we think something is unhealthy. We also experience it differently when something is warm or creamy.” Clear!
Source: Margaret | Image: iStock
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