Cottage Cheese vs Greek Yogurt – Which Is Worse For Your Health?

Cottage Cheese

Cottage cheese, also called schmierkase or Dutch cheese, is a soft, fresh, unripened cheese consisting of curds of varying sizes, commonly mixed with some whey or cream.

The 1st known use of this type of cheese dates back to 1831 and is considered to have originated because the regular cheese was commonly produced in cottages from any milk leftover after making butter.

However, many authors state that it originated in Britain since it is widespread in all-Anglo-Saxon countries. It peaked in the early 1970s, when Americans consumed approximately 5 pounds of it per year, according to the USDA.

This type of cheese is very easy to produce when compared to other types of cheeses, plus, it requires much less processing to get it to its intended final form. It is produced by curdling milk and draining almost all of the liquid from the solid product; that’s why it is considered raw or unprocessed cheese. Occasionally, the process is accelerated by the addition of rennet.

There are several well-known types and the standard must have a minimum of 4% milkfat. Nonfat, also referred to as fat-free, is labeled as not having fat, however, it can have up to 0.5 percent total fat and still be considered nonfat.

Greek Yogurt

It is a very thick yogurt that is either produced by straining the whey from plain yogurt to make it creamier and thicker or from milk which has had some of the water removed. The blend is then left to ferment until healthy bacteria grows and gels the milk proteins to produce regular yogurt.

Compared to unstrained yogurt, it has 200 percent more protein, less sugar, and fewer carbs than regular cow’s milk yogurt. If sugar or fruits are added, it may be just as sugary as regular yogurts.

The history of where this type of yogurt originated is unclear. Greece is the best guess, nevertheless, it is a typical yogurt found in other Mediterranean countries, South Asia, the Middle East, and now the US.

Over the past 10 years, it has become increasingly popular. It all started in 2007 when an entrepreneur launched this yogurt on the United States market. In less than a decade, it went from a 2 percent market share to about 40 percent in the present day.

One of the main reasons for the popularity of this yogurt is that the consumers in the US are likely to believe that this food fits into the context of the Mediterranean diet (especially for patients with cardiovascular disease), according to Michael Herzfeld, an anthropologist at Harvard University.

Verdict – Cottage Cheese vs Greek Yogurt

Cottage cheese is worse for human health than Greek yogurt since 1 pound of cheese requires about 10 pounds of cow milk to be produced. Cow milk is not only unnecessary for humans but is also getting increasingly nutrition-less and unhealthy because of modern farming methods. Drinking cow milk also has a variety of side effects, including:

Lactose Intolerance

The sugar found in milk triggers lactose intolerance. In individuals with lactose intolerance, the digestive system can’t properly digest this milk sugar, due to the fact that it doesn’t make enough of the lactase enzyme.

Lactose intolerance symptoms tend to develop from 1 to a few hours after consuming any type of dairy product or any food containing lactose. Symptoms include – bloating, excessive burping, watery diarrhea, stomach pains, and itching around your anus.

Casein

Casein is the main protein found in dairy products that promotes the feeling of fullness since it is digested slowly. However, because casein digests so slowly, casomorphins, natural morphine-like compounds in casein, act like opiates in the human body as they enter the bloodstream. This explains why it worsens mood disorders and anxiety and causes cravings for sugar and dairy. Additionally, this is why it causes withdrawal symptoms if you stop consuming dairy products.

Cancer

Women who intake 4 or more servings of dairy products per day are twice as likely to develop ovarian cancer than those who consume 1 serving of dairy products per day, according to a 2004 study. Also, research suggests that the consumption of dairy products leads to an increased risk of prostate cancer.

Pus

According to statistics, there is an average of 322 million cell-counts of pus per glass. This is well above the human safety limit for pus-intake and has been strongly associated with Crohn’s disease and paratuberculosis bacteria.

Type 1 Diabetes

There is a direct relation between intake of A1 milk and type 1 diabetes (when your immune system destroys cells in your pancreas), as per a 2008 detailed research performed by Woodford. Type 1 diabetes is majorly diagnosed in children. It is believed that the increase in type 1 diabetes is caused by the consumption of cow milk formula and A1 milk (during childhood).

Skin Problems

Acne production is associated with the intake of milk, as per a 2009 study published in the Journal of Dermatology. The main reason is that cows need to be pregnant to have milk, which produces hormones that are released into the milk. Thus, the hormones in milk will stimulate the production of sebum in the skin leading to acne.

Image credit – Shutterstock

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References

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/80/5/1353
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17664905

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