I love cheese! Maybe I am addicted. I suppose I come by it naturally because of my mother’s Danish roots. But, alas, the MIND diet recommends that cheese be eaten only once a week. This is my biggest challenge on the MIND diet. Since I have been trying to lose weight, I have been using 2% cheese and staying within my calorie and saturated fat limit. Is that not good enough for the MIND diet?
I’ve always been able to follow a rule better if I understood the rationale for it. So, I am trying to figure it out.
The MIND diet is based, in part, on the Mediterranean and the DASH diets, so I reviewed their thoughts on cheese.
- The NIH page on the DASH diet states that dairy products should be fat-free or low-fat. The servings per week varies by the calorie intake but the lowest is 2-3 fat-free or low-fat servings PER DAY and a serving of cheese is 1 1/2 ounces
- The NIH page on the Mediterranean Diet does not even mention any kind of dairy.
- Cheese is high in saturated fat. Cheddar Cheese (my favorite) has 6 grams of saturated fat per ounce per nutritiondata.com. Even cheese with 2% fat has 4 grams per ounce (per MyFitnessPal).
- However, whole milk has 5 grams per cup and the MIND diet folks don’t say to drink milk only once a week. There is no mention of using low-fat dairy.
So, is there something else about cheese that puts it on the AVOID list?
I checked both of the MIND diet articles by Morris et al. and some of the primary articles they cite. So, far I have not found much specifically about cheese. The Morris et al. (2015b) article lists ‘cheese’ in discussion of the MIND diet components and in a chart that shows how the diet was scored. However, in the discussion section, they write “The MIND diet components directed to limiting intake of unhealthy foods for the brain target foods that contribute to saturated and trans fat intakes; these include red meat and meat products, butter and stick margarine, whole fat cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried/fast foods.”
That makes me feel better if I slip up and eat my 2% cheese more than once a week. The scoring for cheese give 0.5 point for 1 to 6 servings per week. Now that I look closer, I see that the full point is based on less than 1 serving per week. They really don’t like cheese!
I am afraid I brought up more questions than answers. One more question: Surely, I don’t have to give up my fat-free cottage cheese, do I??
I think I will keep eating it and eating my 2% cheese a few times a week. In the mean time, I will keep my eyes open for reasons why cheese is worse than drinking whole milk, using cream in coffee, eating eggs (which are high in saturated fat), etc.
One more thought. Perhaps the question about cheese in the research was more of a way to find out how much saturated fat the participants ate. This would be along with the assessment of intake of red meat, butter and stick margarine, pastries and sweets, fried food. This chart on TOP FOOD SOURCES OF SATURATED FAT does show that cheese is the top source of saturated fat.
Thank you. I was wondering the same thing. But I’m more interested in the softer cheeses; fresh mozzarella, goat, mascarpone . I just started this diet too, and was thinking since you’re allowed to have a glass of red wine every day, that’s 30 glasses a month, would I be able to enjoy a bottle of champagne once a month? There’s about 8 glasses in a bottle. I know the main ingredient in red wine is resveratrol, it’s still alcohol. So many questions, so little answers. 😒
I am researching the MIND diet, too, and have some of the same questions. I can’t understand why cheese is essentially prohibited, unless it’s due to the high “sat-fat” content of some cheeses. Also, the “recommendation” to have a glass of wine once a day: I can’t find the support for that. Eating grapes, it seems to me, could provide the same phytonutrients, without the potentially toxic effects of alcohol. Or substituting coffee for wine would provide a slew of anti-oxidants and phenols.
I’ve been looking for this answer, too – and finally found it in an interview with the diet’s founder, Dr. Morris: “ AF: … I have a question about dairy intake and the MIND diet. The MIND diet puts cheese and butter in the brain unhealthy category, but makes no mention of milk and eggs. What is your position on dairy and brain health?
MCM: There’s a few things like that — fruit, dairy, eggs — we don’t make a comment on because they haven’t been specifically linked to brain health. So when people ask, I say: Well, if you enjoy fruit, continue to consume fruits. If you enjoy dairy, just be sure that it’s low-fat dairy because that will contribute to higher saturated fats. Dairy is certainly linked to better bone health, so just be cognizant of the higher calories and higher saturated fat.”https://www.brainhealthkitchen.com/food-and-brain-health-dr-martha-clare-morris-mind-diet-study/
Read this:
A study found cheese to be protective:
https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/wine-cheese-brain-health-cognitive-decline-450697/
After following healthy food plans since 1994 (lost 60 lbs. over time) with the guidance of an excellent, knowledgeable nutritionist, my doctor told me recently that to support cognitive health I should follow the Mediterrean or MIND/MIND+ diet. (I weigh 105 lbs. & don’t need to lose weight. I am also healthy in most respects.) After healthy eating for so many years I find the MIND/+ diet very irritating, including demanding that you follow scientifically un-well-supported recommendations. I agree that the cheese issue is questionable.
I have also recently read a medical article that says there is no clinical evidence that the MIND/+ diet has any affect on cognitive health.