Food & nutrition

Cheese: natural and processed types, nutrients, lactose, heart studies, and storage

11 sources · Latest source check 2026-10-20 UTC

On this page

Cheese is made by curdling milk and separating liquid whey. Moisture, fat, ingredients, and further processing distinguish products such as Cheddar, cottage cheese, and cream cheese.[1]

Familiar names describe different foods

Familiar names describe different foods
Type	Main distinction
Natural Cheddar-type cheese	Milk curds with whey removed; a relatively low-moisture cheese.[1]
Cottage cheese	A higher-moisture product, often made with lower-fat milk ingredients.[1]
Cream cheese	An unripened, high-fat product with a different composition from Cheddar.[1]
US pasteurized process cheese	Cheese mixed and heated with emulsifying agents and permitted additional ingredients.[2]

A cheese name tells you more than a generic dairy label

USDA’s product documentation distinguishes natural hard and soft cheeses from cottage cheese, cream cheese, and processed products. Removing whey and changing milk or cream ingredients changes the resulting food. Its retail-basket examples are economic product definitions, not universal nutrient values for every package. A recipe using cream cheese and one using a hard cheese therefore should not be assumed to contribute the same nutrients simply because both ingredients are called cheese.[1]

Fresh and aged describe more than hardness

Cream cheese is uncured. Cured or ripened cheeses undergo further development after curd formation; US standards describe curing to develop characteristic properties and flavor.[2]

Processed cheese is a formulation, not a synonym for fake food

The US standard for pasteurized process cheese describes mixing cheese, heating it, and using emulsifying agents. Permitted agents include specified citrates and phosphates; other ingredients include water and salt. Separate identities exist for process cheese food or spread. Read the actual product name and ingredients. The category describes manufacture and composition; it does not itself demonstrate a clinical benefit or harm from the finished product.[2]

Cheese contributes nutrients, with important differences between types

USDA includes many cheeses in the Dairy Group because of their nutrient contributions, including protein and calcium. Cream cheese is treated differently because it supplies relatively little calcium. This helps explain why a shared word on the package does not make products nutritionally interchangeable.[3]

The cheese–butter comparison has randomized evidence

A 2023 systematic review searched through June 2022 for energy-matched dairy substitutions. Across seven fasting-lipid trials with 264 participants, cheese produced lower LDL cholesterol than butter. The eligible diets lasted at least two weeks, and all included articles had some risk-of-bias concerns. These trials test a particular comparison and a blood marker. They do not prove that eating cheese prevents heart attacks, or that cheese performs identically against every alternative food.[4]

The review reported no direct funding; one author disclosed research funding from Arla Food Ingredients. Disclosures belong alongside the study design when interpreting the result.[4]

A favorable comparison with butter does not answer every food swap

A 2017 crossover trial in 92 adults compared several diets over four-week periods. LDL was lower after its cheese diet than after its butter diet, but higher than after its diets rich in monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats. This makes the replacement-food question concrete. Lower than butter and lower than an unsaturated-fat-rich diet are different findings. The trial measured cardiometabolic risk factors under controlled dietary conditions, rather than the long-term effect of adding arbitrary cheese portions to ordinary meals.[5]

Observed disease associations are encouraging, with limits

A 2023 umbrella review and updated meta-analysis searched prospective studies through August 2022. Cheese intake was associated with lower risks of some outcomes, including cardiovascular disease. People were not randomly assigned to years of eating cheese. Their other foods, social circumstances, and health habits can influence the association, even after adjustment. The result is therefore different from proof that cheese itself caused the lower risk, and it does not establish the best product or portion for every diet.[6]

Pasteurized milk and a safe finished cheese are related, distinct issues

FDA’s queso fresco-type guidance explains that high-moisture fresh cheeses can support Listeria growth. Raw milk adds pathogen concerns, but products made from pasteurized milk can also become contaminated during manufacture. Its US guidance identifies pregnancy, age 65 or older, and weakened immunity as higher-risk contexts and advises avoiding queso fresco-type cheeses in those groups, even when made with pasteurized milk. This specific advice should not be turned into a claim that every cheese has identical contamination risk.[7]

The physical form matters when mold is unwanted

USDA distinguishes intact hard cheese from soft cheese and from shredded, crumbled, or sliced cheese. For unwanted mold on hard cheese, it describes cutting at least one inch around and below the spot; the other forms should be discarded. Deliberately mold-ripened cheeses are a different category.[9]

Rennet is a milk-coagulating ingredient, not a cheese age

Coagulation turns milk proteins into a curd. Rennet is a name for enzymes used for this step, including animal, microbial and plant-derived preparations. Other cheeses can use acid or heat-acid coagulation. The curd-making method is a different description from how long a cheese is aged.[10]

Check the coagulant when buying vegetarian cheese

Dairy cheese is not automatically vegetarian: traditional animal rennet comes from stomach enzymes. Microbial and plant alternatives are available. Look for a clear vegetarian-suitability statement or product-specific information when the enzyme source is unclear. A cheese made with dairy milk still differs from vegan cheese even when its rennet is vegetarian.[11]

Evidence & uncertainty

Cheese can produce a different LDL response from butter in energy-matched trials. Long-term disease findings are largely observational. Neither evidence type establishes that every cheese has the same effect or identifies a universal healthiest cheese.[4][6]

Selected-source overview · Independent review pending

Published questions

How are fresh, aged, hard, and soft cheeses different?

Selected-source overview · Independent review pending. Read the evidence context.

Cream cheese is an example of a fresh, unripened cheese. Cured or aged cheeses undergo further maturation to develop characteristic properties. Hard and soft concern moisture-related texture. These labels describe different aspects of manufacture.[1][2]

Evidence behind this answer

Price Spreads from Farm to Consumer — Documentation
agency condition or prevention explanation · Date not stated
Selected relevant original official page passages inspected · Selected cheese manufacture and natural, cottage, cream and processed-product definitions; representative basket assumptions not universal nutrients
21 CFR Part 133 — Cheeses and Related Cheese Products
agency condition or prevention explanation · Date not stated
Selected current original regulatory text inspected directly, including sections 133.133, 133.169 and curing descriptions; US identity scope, not an international-law comparison · Current process-cheese identity, cream cheese as uncured, and curing for characteristic development; all part-133 aliases treated as one publication