Susan Blenner has heard about all of the miracle food diets. Cabbage, eggs, grapefruit -- all guarantee that if you focus solely on that one food, the weight will plummet.
"There's a diet for everything," said Blenner, dietitian at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden. "They go back over a hundred years. They just rename them."
So imagine her lack of surprise about another rising fad this year -- the cottage cheese diet.
There are even variations on the diet. There's a five-day plan, where you mix cottage cheese with fruits and vegetables, and you must drink a bottle of white wine. Also, there's a weeklong cottage cheese diet in which the dieter eats nothing but cottage cheese for, you guessed it, a solid week.
"As far as it being the miracle food for weight loss -- that's not true," Blenner explained. "There is no miracle food for weight loss."
Anytime there's a focus on one particular food, a red flag should pop up, according to Cara Munson, a dietitian in Roy.
"They use short-term tactics and they usually have short-term payoffs," Munson said. "But it's not sustainable weight loss."
Good, bad, ugly
Entangled in the weight-loss myth about cottage cheese are some truths. As Munson notes, "Cottage cheese is a healthy food."
Blenner says it contains vitamin B12, which helps to process carbs and fats and create blood cells. The curds also have riboflavin, which aids in the body's metabolism, as well as skin and cornea maintenance.
Then there's the power punch of protein. That, of course, helps the muscular foundation.
Plus: "You tend to have a higher satiety, you're satisfied longer. Because protein takes longer to metabolize," Blenner said. "Thus, you will feel full longer and less apt to get hungry quicker and overeat."
But there's a misconception about cottage cheese's calcium levels.
"A lot of people think of it as a dairy product," Blenner said. "But there's not as much calcium in cottage cheese as there is in milk."
A serving of cottage cheese has about 14 percent of the daily recommendation; a cup of one-percent milk has 29 percent.
When cottage cheese is produced to become more soluble and have a longer shelf life, the curds of milk are separated from the whey.
"From the time when we separate the curd from the whey, there is a certain amount of the calcium phosphate that goes into the whey and a certain portion that stays in the curd," said Donald McMahon, director of the Western Dairy Center at Utah State University.
"Cottage cheese, because it's acid-coagulated, has less calcium than some of the other cheeses on a weight basis."
However, McMahon said, that same process increases the protein in cottage cheese.
Salty
The manufacturing process also adds to the sodium content of cottage cheese; a dressing applied to the curd to lengthen shelf life increases the saltiness.
"It's high in sodium, but it can fit into a healthy diet," Blenner said.
However, eating excessive servings of cottage cheese can put you over the daily recommendation of sodium intake. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service recommendation is 2,300 milligrams. A single serving of cottage cheese, a half-cup, can be 350 to over 500 milligrams.
"In general, all cheeses are high in sodium, just because of how they are made," Munson said.
People with high blood pressure or cholesterol should be trying to stay below 2,000 milligrams, Blenner said.
Cottage cheese need not be reserved just for lunch or dinner.
"It's a wonderful breakfast item," Blenner said.
The reason is twofold. First, it does have some calcium. Just don't depend on cottage cheese as being the sole daily source.
The second is the protein content, which can help the body feel satisfied and full.
"Which can help you get through that morning slump until your lunch meal," Blenner said. "Then you would be less apt to go have a doughnut, go to the vending machine."
You can add fruit, pepper or Blenner's personal choice of tomatoes to the cheese.
Then again, you can have it plain and reap the benefits.
But don't misunderstand those benefits -- too much is just plain overeating.
True, it is low in calories and fat. A serving of one-percent cottage cheese has 163 calories and only 2 grams of fat.
But Blenner believes it's the same old idea of looking for a miracle to solve a problem.
"All they hear is: Lose 5 pounds in 5 days," Blenner said.
"That's our society. Everybody wants it quick and doesn't want to work hard for it."
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