HELP!!! I am a cheese nut and do not know what is considered non-processed cheese. Does anyone have a list of processed and non-processed cheeses?? Please post or e mail me a list. Going shopping for my Soft Food days!!! Thanks

Processed cheese is like velveeta and cheez whiz. Non processed cheese is hard cheese whether its still in blocks or sliced. Hope this helps.

updegraffyou are not alone -- for some reason, a lot of americans do not know cheese from socks (though some good cheese should smell like socks =])!!

I would tell you to go to a good cheese shoppe and ask lots of questions. Processed cheese is a lot of the stuff you will find in a grocery store... a lot of the mainstream cheddar, and like 2911plans said, velveeta and "american" --aptly named-- cheese are not really even cheese, but "cheese product" - kinda like the stuff you'd get out of a can. a lot of good cheese is brought here by other countries, and in more recent years, you can find really great cheeses made in the US -- especially from Vermont.

I try to buy cheese that I know isn't made from factory farmed animals (animals kept in horribly tight spaces and not treated right, to say the least) and also ones without rennet, which is an animal product, but you can get vegetable rennet... but I am a vegetarian which is why I don't want to eat rennet...

Also, if you get cheese made by animals who are treated right, from a smaller farm, it's going to taste much better...

You can get non-processed cheeses in a lot of grocery stores, but I recommend going to a cheese shoppe at least to learn about them. There are endless amounts of cheese - from cheddar, to gouda, to bleu, to ...it's endless.

Enjoy your learning!

P.S. - as a general rule, it's much healthier for you to eat non-processed foods of any kind... start with whole foods (not the store, just whole ingredients) and make your own wonderful foods, or if going to a restaurant, a place that is real food - not fast food (and also fast food is really bad because of all of the red meat - red meat causes colon cancer among other things)...

oh one other thing -- these days there are a lot more pre-made foods that ARE healthy... like things from Kashi

Edited June 13, 200917 yr by crackedpepper

Well, if its a brie, camembert, blue costello, edam, etc, its probably cheese. If it comes in a box or plastic with a recogniseable brand name on it its not.

Cheddar is a bit different, that can be cheese or not cheese. Generally in the supermarket here, cheddar is pretty decent, and we only have cheese sticks and the Kraft processed stuff in the blue box that you wouldnt really eat. That and the laughing cow kind of thing.

My main non cheese madness is the fruit and nut cheeses, that are basically cream cheese with fruit and nuts in it. I love those, but I dont buy them because I eat way too much. I try to keep cheese intake fairly low coz its full of saturated fat and to me, lite cheese is not worth eating. But I do occasionally buy some brie or similar and there's always cheddar in the fridge as I guess that's the staple cheese for most households.

laughing cow makes the babybels - i LOVE those... i used to eat like a bag at a time, but now with the band i can't, which is good... if i eat one too fast it gets stuck, ouch!

laughing cow makes the babybels - i LOVE those... i used to eat like a bag at a time, but now with the band i can't, which is good... if i eat one too fast it gets stuck, ouch!

Would the Laughing Cow Babybels be appropriate for the "soft food" phase?

isn't soft food phase like cream of wheat and pudding and stuff? if so, then definitely not. they are a relatively soft cheese, but definitely not soft food... plus when i first got banded, i got stuck on them, because i was used to just shoveling them down.

i know that the laughing cow also makes those spreadable cheese wedges, much softer. but go to a cheese shop and ask them for softer cheeses... they can recommend good stuff - but make sure you tell them you're not looking for high fat stuff, brie is wonderful, but filled with fat. just beware that cheese can be tricky, like i said, i got stuck on the babybels - make sure you chew and chew and process that stuff in your mouth!! if i can recommend any other cheese, let me know!

I love cheese but have to be careful because cheese is extremely calorie dense.

One of my tricks is to use a very strongly flavored cheese, like Roquefort, and 3 crackers. I break each cracker in half and spread a very thin layer of the cheese on each piece. Those 6 bite sized pieces are very satisfying flavor-wise and the crackers will stay in the pouch giving me the full feeling so that I don't overeat.

Another neat cheese trick is to buy a bag of shredded reduced fat cheese. Get a small non-stick frying pan hot and put a little bit of oil in there. Sprinkle a little bit of shredded cheese in the pan. Just a tiny bit, about 1oz. or a quarter cup not packed down. It should look like a lace doily, not a solid cheese frisbee. Let it brown, flip it once and drain on paper towels. Once cooled you basically have a thin, brown and extremely crispy dinner plate sized chunk of cheese that is just ridiculously good, tastes like the browned cheese on a pizza.

A very satisfying snack with 8g of Protein for only 80 calories.

ooo strongly flavored cheese, good tip. gotta say though, and i know a lot of people use them, but they were never allowed in my house -- nonstick pans. have you ever heard about how they used to take canaries into the mines so that the miners would know there was something bad going on if the bird died, and they'd get out of the hole? well birds have died when people are using their nonstick pans... it doesn't kill us humans, but there are terrible toxic fumes that come off of non-stick, and who knows what it actually does to us in the long run.

ooo strongly flavored cheese, good tip. gotta say though, and i know a lot of people use them, but they were never allowed in my house -- nonstick pans. have you ever heard about how they used to take canaries into the mines so that the miners would know there was something bad going on if the bird died, and they'd get out of the hole? well birds have died when people are using their nonstick pans... it doesn't kill us humans, but there are terrible toxic fumes that come off of non-stick, and who knows what it actually does to us in the long run.

Teflon does indeed emit fumes when the pan is overheated. Never fry bacon or heat oil to the smoking point in a teflon pan, or stick it under a broiler. It's fine at saute temps. I have a parrot that hangs out in the kitchen and he's healthy with 15 years of using non-stick pans.

I'm more concerned about uncoated aluminum pans as aluminum has been directly linked to early onset of Alzheimer's in some people. Never cook acidic foods in uncoated aluminum. I do 90% of my cooking in stainless steel and cast Iron.