Cottage cheese has been gaining a lot of popularity lately mostly because of its nutritious value. It has become a key ingredient in many healthy diets. People that have some health issues or who just want to lose weight tend to eat cottage cheese. Not only that it is healthy, but is also very tasty. Unlike other cheeses, cottage cheese doesn’t need to age or ripe. It comes in all different shapes and sizes. For those people who are counting carbs, they would probably know how many carbs are there on cottage cheese. Let us talk about this in this post.
Nutritious Value and Health Benefits of Cottage Cheese :
Nutritious value :
However, the nutritious value of cottage cheese depends on which kind you buy. There are many different kinds: sodium-free cottage cheese, lactose-free cottage cheese, creamed cottage cheese, etc. If you want you can add it to a recipe, or eat it raw. It’s up to you. Either way, you eat it – it’s healthy. But now that we talked about its nutrients you still might ask: how many carbs in cottage cheese?
The nutritious value of 100 grams of low – fat cottage cheese is as it follows: 84 calories, 321mg of sodium, 0 grams of fiber, 11 grams of protein, 4.1 grams of sugar and 2.3 grams of fat.
How many carbs are in cottage cheese?
In 100 grams of low-fat cottage cheese, there are 4.3 grams of carbohydrates. Now, you can probably see why people who want to lose weight tend to eat cottage cheese. Unlike some other cheese, it contains a lower amount of calories. If you buy non-fat cottage cheese, then the calorie count will go even lower.
- Non-fat cottage cheese contains 80 calories and no fat or saturated fat.
- 1% cottage cheese contains 90 calories, 1, 5, and 1 gram of fat and saturated fat respectively.
- 2% cottage cheese contains also 90 calories, but it is higher in fat. It contains 2.5 and 1.5 grams of fat and saturated fat respectively.
- 4% cottage cheese, which is the most commonly bought cottage cheese incidentally contains the most calories. It is packed with 110 calories and 5 and 1.5 grams of fat and saturated fat respectively.
You should also keep in mind that people tend to eat more than the recommended dosage of cottage cheese a day. The recommended amount for one serving is half a cup or 3.5 ounces of cottage cheese. Most people go for a full cup, in that way they unknowingly increase their calorie intake.
So now that we know the nutritious value of cottage cheese, let’s go back to the carbs it contains. Most cheeses, not just cottage cheese, usually don’t have added sugars. However, being a dairy product and all that, cottage cheese does have a little sugar also known as lactose. So in one serving there is about four grams of sugar. If you want to avoid sugar as much as you can, we recommend not buying any flavored cottage cheese. The ones combine with honey or different fruits can be very high in sugar.
Health Benefits :
Even though you might ask how many carbs in cottage cheese, you should also know the benefits of cottage cheese. First and foremost as we mentioned before, cottage cheese can help you lose weight. Nutritionist often include it in diet plans because it is rich in protein and also contains a low amount of calories.
The protein will help you in feeling fuller throughout the day. And when you feel full you don’t eat hence – you lose weight! Cottage cheese as other cheeses is also rich in calcium. Calcium combined with protein speeds up your metabolism which makes it excellent for weight loss.
A lot of athletes or just normal people who like exercise tend to eat cottage cheese. It helps in building and strengthening muscles that helps absorb protein to the body. Increase in muscle mass makes protein absorption better. The calcium and protein are also complemented by a fair amount of phosphorus found in cottage cheese. These three nutrients are known to improve bone health. Selenium which is also found in protein is a very important antioxidant. It boosts up your immune system and protects you from diseases.
Keto diet and cottage cheese
Many people ask how many carbs in cottage cheese because they want to start a keto diet. Very simply put, the keto diet is a low-carb and high-fat diet. People that choose to do this diet have to look for foods that contain the required fat, are low in carbs, and have other nutrients like calcium, protein, etc. Yes, dairy products can be an excellent source of all of the above.
When it comes to cottage cheese, however, whether you can include it in your diet or not depends on the type of cottage cheese. Even though non -fat cottage cheese can help weight loss, it is usually not recommended for those that follow a keto diet because it contains more carbs than regular cottage cheese. If you are on a keto diet and want to incorporate some cottage cheese in your meals, we recommend choosing the 4% cottage cheese. It’s higher in fat, but it doesn’t have as many carbs as the other options.
Conclusion :
How many carbs in cottage cheese is a tricky question. For a normal diet, the number of carbs in cottage cheese won’t do you any harm. However, if you are on a keto diet you have to be more careful when it comes to cottage cheese. The 4% cottage cheese is usually the lowest in carbs, but we still recommend checking the label before buying it. Nowadays with the number of companies and different types of cheeses on the market,you can never be too careful. At the end of the day, like most dairy products, cottage cheese is very nutritious. If you are on a mission to lose some weight or increase your muscle mass then this is the cheese for you!
If you are seriously on a ketogenic diet, check out my previous blog on 30 keto recipes we compiled on this link.
