These Popular Cheeses Might Be The Unhealthiest In The Aisle

We all know that cheese is a bit of a treat — it's famously high in fat and it can get pretty salty. If we all agree we shouldn't just snack on cheese by the block, do we really need to know which cheeses are technically the worst for us?

Well, information is never a bad thing and some of the cheeses on this list might surprise you. Plus, if you have any health conditions related to saturated fat or salt intake, then some strategic cheese choice might help a lot. Otherwise, you can simply draw on your cheese knowledge as needed; perhaps when you're cooking for others or when you're working on a light lunch recipe.

So, what exactly makes a cheese more or less healthy? The fat, saturated fat, and salt contents are important, of course, but there's definitely more to it. Processing is a factor since heavily processed cheeses can end up with extra stuff we don't need. How the cheese is eaten is another factor. For example, Parmesan (which has more protein and calcium than eggs) is a high-fat cheese at 30% fat, and it's pretty salty, too. It doesn't appear on this list because its strong flavor means it's mostly eaten in small quantities. A 10-gram block of cheddar looks like a joke, for example, but 10 grams of finely grated Parmesan is more than enough for topping a bowl of pasta.

Mascarpone is the awesome, creamy, and mild-tasting cheese we use in cheesecakes and tiramisu (whose origins are contentious). It tops this list because it is the fattiest type of cheese around which makes it a very high-calorie food. Honestly, though, the high-calorie nature of mascarpone isn't really a problem — it's a feature. It gives us that intense richness and creaminess that's hard to replicate with other ingredients, so it's the go-to cheese when richness is what we need. Since most people don't eat large portions of desserts like tiramisu every day, it's usually not a big deal. Plus, mascarpone has very little salt, no sugar, and includes a nice little hit of protein, which is all good stuff.

The cheese is made by curdling heavy cream with acid, so the fat content can vary considerably depending on what kind of cream that's used. Generally speaking, mascarpone can be anything from 44% to 75% fat. Plain mascarpone cheese from the BelGioioso brand, for example, is 50% fat (35.7% of which is saturated fat). This results in 120 calories per ounce, or 429 calories per 100 grams.

That's a lot of fat-based calories; far more than I would have guessed before checking the packet, which is the "dangerous" thing about mascarpone. It isn't an everyday cheese for most people, but if you do happen to eat it regularly without checking the label, you may be eating a lot more fat than you realize.

Mascarpone made the list due to sheer fat content, but most people don't eat that much of it. Cheddar, on the other hand, is a British cheese a lot of us eat regularly. It's also a cheese that's constantly tempting us to add just a little bit more. I usually can't even slice or grate cheddar without sneaking a bit for myself. It's my favorite cheese to have in a sandwich (cold or toasted), and I throw handfuls of it into cheese sauce with zero remorse.

The problem with all this, of course, is that cheddar (and other hard cheeses like Red Leicester and Double Gloucester) is pretty indulgent. It averages around 35% fat (of which 22% is saturated) and it has a high salt content of about 1.8 grams per 100 grams. If we compare this salt level with some other cheeses, mascarpone has around 0.175 grams of salt, and mozzarella has about 0.7 grams.

The thing with cheese, though, is that every brand is different. If you want to keep track of what you eat, you'll need to look at the package. There are lots of half-fat and reduced-fat cheddar offerings whose lower fat content means fewer calories. Salt content can also vary greatly from brand to brand — I listed the average as 1.8 grams, but Kerrygold Aged Cheddar only contains 0.75 grams per 100 grams.

Halloumi is a goat and sheep milk cheese from Cyprus which is known for its very un-cheese-like ability to avoid melting when heated. It's an amazing addition to salads or Mediterranean dishes and it's an important foodstuff for vegetarians thanks to its high protein content. Because it's often eaten as an alternative source of protein, however, it's also eaten in fairly large portions.

Around 200 grams of halloumi, for example, will get you a whopping 43 grams of protein, which is a good amount for any meal. Compared to most types of meat, though, it comes with a lot of fat. For example, the same amount of chicken breast would give you 60 grams of protein, 17 grams of fat, and just 202 calories. For halloumi, it's 43 grams of protein, an equal 43 grams of fat, and 571 calories.

It's only around 21% fat (14% of which is saturated), which isn't bad for a cheese but by most standards it's still considered a high-fat cheese. And because we tend to eat a lot of it at once, it often represents a sizeable source of fat in a person's diet. It's also kind of hard to "just use less." If you're using it for protein, you need to eat a decent amount. If you're just eating it for taste and enjoyment — well, if you measure out 50 grams it'll feel like so little it might as well not be there.

American cheese is both beloved and has a terrible reputation. Some people refuse to acknowledge it as a cheese and others won't even acknowledge it as food. This is a bit of a complex one because American cheese isn't a particularly "unhealthy" type of cheese — it has a medium amount of fat and varying amounts of salt, but we typically only eat one or two slices at a time in a grilled cheese or on a burger. The problem is there are products out there that mimic it while using completely different ingredients. Real American cheese (like Kraft Singles or American cheese from a deli) uses official FDA labels like "Pasteurized Process Cheese" or "Pasteurized Process Cheese Food," and they're made with at least 51% cheese which is melted down and mixed with other ingredients. It might not be the fanciest food, but there's not really any problem with it.

If you see a pack of sandwich slices with the label "Pasteurized Process American Slices," however — that is not cheese. They're usually made with vegetable oils which try to achieve a similar taste and meltability. The true "unhealthiness" of this kind of product depends on the brand, but why trust something that's trying to present itself as something it's not? If you're fine with your cheese not being cheese, you could try vegan cheese brands that advertise themselves more honestly and often supplement their products with some of the nutrients real cheese provides.

As a British-born cheese lover myself, I don't believe in compromising when it comes to cheese. I don't have it every day, but when I do eat it, I want to enjoy it — and there's nothing wrong with that. Cheese isn't some inherently unhealthy thing; it's just high in saturated fat, which can be problematic for some people in some cases. Salt can also be a problem for some people, but generally only if you're consuming more than the recommended amount on a regular basis over a long period of time.

The word "healthy" also means different things to different people. For some, anything with calories is unhealthy, while others care more about long lists of additives and other "unnatural-sounding" ingredients. Whatever your version of healthy is, there are cheeses out there that will suit your ideals. At the end of the day, our supermarkets are so full of cheese purely because it tastes really, really good. So when you eat it, you might as well enjoy it.