What is it with cheese???

[klmama 6,367]

I am finally back down to the weight that makes my clothing fit well.  Unfortunately, now that's it's cold, I want to eat cheese every day!  I can't do that, or I'll gain it all back.  Is there something about cold weather or weight loss that leads to craving cheese?  Is there something equally satisfying that doesn't lead to weight gain?  Thanks for ideas!

[Melissa in Australia 13,591]

For me it is reading Heidi. Every time I read that book I want toasted cheese on bread

[Spryte 17,237]

Cheese is my nemesis as well.

Did you know that the five essential food groups are actually cheese, bread, chocolate, coffee, and wine?  I swear it’s true! 

I don’t struggle with cheese as much at the moment, as I’m on a Keto-inspired diet (going on 5 years now), but I’ve found that eating really excellent cheese once a week helps cut the daily craving. So a very nice cheese and charcuterie board with good olives on Saturdays kind of tides me over.  

Mainly I wanted to say that a craving for cheese and salty types of foods often coincides, for me, with something being out of whack.  I have a constellation of auto-immune issues, and I have Addison’s Disease, and when a nightly craving for cheese melted on a plate of chips sets in... it means a med adjustment is needed.  So - if you have any issues like that, pay attention to those cheese cravings!

[saraha 1,679]

I don't know, I fight the cheese battle daily. Especially at night after the kids are in bed. DAILY

[wintermom 19,292]

Pickles are good if its's the salt you crave. Hummus is good if you want flavour on a cracker or bread.

I love cheese, but can't eat it anymore due to allergies and such. This time of year (Christmas) is so hard as there are so many different kinds of yummy cheese in the grocery stores.  

Avoid the deli section of the grocery store if you don't want the temptation. 😉

Edited November 25, 2020 by wintermom

[J-rap 16,771]

I've found that when I crave cheese (and I sure do!), having a small plate of things with only a couple very thin slices of good cheese often meets that craving.  So I might have a snack of a few water crackers with just one or two very thin slices of cheese split between the crackers, and then a couple olives, a few almonds, etc.  I agree with above that hummus is a good substitute too!  With fresh veggies or a little pita bread.

[Kassia 6,168]

I have this problem, too.  I want cheese and salt all the time.  I've been snacking on pretzels constantly and am afraid to get on the scale now.  My sodium levels have been low so I suspect it has something to do with that, but also stress over covid and the upcoming holidays.  But gaining weight is stressful, too.  

 

[Katy 20,426]

IME it’s one of two things. Either you’re burning fat that you put on by eating cheese so the fatty acids in your bloodstream are from cheese OR you’re just below the place your body thinks is your set point and it’s trying to make to regain the weight. This is usually where I fail. I’ve heard you can reset your set point by ignoring it for a period of time. I’ve also heard you can fast (either straight out, or some variation of less than 500 calories a day) for a few weeks, lose an extra 10 pounds and let yourself slowly regain, supposedly it drops insulin so much your appetite drops but it never worked for me. 

[PeterPan 29,937]

Maybe try a different dairy earlier in the day and see if you can head it off? Like 1-2 tablespoons feta on a large salad or ½ c. yogurt in a fruit smoothie for breakfast. 

I don't know, the nutritionist I used for many years to recover my health took me completely off cheese, saying it was horrible for me. Now I just eat it in small amounts here or there. While it's lovely to eat it in slices, I know that for me doing it would be part of going back to my health problems. But I have no moderation, lol. I do agree with the advice to look for what else you're not getting and replace it. Spoon of molasses, some almond butter or hummus on a rice cake, water with cranberry juice, something else. 

You can warm coconut milk and add cinnamon and honey for a pleasing evening relaxer. Is that what you're wanting is the relaxation from the cheese? 

Or go ahead and eat the cheese, but keep the amount *small* and eat 3 cups of nice stiff lettuce in penance. 

[Carol in Cal. 24,157]

What I find with cheese is, a strong cheese satisfies me much faster than a mild one.  And, eating a half ounce to an ounce with a few crackers and a small glass of milk generally satisfies me IF I force myself to take a 15 minute break afterwards to let my stomach realize that it’s been fed and should be happy.

Also, in general, this time of the year with the heater running and in the dead heat of the summer are when I mostly don’t realize how dry and thirsty I am, and lots of times a glass of water is what I really need when I feel hungry.

Lastly, filling up on chewy veggies or even crunchy fruit is very satisfying even though fairly low in calories.

[Selkie 23,122]

My advice is to read the book How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger. The studies he cites in that book will put you off cheese forever, or at least it worked that way for me and dh.

Between that and learning about the reality of the dairy industry, I cannot even look at cheese anymore without getting grossed out, whereas I used to crave it.

[mathnerd 5,873]

2 hours ago, Spryte said:

Mainly I wanted to say that a craving for cheese and salty types of foods often coincides, for me, with something being out of whack.  I have a constellation of auto-immune issues, and I have Addison’s Disease, and when a nightly craving for cheese melted on a plate of chips sets in... it means a med adjustment is needed.  So - if you have any issues like that, pay attention to those cheese cravings!

You make a good point here - I have a female relative who could not control her cravings for salty type foods to the extent that she was traveling with several bags of chips and eating everything salty in her house. It turned out that she had some auto-immune disorders that were undiagnosed and her asthma was at its worst at that time. So, your theory could be correct!

[Pippen 21,639]

5 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said:

For me it is reading Heidi. Every time I read that book I want toasted cheese on bread

I loved that book when I was a girl. I've switched over to using mostly goat's cheese due to allergies, and it's made me think back to it. 

[Carol in Cal. 24,157]

6 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said:

For me it is reading Heidi. Every time I read that book I want toasted cheese on bread

I loved that book as a kid, but I could not for the life of me picture what toasted cheese was.  I wondered whether they had some kind of cheese that didn’t melt in the toaster.  

I still love that book, and also another one by the same author—Dora.  (Sometimes this is called Uncle Titus’s Cabin.)

[KungFuPanda 32,775]

I’d rather have cheese than sweets. Cheese is my friend. 

[Rosie_0801 38,031]

Cheese is life.

But I draw the line at the one with maggots in it. If you want to reduce your cheese intake, replace it with a Youtube vid about the maggot cheese.

[IfIOnly 4,255]

20 minutes ago, Rosie_0801 said:

Cheese is life.

But I draw the line at the one with maggots in it. If you want to reduce your cheese intake, replace it with a Youtube vid about the maggot cheese.

Eek! 

I'm trying a version of green bean casserole with cheddar cheese in it this year. It looks so good, but there are already way to many calories (and my food allergies) in it. 

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/18379/best-green-bean-casserole/

 

[alisoncooks 11,286]

12 hours ago, Selkie said:

My advice is to read the book How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger. The studies he cites in that book will put you off cheese forever, or at least it worked that way for me and dh.

Between that and learning about the reality of the dairy industry, I cannot even look at cheese anymore without getting grossed out, whereas I used to crave it.

I'm going to finally read that book, just for the cheese bit. My family puts cheese on eeeeverything, and I've long wondered if we'd be better off without. 

[historically accurate 7,274]

DH likes cheese so much, he asked for Mac and Cheese for his birthday dinner this Saturday. Um, I can probably handle cooking that meal.

[J-rap 16,771]

21 hours ago, Kassia said:

I have this problem, too.  I want cheese and salt all the time.  I've been snacking on pretzels constantly and am afraid to get on the scale now.  My sodium levels have been low so I suspect it has something to do with that, but also stress over covid and the upcoming holidays.  But gaining weight is stressful, too.  

 

I've been craving salt/savory too...  I never used to.  (I craved sweets!)