Is “Nutritional Swiss Cheese” An Oxymoron?

If you love swiss cheese, you probably wonder how healthy it is. That, my friends, is a pro/con situation. It isn’t all good news, but it isn’t all bad news, either. Let’s take a look at the key facts about nutrition in swiss cheese.

First, The Good News

Swiss cheese, nutritionally, is an excellent source of protein. Higher is cottage cheese and ricotta, but of the standard semi-hard and hard cheeses, swiss cheese is nutritionally strong when it comes to protein, at 8g in 1 oz. (most are in the 6-7 range, and some are as low as 3 grams.)

Swiss cheese also boasts nutrition in the calcium category. One ounce of swiss cheese has 272.5mg. Most other cheeses are way down in the 135-200mg range, with a few as high as cheddar cheese (204.5mg.).

Swiss cheese is also a wonderful source of phosphorus. “What is phosphorus and why should I care about it” you ask? Phosphorus is needed by our bodies to work with the B vitamins for making energy. Also, it is a key component of our teeth and bones – they are 85% phosphorus. It also is involved in many other things, like our kidneys and muscles. Don’t worry, though – phosphorus is found in many of the foods we eat, so the likelihood of having a phosphorus deficit is almost none. Swiss cheese is high in it, though!

Another nutrition fact about swiss cheese is that it has absolutely no sugar. Zilch. Nada. None. But that doesn’t mean it’s an “all you can eat” situation. There’s some bad news about the nutrition in swiss cheese, too.

And, Now, The Not-So-Good News

Unfortunately, swiss cheese is hardly a miracle food when it comes to nutrition. Swiss cheese has plenty of calories, for one thing. One little ounce – a slice – not even as much as one normally wants on a sandwich – has a whopping 106.5 calories. While that is similar to other cheese, it hardly qualifies as a diet food. While there are a couple of cheeses with less calories, none count as lean.

And what about the sodium? Swiss cheese has plenty, as it spends part of its production time in a brine bath. If you are concerned about your sodium intake, swiss cheese shouldn’t be a frequent item on your menu, especially if it is pasteurized swiss cheese.

A discussion of swiss cheese’s nutrition would not be complete without mentioning the fat in swiss cheese – yes, there’s a lot. There are 8g of fat in an ounce of swiss cheese – and 5g of that is the nasty, saturated kind, the kind we all need to cut consumption of.