Monday, December 1, 2008

Is Velveeta Nutritious? Why Yes It Is! Velveeta Is Yummy and Good For You Too.

Is Velveeta Nutritious? Why Yes It Is!

First off lets get one thing straight, Velveeta is real cheese. Every kind of cheese is a processed milk product. Some cheese is just more processed than others. Does that necessarily make it bad? I don''t think so. What makes Velveeta different from cheddar? Regular cheese is made by introducing bacteria into milk, then letting the milk solids curdle. The solid curds are kept to make the cheese and the liquid that is left over is called whey. Whey contains a lot of nutrients but is discarded when making other cheese. In 1928 (yes Velveeta has been around that long) Kraft found a way to put the whey back into the cheese keeping all the extra nutrition from the whey that would otherwise be thrown away. They called this cheese Velveeta. It was created to be a more nutritious cheese. You didn't know that did you?

Compare One Ounce Velveeta to One Ounce Cheddar

Velveeta has less calories
less overall fat
less Saturated fat
lower cholesterol
(Ok a lot more sodium)
(Some carbohydrate)
Velveeta is a good source of protein and calcium.

Did you also know that Velveeta is healthy and good for you because it's CLA concentrations are higher than cheddar.

Grassfarming and Your Health News
Some types of cheese have more CLA than others

The way that cheese is made influences its CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) content. In general, the longer cheese is aged, the lower the CLA. Thus, hard cheeses such as Parmesan and Romano tend to have less CLA than softer cheeses such as cream cheese, cottage cheese, feta, farmer's cheese, ricotta, and Brie. In addition, cheese that is aged through "bacterial surface ripening" (Brick and Muenster) has more CLA than cheese that does not go through this process. Finally, a serving of high-fat cheese will have more CLA than a similar serving of low-fat cheese. (The CLA is measured in terms of grams of CLA per gram of total fat; the more total grams of fat in a serving of cheese, the more CLA it will have Reduced fat swiss is an anomaly, for unknown reasons..)

The table below shows CLA levels in cheese purchased at a grocery store in 1992. In all likelihood, the milk came from confinement dairy operations. If the milk had come from grassfed animals, the CLA content would have been five times higher.

Chin et al, "Dietary Sources of Conjugated Dienic Isomers of Linoleic Acid, a Newly Recognized Class of Anticarcinogens." J. of Food Composition and Analysis 5:185-197 1992

Other Reasons to Love Velveeta

Kid's love the mild taste
It melts better than cheddar or most brick cheeses
Makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches.
Makes yummy creamy sauces and dips.
Is great in cheesy Casseroles.
Stores in the pantry till use (Ok I will admit that is scary and it does have preservatives, but I figure preservatives can't be all bad. Look at how long we all are living these days. I say it must be the preservatives and we all are preserved well.)
It's shelf life and stability does make it a verstile pantry staple.
Great for camping trips or power outages.
I have a ton of recipes that use Velveeta
It costs less than cheddar (When bought at Sam's Club not the grocery store)

The Velveeta Jingle from the 1980's
Now this will be stuck in your head all afternoon.

Velveeta jingle (as I remember it), sung to tune of “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah”

It’s Velveeta, versus Cheddar/ Our velveeta, melts much better/ Cheddar’s runny, cheddar’s oily/It runs off of your plate onto your doily/ See Velveeta, melts so creamy/ it improves your tetrazzini. So when the cookbook/ calls for cheddar/ make it with Velveeta it cooks better

I will openly admit that I I love Velveeta. I had it as a kid and still enjoy it. I have a ton of recipes that use it.
Here are Some of My Favorite Recipes That Use Velveeta

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas
Cheesy Ham Grill
Deana's Texas Hash
Easy Cheese Potatoes
Hearty Breakfast Skillet
Sinful Potatoes
Skillet Macaroni and Cheese
Velveeta Broccoli Soup
Velveeta Salsa Dip
Velveeta Easy Chicken Fajita Skillet
Velveeta Southwestern Chicken Skillet

If You Love Velveeta Too, Please Share Your Favorite Velveeta Recipes

Go out and get some Velveeta Today :-)


motherofmany said...

I have to admit the title made me giggle!

I think Velveeta got its bad rep from its choice as 'government' cheese in the 50's, but again the point was to give the poorest people access to the highest nutritionally dense foods that they might not otherwise get, so that shows you the importance of the high caloric/vitamin consistency histroically.

Mrs Flam said...

Thanks For you Comment on my Blog. Hm Cheesy Post !! LOL , Velveeta and a can of spicy diced tomato's. A Spread for everything in Texas. LOL at least when i lived there...umm oh chips bread , sandwiches.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but the best grilled cheese, hands down, is made with colby, and it's on rye bread.


You've made me a little less frightened of Velveeta...


Anonymous said...

Hahahah! love this post! Maybe Velveeta isn't all eviiil sinfull and vial thing I had assumed because I had never had it.


Andrea@hopefulhousewife said...

LOVE it!!! I love Velveeta, yes, its true. I have the most wonderful mac and cheese recipe that calls for velveeta...I'll have to post it. :)

This is the giggle I needed today...and your comment was the boost I needed today too! ;)