EatingWell

Is It Still Cheese?

Leave a slice of American cheese on a windowsill and after weeks it will dry, darken in color and curl. But rarely will it mold. Individually wrapped orange cheese slices melt smoothly on burgers and taste great straight from the package, but in most cases these soft slivers of heaven aren't technically "cheese" at all. More likely, they fall under the title of "pasteurized process cheese," "pasteurized process cheese product" or "pasteurized process cheese food."

Regular cheese, like Cheddar, for example, is made by heating milk, stirring in enzymes and cultures, separating the curds from the whey, salting and knitting the curds into a block or wheel to age. Pasteurized process cheese, on the other hand, is a mixture of already-made cheeses that are reheated, blended together, pasteurized and mixed with an emulsifier to provide a uniform texture, mild taste, smooth mouthfeel and the consistent melt that many people love.

Food technologists can lower the fat and then add flavor back in or create a variety of textures and tastes. Often, these "light" cheeses have less fat and fewer calories than regular cheese because they contain less actual cheese, more moisture and other additions. But with up to 20 ingredients, not to mention layers of extra processing, this "cheese" is far from its milky roots.

A small piece of true cheese offers much more flavor and satisfaction than a larger serving of processed cheese, which is why you don't need as much, says Max McCalman, author of Cheese, A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best. "If I'm hungry I'll eat the fake stuff if that's all I have, but even my daughter's dog knows the difference: he's thrilled to eat the rinds of real cheese, but if it's a processed cheese slice he often won't finish it."

Just Juice?

Way back when, juice used to be simpleyou squeezed a piece of fruit and drank what squirted out. Now, with everything from natural organic nectars to fruity-sounding "nutraceutical" drinks crowding the shelves, taste and nutrition have become much more complicated.

Take fruit punch with 10 percent real fruit juice: the first three ingredients in one brand are water, high-fructose corn syrup and sugar90 percent of the total product.

The first three ingredients in a 100-percent juice brand, on the other hand, are apple, grape and passion-fruit juices. Natural flavors (to replace the taste lost during pasteurization), ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and citric acid (to maintain a shelf-stable pH) may round out the list. The 100-percent juice packs a punch of heart-healthy potassium, absent in the 10-percent version.

Of course the best choice for health is to enjoy the whole fruit, which gives you beneficial fiber and myriad other nutrients otherwise tossed out with the pulp.

A Suspect Nugget

Dinosaurs. Stars. Tiny drumsticks. Breaded, formed chicken nuggets come in all shapes and sizes and are almost universally loved by kids, but most varieties barely resemble meat at all and consumers might be surprised to discover what's in them.

Generally, two types of "nugget" sit in your grocer's freezer: whole meat and formed. Whole meat is just what it sounds likechunks of chicken that are usually battered, breaded, fried and frozen. Formed products, on the other hand, contain chicken "trimmings"the meat left over or cut from larger whole pieces. This meat is not necessarily inferior, it is just too small, miscut or doesn't look as pretty as the whole chicken breast you'd buy to make Chicken Parmesan. The trimmings are finely chopped and mixed with a solution of water, salt and phosphates that binds them into a sticky paste and adds juiciness. A forming machine molds the paste into whatever shape manufacturersor kidswant, and the resulting nugget is dusted, battered, breaded, deep-fat-fried and frozen.

Some processed nuggets can have almost double the calories, five times the fat, and six and a half times the sodium as an equal amount of regular skinless chicken breast.

Shopping Smart

Look for foods around the perimeter of the supermarket: fresh and frozen produce, fish, meats, dairy products. Opt for preserved foods in pouches or small cans, like tuna, salmon, crab and shrimp, which need less heat during processing so fewer nutrients are lost. Choose frozen vegetables over cannedthey retain most of their nutrients. Canned tomatoes, however, are a good buy because the heat from cooking helps to release beneficial nutrients like lycopene. Make sure the first ingredient in a bread or grain-related food begins with "whole." Avoid foods with "partially hydrogenated oil" in the ingredient list and choose low-salt varieties of canned, frozen and boxed foods. Focus on foods with fewer ingredients: "In many instances, fewer ingredientsand ones that people recognizesuggest that the food is closer to its natural form," says Richard Bell, who researches eating behavior for Tufts University, Harvard University and the U.S. Army. "If you are going to get applesauce, and you have choices, choose the one that says, Ingredients: Apples, water.'"