Westby Creamery’s Cottage Cheese: A Protein Powerhouse
May 04, 2020 (Westby, WI)
With news of meat processing plant shutdowns and warnings of meat shortages across the U.S., now is a great time consider the protein powerhouse that is cottage cheese. Low in calories and rich in calcium, cottage cheese used to be written off as old folks’ food, but new research and nutrition trends are steering the younger set back to this healthful, creamy treat.
Nutrition
If high protein is what you’re looking for, look no further than Westby’s family of satisfying cottage cheeses, which include both an organic and conventional option. A one-half cup serving of Westby’s 4% cottage cheese contains 11 grams of protein and the added benefit of calcium and potassium.
Cottage cheese is also low in calories and sugar with just four grams of sugar per half-cup. By comparison, vanilla yogurt has about 23 grams of sugar.
If you’ve been hesitant to delve into this dairy delight in the past, now is a great time to try the best cottage cheese in the world – literally! Westby Creamery won the 2020 World Championship Cheese Contest with its 4% small curd cottage cheese.
And, there are innumerable ways to dress up this mild, fresh dairy food:
- For a savory snack, add bacon bits
- For breakfast, add fresh berries and chia seeds
- For dessert try this no-bake, three ingredient recipe: /three-cheers-for-this-three-ingredient-cottage-cheese-dessert-recipe/
The trends
Like fashion trends, food fads follow a rise and fall. In the 1950s, for example, low-fat diets became popular as a method to combat heart disease in American males. Later, research indicated this high-carb way of eating contributed to obesity.
In the 1960s Robert Atkins, an American physician and cardiologist, created a nutrition plan based on close control of carbohydrate consumption and emphasis on protein and fat as the primary source of daily calories.
The Atkin’s diet, as it was called, aimed to decrease a person’s weight thereby improving high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. As with most weight-loss nutrition plans, improved cholesterol and blood sugar levels can be achieved, at least temporarily.
The popularity of a high fat, high protein diet has had a reemergence over the last two years via the ketogenic diet, or keto diet, which involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts a body into a metabolic state called ketosis. Ketosis is when the body doesn’t have enough glucose for energy, so it burns stored fats instead.
Nutrition plans like these have increased global demand for cottage cheese. The expected growth rate is 9.73% from now until 2022, according to a Research and Market report. And while cottage cheese represents just two percent of all U.S. cheese sales, this renaissance is most welcome by Westby Cooperative Creamery’s farmer-owners, who are suffering the effects of years of poor milk prices.
These challenges continue to drive small family farms out of business every day in Wisconsin. In fact, an average of two dairy farms close each day in the state, which makes the increased popularity of cottage cheese not just convenient for Westby but critical.
Helping farmers
A simple purchase of Westby cottage cheese will turn over a trifecta of positivity for you and small communities of farmers. Westby believes that buying cottage cheese feels good, tastes good and is good because:
- Purchasing Westby cottage cheese helps keep small, family farms in business.
- Westby cottage cheese tastes better than mass-produced alternatives due to its small vat style production, and we have the 2020 World Championship Cheese contest award to prove it.
- Westby cottage cheese is a great low-calorie source of protein and calcium.
So, whether you scoop it up on your favorite cracker like a dip, sprinkle bacon bits on top for a savory treat or add fresh fruit for a filling breakfast, Westby cottage cheese is back in style and ready to support your nutrition needs.
