Why Gouda is likely the most nutrient dense type of cheese you can buy even if you buy supermarket brands made with conventional milk.
If I was forced to choose a single cheese to eat for the rest of my life that would best maintain my health, it would be Gouda cheese.
Is Gouda my favorite healthy cheese?
Not really.
While I certainly like Gouda cheese and don’t mind eating it, my taste buds consistently rank several other cheeses quite a bit higher on the enjoyment scale such as Brie which I craved during pregnancy.
Why Gouda cheese then?
Gouda and the X Factor
You might be shocked to learn, as I was, that Gouda cheese is higher than most liver, grassfed butter, and even pastured egg yolks in the critical nutrient Vitamin K2.
This is the nutrient identified by Dr. Weston A. Price as the elusive “Activator X”.
Vitamin K2 along with the other fat soluble activators A and D are synergistically responsible for the vibrant health and extremely high resistance to aging and degenerative disease as experienced by Traditional Cultures and as described in Dr. Price’s groundbreaking book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
Vitamin K2 is extremely difficult to get sufficient quantities of in the diet. This is the case even if one consumes grassfed meats and dairy on a regular basis.
The reason is the worrisome depletion of our soils which grassfed farmers are valiantly turning the tide on, but which will still take several decades if not even a century or two to reverse on a widespread basis.
On top of this, many families are currently struggling to afford any grassfed meat and dairy at all.
An inflationary economy requires creative and practical solutions for the food budget. This ensures that this critical and elusive nutrient is in the diet in sufficient quantities.
This helps secure freedom from tooth decay and high immunity. Such vigilance prevents degenerative diseases like osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, periodontal disease, cancer, and diabetes among many others.
K2 is also the vanity vitamin as it is known to prevent facial wrinkles. K2 deficiency can be written all over your face…quite literally!
Synergy with No Toxicity
Vitamin K2 has no known toxicity even at high intake levels.
However, it is most effective when consumed in the presence of the other fat soluble activators Vitamin A and D.
Therefore, getting Vitamin K2 from food is always the best way to go if at all possible.
Gouda Cheese Top 3 for Most Elusive Nutrient
This is where Gouda cheese comes in.
You see, the food that is highest in Vitamin K2 is natto, which is very difficult to find and even more difficult to consume due to its very horrible taste and texture. If you are game, you can usually find it at Asian specialty stores. Look for it in the freezer section.
Natto contains about 1,103 mcg of K2 per 3.5 ounce portion. This is more than any other food by a large margin. Note that it is best to source organic natto due to toxicity issues from GMO soybeans.
The second highest food in Vitamin K2 is goose fat particularly from the liver which has 369 mcg per 3 1/2 ounce portion.
While highly delicious and wonderful to eat, goose liver pate is very hard to find in most places. It is also a very high end, gourmet food which makes the price out of reach for most.
Rounding out the top 3 foods highest in Vitamin K2 is none other than the humble Gouda cheese. It boasts 75 mcg per 3 1/2 ounce serving! This compares to pastured egg yolks and butter, which each have about 15 mcg of K2 per 3 1/2 ounce portion.
Grassfed or Organic Not Required
Here’s the really excellent news…
Gouda cheese is extremely high in Vitamin K2 even if the milk it’s made from was not grassfed.
This is due to the bacterial cultures used to ferment milk into Gouda cheese. Bacteria produce a special type of Vitamin K2 (MK-7) which according to current research is as effective as the animal form of Vitamin K2 (MK-4) at preserving human health when combined in the diet with the other fat soluble activators A and D.
Of course, grassfed Gouda cheese would be best as Gouda made from this highest quality raw milk would be high not only in MK-7 but also MK-4, the animal form of K2.
For some, however, supermarket Gouda cheese is all they can find or afford!
In other words, Gouda cheese is high in Vitamin K2 regardless of how the milk was produced. Gouda even if made from the milk of the average grainfed, conventionally raised cow, is still very much worth it to buy from a nutritional standpoint!
Other hard cheeses would also be high in Vitamin K2, but Gouda is the highest of them all. Perhaps this is a reason why cheese is the most stolen item in the world!
Sources
Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox, by Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue ND
I was under the understanding that many of the harder cheeses have even more K2?
You just made my husband’s day!!! He LOVES gouda:)
There’s a raw gouda with fenugreek made by a Wisconsin dairy that is fabulous that I get at a local cheese store.
my girls LOVE gouda!
Oh good, I LOVE Gouda!
We can even find goat gouda which we both enjoy. I’m assuming it would have the same benefits.
Per natto…check out some youtube videos on how to eat it. Surprising how many people love it.
The smell of natto is what I just can’t handle. Sooooo bad! The stringy texture I can’t deal with either! If you can eat it, though, go for it! It’s not that expensive, so dropping $3 at the local Asian store to give it a go is worth it even if you discover you can’t quite choke it down!
Hard to believe something SO disgusting as natto could be good for you. I am not questioning your nutritional information, which I trust, since it comes form you, but I wonder why my senses find natto SO utterly repulsive.
Gouda is not my favorite cheese either, but I will happily eat more of it, I prefer it to natto by a ratio of millions to one.
I think it is simply because we are not “used” to the flavor and texture of natto. I am sure many Asian people are more than happy to eat it. In fact, my two sons LOVE it because I have bought it on and off since they were small. They’re used to it, and they ask for it like it’s a treat!
I’ve never tried natto, but I feel that way about organ meats. Mostly I’ve just tried liver, but when I do eat it, it makes me depressed because I hate the taste and texture so much it repulses me and I feel like an inferior human being for only being able to eat a small bit of this superfood. I watch my boyfriend and cat chomp it down. After I eat a bit though, I do feel good and sometimes I get small hankerings for the taste. I feel like it’s so strong and powerful it should be given in homeopathic doses! 🙂
I mean, have you seeeen how much vitamin A is in liver? 3.5 ounces of turkey liver has 75,000 IU’s of A! (According to the book Cure Tooth Decay) And other animal livers are very high like 30,000 IU’s and on down.
Vitamin K2 is very important for women who are taking calcium supplements to prevent osteoporosis, along with vitamin D3. The K2 instructs the body to place the calcium where it is needed in the bones, teeth, nails instead of the lining of arteries where the calcium can cause problems like arteriosclerosis. Dr. Mercola has interesting articles on this vitamin.
I like it sliced over a salad or just to munch as a snack. Grilled cheese gouda on sourdough bread and fried up in grassfed butter is a K2 one two punch!
is sourdough bread from the store better for you than whole wheat or whole grain bread? i haven’t started making my own healthy bread, but have used nature’s own whole wheat bread for many, many years.
Grocery store sourdough is NOT real sourdough. Check the label- if it has yeast, it is not a true sourdough. The best sourdough is homemade 🙂
My coop makes a true sourdough daily that does not contain yeast.
Olivia,
Would you please Share a recipe for Real Sour Dough Bread without Yeast -o)
I have heard of that type of sour dough, and people that have to eat gluten free can eat it with out any wheat side effects.
Organic or any wheat, also Whole wheat/sprouted wheat, robs your bones of Calcium.
What is wonderful about Gouda cheese is, It is K2 MK4 which takes the calcium to your bones, and Not your arteries, or soft tissue.
For people that cannot eat dairy. You can get k2 mk4 from a liquid form. I think the best one is, Throne liquid k2 mk4 (amazon-pricy but worth it)..Also mk4 has a short shelf life in the body, maybe only 6 , hours..Mk7 has a much longer shelf life in the body. about 2 to 3 days..Take too much Mk7 and you can get a fast heart beat.
You can not buy goose liver pate in the Usa anymore. It is In-human how it is fed into the Goose.
any specific brand you would go for sarah??
-jason and lisa-
Just buy the best you can afford. Grassfed gouda from a small, local farm would be ideal (in other words, no brand at all)
Great info Sarah, I will be purchasing the 2-year aged gouda from the co-op more often. I knew there was a reason the last time I got it I could barely put it down.
Though, at 75mcg per 3.5 ounce serving, that’s a lot of cheese to eat and it still doesn’t meet optimal amounts of K-2, (as you said it’s best to get 100-200mcg) and if you were to eat that much gouda a day, it certainly would get expensive. I think my next project will be to make natto from kidney beans as the gentleman suggested earlier.
Is there something different about the culture used to ferment gouda as opposed to other cheeses? I’m curious of the details as to why it has so much more K2.
Sarah, I don’t know how you find all of this fascinating information but thank you for sharing it!
I like to solve problems, Sarah. This is my strong suit and always has been 🙂
Staying healthy in this day and age is a real challenge for those on a budget. Gouda offers a way to get that elusive K2 and not break the bank.