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
you have no idea how happy that makes me…..it is my FAVE. cheese now I need to go get some!!!!
My husband loves Gouda too, and I’m glad to hear that even the non-grass fed is good because I don’t think I’ve seen grass-fed Gouda.
I find eating grass fed and pastured meats to be very expensive. We do it, at the expense of other things, but it gets frustrating, and I think that a lot of people miss out on it because of the expense. Not everyone can handle $5 plus dollars a pound for hamburger meat. In fact, people would die if they found out what my monthly grocery bill is!!!
Lori, the best way, by far, is to buy grass fed, pastured meats in bulk! Yes, it is more expense up front, but overall the cost is greatly reduced. We can buy a quarter grass fed, pastured beef for about $3.50 per pound hanging weight (before cutting and trimming). I also ask for all the bones for making stock. You customize the cuts, and this price is for every cut of beef from filet mingon all the way down to ground beef. It’s an excellent value, and a great way to support local, grass fed farmers.
i had no idea, thank yuo so much for sharing!
I’m like iniQuity above and would like to know just how much K2 a person needs to stay healthy. I’m mostly vegetarian and rarely consume meat or cheese, however I do enjoy raw egg yolk. I may eat a dozen raw egg yolk per week, sometimes more. I do this mainly for the B12 egg yolk contains. I used to have trouble with my fingers locking up at night and would have to go through a painful process in the morning of breaking them lose, that is until I started eating raw egg yolk and now I don’t have that problem anymore.
My 9 yo will be happy to hear this. Gouda is his favorite cheese!
Gouda is sooooo good-ah!
Gouda: The Nutrient Dense Cheese of Choice http://t.co/uYBCHImh #realfood Check out the Healthy Home Economist for more great articles!
The farm we get milk from sells cheese made on site and gouda there is so creamy and wonderful — glad to hear it is highly nutritious too!
Do you know if smoked gouda is similar in health benefits? or any smoked cheese for that matter?
Thanks for this post. I’m going to add this to my grocery list.
What do you think of alfalfa for a vitamin K source?
Alfalfa is not a good source of vitamin K2 as it has none it it at all. Alfalfa would have K1 in it which is completely different than K2.
K1 is easy to get in the diet and deficiency is rare and obvious if there is one at all.
Do not mistake K1 for K2. They are completely different in the body.
I found it interesting that Sally Fallon does not recommend eating any type of alfalfa at all. (see Nourishing Traditions).
Or tea leaves because of the high amount of fluoride they accumulate. I’d love to see more on that.
And what’s up with tannins? Are they bad, good, what’s the deal?
I love Gouda haven’t bought it for a long time….. Now I have a good reason. Thanks for sharing!