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
Shame on you for disparaging Natto!
Natto is readily available at Japanese food stores for about $0.50/40 gram serving.
It looks like baked beans and tastes like whatever sauce you choose to put on it – mustard, bonito, picante, etc.
I love Gouda as well. Maybe I’ll try putting some shredded Gouda on my Natto 🙂
Does it need to be raw cheese to have the goodness you were talking about Sarah?
Pasteurized gouda is still a good buy for nutrient density! Raw, grassfed is best, but get the best you can find and afford.
Gouda: The Nutrient Dense Cheese of Choice http://t.co/TtHo1AWI
I noticed that some of the gouda in my local Whole Foods and Trader Joes have added starches. Are they all like this?
Would smoked Gouda be acceptable? That happens to be what I have in the house, and I agree that grassfed is hard to afford as is raw milk in an illegal state. We are doing our best at least on the meat.
I’m dutch and we eat a lot of Gouda! This is fantastic to hear 🙂 Anyone who hasn’t tried it yet, should, it’s so delicious – especially if you get the old Gouda – tons of great flavour!
Gouda: The Nutrient Dense Cheese of Choice http://t.co/yB22Izs7 #FitFluential #food
I bought some Gouda cheese and i noticed it contained Annatto. Should i be looking for Gouda without Annatto?
Annatto is a natural coloring. Get it without if you can but it shouldn’t be harmful just misleading as to the true color of the cheese.
Sarah, my husband is Japanese; he and my three children LOVE natto. He and the kids eat it several times a week over white rice as it’s the only thing he can “cook”. So it’s not completely inedible–for them. But, confession: even with the above going on in my house and 10 years of living in Japan under my belt, I NEVER eat natto.
Guess this is my sign that I really should start eating natto! But I’ve given up grains and without rice it would be even worse to choke down… maybe I’ll just buy some Gouda at Costco. Anyway, thanks for the great information!
A little bit of white rice is not going to hurt you, especially if it helps you get down a nourishing food. It doesn’t have the antinutrients in whole grains and it does have some mood boosting amino acids. Nothing wrong with consuming a little every now and then.
What is natto? Does the ingrdients list on the back of the cheese have to say it has Natto in it? One Gouda I looked at had Annato colorng in it but all the others did not list natto in it. Is this the same? We have dairy goats so I would love to try and make it as it is delicious!
Natto is not a cheese. It is fermented soybeans.
I meant to say I would love to try and make “Gouda”, not natto. But back to my original question…does all Gouda cheese contain natto even if it is not listed in the ingrdients?
Tracey – the two are unrelated. Natto is not an ingredient in Gouda. Sarah was merely saying Natto and Gouda are both excellent sources of K2. You will not find Gouda w/ natto as an ingredient. Hope this helps. 🙂