Ricotta Cheese

Nutrition
1

For the most part many of us incorporate cottage cheese as a staple in our diets.

Ricotta cheese does’nt seem to get much attention as a good source of quality calories,
especially from fat.

I just happened to have both in my fridge so i decided to make a nutritional profile
comparison…

                               1/2 cup                    1/2 cup 
                             cottage cheese              ricotta cheese 
                               4% milkfat                  whole milk 

calories                        110                          240 
calories from fat                45                          160 
total fat                       5 grams                     18 grams 
sat fat                         3 grams                     10 grams 
cholesterol                     25 mg                       60 mg 
sodium                          410 mg                      110 mg 
carbohydrate                    5 grams                     6 grams 
protein                         13 grams                    14 grams 
vitamin a                       4 %                         20 % 
calcium                         8 %                         40 %  
vitamin c                       2 %                         0 % 
iron                            0 %                         0 %

It’s obvious to me that ricotta cheese would be a quality food source for those
of us looking for caloric density especially from fat.

It has a nice creamy flavor without the tartness of cottage cheese.
It has a nice smooth consistency unlike the lumpy curds of cottage cheese.
Combined with fruit and a quality sweetner and maybe some nuts ???
Most likely much better in shakes than cottage cheese.

I’m sold. Time to ditch the cottage cheese. Bring on the ricotta !

Who’s with me ?

2

Mostly agreed. The ricotta I use is 50% calories from fat, and 25% each from carbs and protein.

There are other cheeses which are essentially zero carb and about 50/50 fat/protein, but the ricotta can work with other foods in a way they can’t. It’s also not a bad snack in moderate quantity. Taking a moderate amount of protein from elsewhere at the same time would solve the ratio business.

3

Btw, the nutrition information you posted doesn’t add up for the 110 calorie portion. The label screwed up. It’s impossible for it to have 90 calories from fat but only 5 grams of fat. Or for those two different portions to have 13 g protein in the first instance, and 14 in the second. So actually I don’t know what the nutrient composition of your ricotta cheese is.

4

^^^ good catch… 1/2 c cottage cheese …calories from fat is 45 not 90
( original post edited )

regarding protein...according to nutrition fact panel...  

1/2 c cottage cheese   13 g protein 
1/4 c ricotta cheese   7 g protein

I doubled the protein amount per 1/4 c of ricotta

5

Ah, makes sense now! :slight_smile:

Actually, now that I’ve seen due to your posting it, the nutritional profile of the ricotta from 4% milk, I’m going to switch to that, or at least use it as another option. It has a better protein/carb ratio than what I use.

6

I haven’t touched cottage cheese in years, quark tastes much nicer and has a very similar profile.

Not sure if you get that across the pond though