What's Wrong With "enzymes" In Cheese?

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Ray has pointed out that more and more foods are made differently today, with new technology. Then someone begins reacting to the food. Like examples are pulpless orange juice, Armour thyroid, and even cheese.

Do you know if the "enzymes" added to almost all inexpensive cheeses today are safe? I'm looking for any anecdotal, studies or theory about why they are or aren't. Thanks.
 

cardochav

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Ray has pointed out that more and more foods are made differently today, with new technology. Then someone begins reacting to the food. Like examples are pulpless orange juice, Armour thyroid, and even cheese.

Do you know if the "enzymes" added to almost all inexpensive cheeses today are safe? I'm looking for any anecdotal, studies or theory about why they are or aren't. Thanks.

From what I understand the enzymes can cause digestive problems especially in sensitive guts since the enzymes may be derived from gmo corn. Some people have no problems with the enzymes however. The problem is if the ingredients of the cheese say ensymes there is no way to tell if the enzymes were derived from a genetically modified organizm or not so you really dont know what your eating. This can be bad for people who are eating that cheese on a daily basis.
 
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ecstatichamster
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thank you. It is impossible to find any inexpensive cheese that doesn't contain it. Other than fresh dairy like cottage cheese.
 

FredSonoma

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Ray has pointed out that more and more foods are made differently today, with new technology. Then someone begins reacting to the food. Like examples are pulpless orange juice, Armour thyroid, and even cheese.

Do you know if the "enzymes" added to almost all inexpensive cheeses today are safe? I'm looking for any anecdotal, studies or theory about why they are or aren't. Thanks.

Is pulpless OJ worse for any reason?
 

Koveras

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I guess that newer methods use enzymes to degrade the pulp rather than straining or mechanical extraction
 

chrismeyers

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If youre going to get cheese, only get real cheese made with rennett. The enzyme ones are the new age ones which dont use rennet because they are trying to be fully vegetarian. And yeah its not that hard to find rennett cheese. Feta brands imported from Greece all use rennet. A lot of the European imports in general do. Buy them.
 
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lollipop

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Ray has pointed out that more and more foods are made differently today, with new technology. Then someone begins reacting to the food. Like examples are pulpless orange juice, Armour thyroid, and even cheese.

Do you know if the "enzymes" added to almost all inexpensive cheeses today are safe? I'm looking for any anecdotal, studies or theory about why they are or aren't. Thanks.
Those enzymes are GMO products meant to speed up the aging process to make cheese ready for market faster = faster profits. A definite long term avoid. Occasionally, probably not a huge problem.

I heard Ray say that and went to the Gov website for additives to confirm. Ray is correct.

I have found several English cheddars, French gruyeres, Swiss cheeses at Whole Foods that do not contain them. It was a eye opener to see so many companies using them especially since they are really like a cheat sheet.
 
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In my country the mass produce cheese like in the supermarket usually if you read the label its usually microbial rennet

Only one i saw with animal rennet but its not really pure. Its shows like this in the ingredient list natural cheese cultures, vegetarian rennet/calfs rennet.

Its better to buy at boutique cheese shop though its expensive. They have a showcase chiller where all the blue cheese, aged cheese are displayed. But i will ask if the source use animal rennet.
 

sladerunner69

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thank you. It is impossible to find any inexpensive cheese that doesn't contain it. Other than fresh dairy like cottage cheese.

Not true. Trader Joes, for example, has a variety of inexpensive cheeses like "california cheddar" which are made the old fashionned way. I think it's only 4 buckaroos per pound!
 

Lilac

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The world is so upside down, many modern cheese products seem to tout that they're made with enzymes rather than "animal" rennet. Avoid those like the plague.
 

XPlus

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Do you know if the "enzymes" added to almost all inexpensive cheeses today are safe? I'm looking for any anecdotal, studies or theory about why they are or aren't. Thanks.

I have a gut feeling it isn't.

Those enzymes are GMO products meant to speed up the aging process to make cheese ready for market faster = faster profits. A definite long term avoid. Occasionally, probably not a huge problem.

It also serves to sell the cheese in markets sensitive to animal products (e.g. vegetarians, hindus, muslims, jews, buddhists), because no one is likely to have moral problems with "vegetarian" coagulants
Vegetarian enzymes = kill 10 birds with Matt one stone
 
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TheHound

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anyone know where to get animal rennet cheese in toronto? I eat quite a bit of cheese everyday and they all say microbial enzymes in the inregedients
 
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ecstatichamster
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basically boutique cheese is made from rennet. Mass produced cheese is made from enzymes.

In the US now there are some fantastic local boutique raw milk cheeses, as good or better than anywhere in the world. They all use rennet, not enzymes.
 

Lilac

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I just came across this in one of the Ray Peat advice depositories:

[In cheese,] When the label says 'enzymes,' it is likely that they are using one of the new products; lots of people are having serious intestinal reactions to commercial cheeses. Real animal rennet is still safe, as far as I know. Industrial grade citric acid is a serious allergen for some people, because it contains contaminants that aren't in natural fruit citric acid, but it's probably safer than the industrial 'enzymes.' The producers of the enzyme products claim they are highly purified, but some people react as though they still contain some antigens from the microorganisms. The traditional cheeses were made with milk that soured with the bacteria that lived in the cows, but now it's common to sterilize the milk, and then add cultures, or enzymes, or citric acid, for standardization---but they often put their faith in a commercial product that seems to work well, but that could have serious allergenic contaminants. The same thing has been happening with aged cheeses, many places are no longer letting the native molds infect the cheese curds. Homogenizing doesn't cause any problems---unless they use solvents/detergents for adding the vitamins A and D that are required in milk with reduced fat. The vitamins aren't normally added to whole milk or cream.
 

Travis

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Trader Joe's is probably the best-bet! I remember they had raw-milk cheese for really cheap there.

Many grocery stores also have Emmentaler! The swiss-cheese from Switzerland with holes! I don't think they Swiss would allow GMO enzymes in their cheese.

Emmentaler is also made with skim-milk. This makes it higher in protein and lower in fat. This cheese is also grass-fed (I think).

The bacteria used is swiss is Propionibacterium freudenreichii. Many people think this is an especially good probiotic. It is alleged to destroy candida albicans and reduce social anxiety. Emmentaler is quite-low in salt as well.

This cheese is like $7-$12/lb though.

The raw cow chedder from Trader Joe's is the cheapest completely traditional cheese you can probably buy in your area. The cows may not be grass-fed though.

It all depends on how much money you want to spend on cheese! Trader Joe's has real Swiss Emmentaler as well as Swiss Gruyere.
 
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If real cheese is cheap in my country i will eat this everyday. I love aged gruyere, gorgonzola, roquefort, brie.
 

TheHound

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anyone know where to get animal rennet cheese in toronto? I eat quite a bit of cheese everyday and they all say microbial enzymes in the inregedients

bump for this question. nice if it would be relatively inexpensive
 
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lollipop

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I once went to Whole Foods Market in Ottawa and found lots there: jarlsburg, British cheddar, Canadian cheeses. There might be a Whole Foods Market in Toronto. Might be worth a jaunt every few weeks...
 

Xisca

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Here we still find raw fresh goat cheese only made with animal rennet. This implies a lot. .. it is necessary that the goat has a young cabrito every year, so as to kill it before it eat other that Milk. 1 week .
If the goat has no young, then it goes on giving Milk. .. so the only 2 problems come from US CONSUMERS.
. We want cheap
. We want not cute cabrito to be killed so young

So, some cheese have rennet + calcium chlorure

I only buy raw and pure rennet, and organic.
Non organic eat gmo corn because this is Spain, and non organic cow eat green bananas with chemicals that include DDT. Sheep also get them.
The real problem is the consumer. No cheap product can be made good way. Here cheese from holland is cheaper than local good cheese.

Buy good or else production will fade away.
 

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