Finding healthy eating options is almost always challenging due to the sheer number of products supermarkets present on a daily basis; and when it comes to cheeses, the situation doesn’t change at all. A clear example of this is Mercadona, which offers a wide variety of grated cheeses, making choosing one quite a task, especially when you want it to be as healthy as possible. That is why the nutritionist María Casas has conducted an analysis through her social networks, ranking these cheeses from worst to best, and the reality is that there is one that stands out above the rest.
The King of the Supermarket: Mozzarella Pizza-Roma
For the dietitian, the crown jewel in Mercadona’s grated cheese section is the mozzarella cheese. According to Casas, this product sits at the very top of the podium due to how good it is nutritionally when compared to the rest. “This is mozzarella cheese, which is also low in calories,” she explains. It has fewer saturated fats, so we can place it among the best, she adds. By being lighter and containing a smaller percentage of saturated fats than the others, it becomes the ideal option to use in meals without having to worry.
The Worst in the Ranking: They Aren’t Even Cheese
Even though these products are sold as cheese, if you read the ingredients carefully you’ll clearly see that the reality is different. María Casas opens her video with a serious warning about some products we should avoid when shopping.
The expert starts the video with one of the most common—and perhaps best-selling—items, the “Special Melt Cheese”, which ends up at the very bottom of the ranking. “This is an example of bad cheese; in fact, it isn’t even cheese,” says María Casas. In fact, upon examining the label, she reveals the product’s reality: “It’s a substitute made with butter, melt salts, cream… so this falls to the worst position.”
The same happens with the classic powdered “special pasta” format, an ultraprocessed product that repeats the same fake-cheese formula and, therefore, also slides down in its list.
The “Mediocre” Zone: Cheeses You Should Use with Care
On the other hand, the expert groups several cheeses into an intermediate or “mediocre” category, which, although not entirely bad, contain too much salt, fat, or calories, so they should be consumed with moderation.
In this list we find the Emmental cheese, which, although well made because it contains “only milk, salt, cultures and rennet,” falls short because it “has a high content of saturated fats.” If you prefer the powdered cheese, Grana Padano “is the best” in the supermarket, but the nutritionist warns that “it is the most caloric of them all, so use it with caution.” Also in this middle group is lactose-free cheese, which, although it is a good option for those intolerant, falls behind because it “has a lot of salt and saturated fats.” Finally, the dietitian urges caution not to confuse good mozzarella with the bag of four-cheese cheese, since the latter “is a substitute that goes straight to the mediocre.”
