For thousands of years, cheese has been a trusty and true companion in the kitchens of cultures all around the globe. But times they have a-changed and—thanks to money-over-health-minded food manufacturers, Monsanto, and other unmentionable but obvious Technocrats—the reputation of certain healthy foods has taken a tragic turn. With the rise of industrial production, oozing gushing cheese we once oozed and gushed over has melted away in the good ole U.S. of A. What’s filling our grocery shelves and our bellies today is made with synthetic, lab-cooked rennet that, well frankly my dear, you couldn’t pay me to eat, cuz I do give a damn. Not just because of its fake manufactured flavor and complete absence of nutritional anything, but for its alarmingly toxic effects on our health. 

Rennet. You’ve probably noticed it listed as an ingredient on your cheese’s packaging. This is the magic ingredient that gets milk to thicken and turn into cheese. There are four kinds of this enzyme: animal rennet, found naturally in the stomach lining of ruminant animals (and what helps produce superior flavor); vegetable rennet, derived from plants; microbial rennet, cooked up by certain fungi and bacteria; and then the fully industrial newcomer, FPC or fermentation-produced chymosin. FPC, made from genetically-modified organisms, is usually slapped with a ‘plant-based’ label, in what we might call “greenwashing.” And alarmingly, there are no regulations anymore for labeling rennet in cheese, so most of what you get is either mold-based microbial rennet or lab-made FPC.

Pfizer first cooked up FPC in a lab in the early ‘90s. They snatched a gene from an animal’s DNA, spliced it into bacteria yeast or mold, and started churning out chymosin from the bacteria. Since it’s cheap, reliable, and mass-producible, 90% of the cheese in the U.S. is now made with this synthetic garbage.

Although ‘plant-based’ GMO rennet might sound like a healthy idea, consuming it over time can be really toxic to our health. Trace amounts of unhealthy mold and fungus sneak into these enzymes, which can mess with our gut health, introducing foreign microbes that then wreak absolute havoc. Unhappy gut, unhappy life.

The FDA (as usual) gave GMO rennet the green light much too preemptively, labeling it as ‘Generally Recognized as Safe’ (GRAS). And even if we start with super clean toppety top quality raw milk, using this GMO rennet will destroy the cheese’s taste quality and nutritional value. And this, my fellow turaphile , is PRECISELY WHY I think most cheese in the US is impossible to digest. 

Real cheese—like the kind enjoyed for thousands of years until recently or the kind still produced between the hills of the Basque region and most of Europe today—is actually packed with calcium, which isn’t just incredible for our (perpetually aging) bones and teeth but a powerhouse for our entire body. We get enough calcium, and we boost our energy, megaboost our metabolism, and shed superfluous pounds. Calcium helps keep our blood pressure in check and reduces oxalate absorption, lowering the risk of oxalate toxicity.

Tragically, the media’s attack on dairy has everyone skipping cheese or picking plant-based substitutes, thinking dairy causes digestive turmoil and calcification. But unless one is truly lactose-intolerant, then au contraire. “Dairy-free” can be tricky. When we skimp on calcium, our parathyroid hormone (PTH) kicks into overdrive, pulling calcium from our bones to make up the difference. Meanwhile, phosphorus in our diet stays high, throwing off the balance further. Elevated PTH weakens our bones by increasing calcium loss and reducing new bone formation—since we’re not supplying enough calcium from our diet. And something else happens. In order to perfect “the melt,” cheesemakers here, in the land of the (too) free, add phosphate to their products, tilting the balance between calcium and phosphorus. 

Getting sufficient calcium is becoming really hard. It’s time we bring traditionally-produced cheeses back into our kitchens—not ONLY as a guilty pleasure, but as a VITAL, health-conscious choice.

High-quality artisanal cheese isn’t just rich in calcium though. It’s a veritable powerhouse of vital nutrients:

Lactoferrin: an iron-binding glycoprotein that boosts immunity, fights oxidation, and supports cellular health. Enormously abundant in raw milk cheese, this nutrient is completely stripped away with pasteurization.

Saturated Fats: The unique C15:0 fat found in raw-milk cheese is key for metabolic health and longevity. Low levels of this fat have been linked to serious conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

Vitamin K2: helps calcium find its way to our bones and thus is key in promoting both bone strength and heart health.

Tyrosine: found almost strictly in raw-milk cheeses, is an amino acid which aids neurotransmitter production and is crucial for mood, cognition, stress management, thyroid function and metabolism. Very important.

Beneficial Bacteria: Raw-milk cheeses also teem with live lactic acid bacteria, acting as natural probiotics, which bolster gut health, reduce lactose intolerance, and contribute to nutrient synthesis.

CLEARLY, really real raw and artisanal cheese gives our tongues, our tummies, our bones, and our gusto for life all it needs to be . Why opt for anything else?!