TikTok Diet Culture Spoils Cottage Cheese

TikTok is Pinterest for the younger generation. This is where they go for recipes, product recommendations, and tips that will “change your life.” TikTok is their Pinterest and cottage cheese ice cream is their banana ice cream.

If you were on Pinterest at the height of its popularity, you have probably seen this ” ice cream “. It’s just a frozen banana mixed with cocoa powder and (sometimes) peanut butter until it’s soft. If you like chocolate-covered frozen bananas, you’ll probably love it. I enjoy it myself.

Of course, it has the quality of diet food. It’s an ice cream substitute so you don’t eat “bad” ice cream. Banana fritters give me similar feelings, not because there’s anything naturally restrictive or punishing about bananas, but because these substitutes are often coded as “better” for you than the guilt-inducing “real stuff.”

The desire to be thin is no longer as cool as ten years ago when Pinterest was at its peak; Meanwhile, body acceptance has become more popular and is rapidly becoming a commodity. The way we talk about food replacement has also changed. Instead of “cutting calories”, we “add protein”. And people use cottage cheese for just that.

At face value, this is normal. As someone who has been powerlifting for just over a year, adding protein is something I do many times over. I also love cottage cheese and am glad that it is gaining popularity . I love watching young people discover the simple joys of bowls of cottage cheese and whipped cottage cheese —I even made a pasta sauce with cottage cheese and loved it. But we demand too much from cottage cheese and whey. We want cottage cheese to be everything – from breakfast to dessert – and often it just doesn’t work.

Problem with some cottage cheese recipes

Two recipes I often see on TikTok and Instagram are scrambled eggs with cottage cheese and cottage cheese ice cream. I was in awe of eggs and interested in ice cream, but both have the same problem: texture.

But before we talk about texture, let’s address the idea that this is an easy way to “add more protein”. An egg contains 6 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat; 1/4 cup cottage cheese — the amount most influencers will tell you to add to eggs — contains 6 grams of protein and 2 1/2 grams of fat. You might as well add another egg and get exactly the same amount of protein with just a few grams of fat. It’s like it’s not really about “getting more protein. (Also, it’s not that deep. The easiest way to add more protein to your omelet without “extra” fat is to add egg whites.)

In addition, there is a claim that these eggs are “fluffy and light.” If you’ve ever eaten really fluffy scrambled eggs, you can tell these eggs are neither. The egg curd competes with the cheese curd and the result is a rambling scrum that feels grainy and spongy on the tongue. I tried blending the eggs and cheese together with an immersion blender to smooth and aerate the mixture, but the grainy texture remained. The added moisture from the curd also caused some problems; even after the eggs had fully set, the water from the cheese had not completely evaporated. It kept flowing from the scrum once served on the plate, which soaked my croissant and made me miserable. If you want “more protein in eggs”, just add another egg or steak, for example.

Then there’s ice cream.

I tried this recipe three different ways: once as shown in the video, once with 1/4 strawberry jam as the sweetener (instead of maple syrup), and once with 1/4 cup strawberry jam and a tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk. . All three sucked.

The problem was not taste. I’m a big fan of cheese and ice cream, even “weird” cheeses like blue cheese and chevre, so I didn’t mind the salty, slightly spicy flavor, especially when paired with sweet strawberries. It tasted like strawberry cheesecake and the mixed batter tasted and felt quite creamy before I put it in the freezer. But everything changed after the freeze.

Freezing is known to change the texture of this particular dairy product, and, in addition to the ice crystal problems that plague so many no-churn recipes, ice cream feels squeaky and springy—almost rubbery on the teeth—much like isolated cottage cheese. . If you were craving ice cream and ate it, you wouldn’t be happy.

It may seem flippant to dismiss these recipes, and I try to only write about things I enjoy (like curd sauce), but half of these recipes are orthorexia reimagined as “getting more protein” and they don’t taste good. Curd served in a bowl with a little salt and pepper tastes great. It’s creamy, spicy, a little salty (even before you add the salt), and much easier to make than those “high protein recipes.”

If you need “more protein”, eat a bowl of cottage cheese and whey. If you need ice cream, eat real ice cream. In each case, you will be much happier and won’t have to break your hand blender. (And if a skinny white woman with dead eyes and brown hair tells you something is “very good,” take it with Maldon’s salt flakes.)