Vegan Hard Cheese

Food · Fat & Oil · Food, Typed Supps

Nought point nine grams of protein per hundred. It is coconut oil and starch shaped like cheese.

Stage by stage

Oil and starch (The block): Coconut oil for the fat and starch for the structure — no protein source in the recipe.
Almost no protein (Muscle): 0.9 g per 100 g — less than a slice of bread.
Saturated fat (Liver): 19.66 g per 100 g, above natural cheddar, because coconut oil is highly saturated.
Calcium gap (Skeleton): 130 mg per 100 g where fortified, against cheddar’s 800.

Timing

Nothing to time. The only thing to get right is not counting it toward calcium, protein or dairy serves.

Time to effect

—: Nothing nutritionally useful accumulates.
Per 30 g: About 0.3 g protein, 5.9 g saturated fat and 240 mg sodium.

Allergens

None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

85 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — low. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.

Environmental footprint

3.2 kg CO2e and 149 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Tofu" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Mid — roughly £8 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Saturated fat
Sodium

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 294
Protein: 0.9g
Carbohydrate: 19.1g
Fat: 23.3g
of which saturated: 19.7g
Fibre: 2.6g
Sodium: 800mg

Food vs. supplement

This is filed under Fat & Oil rather than Dairy because that is what the panel describes. Naming a product after the thing it replaces does not make it nutritionally similar to it.

Kitchen tip

Nut-based versions are compositionally different from the starch-and-oil ones. If protein matters at all, the ingredient list is the only way to tell.

Common myth

“Vegan cheese is the healthier choice — it’s plant-based.” In reality: This one has 0.9 g of protein per 100 g, less than a slice of bread, and 19.66 g of saturated fat, more than natural cheddar — because the base is coconut oil, which is around 85% saturated. Sodium is higher than cheddar too. Avoiding dairy for ethical or allergy reasons is a perfectly good reason to eat it; nutritional superiority is not one.