Many restaurants offer battered cheese sticks on their starter or appetizer menus. Battered cheese sticks have cheese, such as mozzarella, surrounded by a thick breading and are fried or deep-fried. They provide a few essential nutrients, but for more nutrients and fewer calories, limit or avoid battered cheese sticks, and choose a salad or broth-based soup instead.
Nutritional Overview
The nutrition facts for battered cheese sticks depend on the restaurant’s recipe and the size of the portion that you eat. A single fried and breaded mozzarella cheese stick that weighs 31 g, or just over an ounce, has 102 calories, nearly 5 g protein and 8 g of total carbohydrates, including less than 1 g fiber and 6 g of starch. The cheese stick has 6 g of total fat and 10 mg of cholesterol.
Bad Fats
A breaded and fried mozzarella cheese stick has 2.2 g of saturated fat and 0.2 g of trans fat. Saturated and trans fats raise levels of unhealthy LDL cholesterol in your blood and may increase your risk for heart disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. Recommendations are to keep saturated fat intake to no more than 7 to 10 percent of total calories, and trans fats should make up no more than 1 percent of your calories. This means that limits for a 2,000-calorie diet are 15 to 22 g of saturated fat and 2 g trans fats. Saturated fats are in full-fat cheeses, fatty meats and butter, and trans fats come from fried foods and some processed snack foods.
Sodium
A battered cheese stick has 246 mg sodium, or more than 10 percent of the recommended daily maximum of 2,300 mg sodium for maintaining a healthy blood pressure, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Cheeses are naturally high in sodium, and they are top sources of sodium in the average American diet. You will get more sodium when you eat your battered cheese stick if you add table salt or your cheese sticks in a salty condiment, such as ketchup or barbecue sauce.
Other Nutrients
A 31-g serving of battered cheese sticks has about 108 mg calcium, or 11 percent of the daily value. Calcium is necessary for building and maintaining strong bones, and the 2010 Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggest emphasizing low-fat and fat-free dairy products, instead of full-fat choices, for meeting your calcium needs. Dairy products are rich in phosphorus, and cheese sticks have 100 mg phosphorus, or 14 percent of the daily value.
Member Comments