Product Review: Galaxy Cheese Alternatives

Cheese is high in saturated fat and people on low-fat diets often have to give up the cheese they love. People with milk allergies and lactose intolerance have to avoid cheese too, even though it is an important source of calcium.

Galaxy Nutritional Foods offers a line of cheese alternatives that are perfect for anyone who needs to avoid cheese or for anyone who wants to eat a healthier diet.

Galaxy Nutritional Foods offers several varieties of soy-based cheese alternative shreds, slices and toppings including american, cheddar, pepper jack, swiss, smoked provolone and mozzarella. For this review, I sampled the Veggie Slices Pepper Jack Flavor.

I've tried vegetarian cheeses before and have always been disappointed with the flavor and texture, so I wasn't expecting much. So I was very pleasantly surprised at the flavor of the Veggie Slices. It actually tasted like cheese.

I found the cheese alternative was perfect for my favorite turkey sandwich. For this sandwich I put sliced turkey on two slices of whole grain bread, added the Veggie Slices on top and then placed them under the broiler. The cheese alternative doesn't melt exactly like cheese, but it gets nice and soft, not drippy . I added low fat mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato and found that my sandwich was just as tasty with the cheese alternative, and now it had fewer calories and fat than with regular cheese.

Each slice has only 35 calories, two grams of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, 20 percent of your daily calcium need, plus several vitamins you won't find in regular cheese.

The cheddar flavor Rice Slices worked just as well on my sandwiches as the Veggie Slices did. The cheddar flavored Rice Slices make a delicious and healthy "grilled cheese" sandwich when I made them with whole grain bread.

The Rice cheese alternatives are also available in shredded form or as a topping similar to parmesan cheese. The rice cheese alternatives are soy-free, so they are perfect for anyone who wishes to avoid soy products in their diet.

Each slice has 40 calories, 2.5 grams of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat, plus 20 percent of your daily calcium need.

The cheese alternative slices certainly impressed me, but I was skeptical about trying the Super Stix, which are made to replace string cheese. I didn't believe that a vegetarian cheese could match the texture or the taste.

I decided to enlist the help of my daughter, who is one of the pickiest eaters on the planet. She took one bite of the Super Stix and reported to me that it was really good. I took a bite as well, and I was very pleased with the flavor and the texture. If you like string cheese, you will enjoy the healthy Super Stix mozzarella flavored snacks.

One snack stick has 70 calories, 35 percent of your daily calcium need, 25 percent of most other vitamins, a bit of vitamin C and 4.5 grams of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids.