Labneh is an excellent alternative to packaged dips and cheese for those wanting a heart healthy or DASH diet — Food and Health Communications (2024)

FAQs

Labneh is an excellent alternative to packaged dips and cheese for those wanting a heart healthy or DASH diet — Food and Health Communications? ›

In addition to its delicious taste, labneh is considered a healthy food. It is a good source of protein, calcium, and probiotics, which benefit gut health. Labneh is also lower in fat and sodium compared to cheese or packaged dips, and it adds a lot of calcium to the diet.

The labneh nutrition profile is low in calories but rich in several important vitamins and minerals. In fact, a single serving provides a good amount of protein, plus plenty of calcium and vitamin A.

Substitutes. You can use yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, or mascarpone in place of labneh for many uses, but the flavor and texture won't be quite the same. Once you familiarize yourself with the flavor and versatility of labneh, you're more likely going to want to swap it for the others whenever you get the chance.

The probiotics in labneh cheese can strengthen your digestion, immune function, weight management, mental health, cholesterol levels and skin health.

Therefore, daily adding a couple of labneh servings can enhance your protein intake. Since labneh cheese is a good source of protein, if you are looking to shed some pounds from your body weight, adding the artisanal fresh cheese can be your way out. The high protein diet reduces the hunger hormone.

In addition to its delicious taste, labneh is considered a healthy food. It is a good source of protein, calcium, and probiotics, which benefit gut health. Labneh is also lower in fat and sodium compared to cheese or packaged dips, and it adds a lot of calcium to the diet.

Labneh is also healthy with about half the fat and calories of standard cream cheese (10g fat per 100g). There are 2 types of Labneh Fresh Labneh and Stabilized or Turkish Labneh to keep it longer.

However, labneh is noticeably thicker than Greek yogurt, as well as richer in flavor, so it's not a direct substitute — especially when used as a spread or dip, or in baking.

Strained yogurt is known as labneh (labna, labni, labne, lebni, or labani; Arabic: لبنة) in the Levant, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula.

I've also enjoyed these little labneh balls with a bit of olive oil, and with salt and pepper on toasted wheat bread. It's delicious spread on wheat crackers. The dogs haven't had any complaints either, about a bite here and there of the cheese by itself.

Is labneh good for blood pressure? ›

Labneh Benefits:

Helps regulate blood pressure, and contributes to proper growth because it contains a high percentage of protein. It provides the body with the necessary energy and vitality and strengthens the immune system. It contains vitamins essential for healthy skin.

Labneh has both probiotics and versatility

But it's the probiotics in labneh that are especially noteworthy, as they can support digestion and immunity function, manage cholesterol levels, and even improve skin health.

Storage. Store homemade labneh in the fridge in a tightly-closed container for up to 2 weeks. To better preserve your labneh, you can form it into balls that are about 1 tablespoon each in size. Place the balls in a large sterilized, airtight jar and pour extra virgin olive oil to cover.

Can you buy Labneh at the grocery store? Lots of grocery stores will sell labneh in the dairy section.

Eating two to three containers of yogurt every day can add around 500 calories and close to 100 grams of sugar to the daily diet. This can cause unwanted weight gain and increase the risk of diabetes. There have been gastroenteritis outbreaks in the past because of the use of unpasteurized milk in yogurt.

Labneh (or lebneh) is an ultra-thick, high-protein yogurt cheese popular in the Middle East. Traditionally, the cheese is made with camel or goat milk, but stateside, you'll find it made almost exclusively from cows' milk.

Regular cream cheese (per 2 tablespoons) has 80 calories, 7 grams of fat, 2 grams of carbohydrates. Compare it with regular labneh, which has 60 calories, 6 grams of fat and 1 gram of carbohydrates. Doesn't sound like much of a nutritional difference? It adds up if you use it in cooking!

Since yogurt is rich in both calcium and protein, yogurt can provide you with many benefits that are wonderful for your gut health and promote weight loss. A serving of 200 grams of yogurt can provide as many as 12 grams of protein.

Greek yogurt is often considered the best kind for weight loss given its muscle-preserving and satiating high-protein content-about double that of regular yogurt.