Are your nutrition students asking about the trending cottage cheese and mustard "diet"

[jamiepopeauthor]

As I've shared in previous posts, an early assignment in my intro nutrition courses is for students to submit one nutrition or diet related question they'd like addressed during the semester.   I now have thousands of these questions from over 20 years of teaching!   They often reflect core topics, but also include trending "diets" and nutrition topics in news and social media.  So, have you heard of the cottage cheese and mustard “diet”?   My grad school daughter recently asked me if I had tried this combo with veggies and chicken sausage.   I’m not on TikTok so this was new to me.  Here's an easy read that outlines some pros and cons of this trending approach https://www.health.com/cottage-cheese-mustard-diet-tiktok-7558720  But apparently the “influencer” who introduced this trend has over 250 million views on her posts.   My daughter sent me a photo of her own packed lunch that did indeed include cottage cheese, mustard, an assortment of beautifully arranged fresh veggies, and a chicken sausage…. This isn’t inherently “bad” (I don’t like that word!) but this approach as a staple is no magic bullet.   Cottage cheese can be a great choice among many other varied and balanced food choices throughout the day https://health.clevelandclinic.org/cottage-cheese-benefits/   – and mustard is a low calorie, flavorful, and inexpensive “dip” – and love all the veggies.   Chicken sausage can be lower in saturated fat and calories than pork-based sausage, but not by much – and is relatively high in sodium.   So, encourage students to aim for moderation and good sense in building a healthy eating pattern around a wide assortment of food.