Cheddar: Calories, Nutrition & Healthier Swaps

Cheddar is a hard cheese high in protein and calcium, with a fair amount of saturated fat and salt.

Cheddar nutrition facts per 100 g and per serving

Values per 100 g as eaten, averaged from food composition tables (USDA FoodData Central and others) and rounded — a specific brand or recipe will differ a little.

Cheddar: what's in it

Nutritionally it's mainly a source of energy: 403 kcal per 100 g, 101 kcal per serving.

On the open Nutri-Score algorithm, cheddar gets an E: more of a sometimes food than an everyday one. The score weighs calories, sugar, saturated fat and salt against protein, fiber and the share of fruit, vegetables, legumes and nuts.

What to watch

• High in saturated fat: 21 g per 100 g, against a daily reference of about 20 g.
• High in salt: 1.6 g per 100 g, while the WHO suggests no more than 5 g of salt a day in total.
• It's calorie-dense — 403 kcal per 100 g — so portion size matters most.

How much movement is one serving?

One serving (slice, 25 g) is 101 kcal — roughly 33 min of easy walking or 13 min of cycling for a 70 kg (154 lb) person. In the diary, minutes are worked out for your weight and the activities you actually do.

Healthier swaps for Cheddar

Swaps are picked the same way the app does it: from the same kind of food, with a serving matched to the same calories (±25%), and only when the swap is clearly better — not “salad instead of pizza”.

• Cottage cheese 9% — 60 g, 95 kcal: −1.8 g saturated fat, −0.3 g salt.
• Sour cream 15% — 60 g, 96 kcal: −0.3 g salt.
• Cream 15% — 60 g, 96 kcal: −0.3 g salt.
• Cream 20% — 50 g, 103 kcal: −0.4 g salt.