Cottage Cheese and Biologics

[Wobbies]

I know we should not have soft cheese when taking biologics but dies cottage cheeses fall into that category? Can't find any info on it.

[Runrig01]

I was told it was only unpasteurised cheese we shouldn’t eat, like blue cheese. I have to say I do still eat blue cheese, pate etc and Bern on them for 7yr with no issue. So personally I’d have no issue eating cottage cheese. Here’s a screenshot of a leaflet I was given re eating

Diet

[Wobbies in reply to Runrig01]

Thank you for being so helpful. I am always a bit worried as I got campobylactor (spelling?) from chicken in a local restaurant and my stomach has never been the same since.

[MadBunny in reply to Runrig01]

That's interesting- I was never told goats cheese, brie and camembert.

[Gottarelax in reply to MadBunny]

I'm not sure that I could give up goats cheese, brie and camembert 😧

[MadBunny in reply to Gottarelax]

I don't have them often but I'm certainly not going to give them up 😊Luckily I don't like blue cheeses so that's not a problem.

[AgedCrone in reply to Gottarelax]

I have eaten all cheeses & pâté…both home made & shop bought & have never had a problem,& have never known anybody with or without RA who has.

[Gottarelax in reply to AgedCrone]

I had an infection from pate once but that was my fault. I'd taken it for a picnic and as we'd not been out long, thought that it was OK to pop it back in the fridge and finish the next day. That was a very long time ago and pre-RA. I learned my lesson the hard way.

[Hollyhock123 in reply to MadBunny]

I have no recollection of this either, and often eat them. I’m 8 yrs on biologics so think I’ll not be giving them up now either!

[MadBunny in reply to Hollyhock123]

I've been on biologics for 9 yrs, methotrexate for longer, and I've often eaten them. So far, I've been ok🤞

[Hodc in reply to MadBunny]

I was never told any of this, and I've been on amgevita for about 2 years

[MadBunny in reply to Hodc]

I remember being told about unpasteurised dairy, blue cheese, pate and raw egg products both when I started methotrexate and then again when I started the biologic.

[AgedCrone in reply to MadBunny]

And do you know anybody who has had a problem with any of these foods?

[MadBunny in reply to AgedCrone]

No.

[rmros in reply to Runrig01]

I didn't know feta and goats' cheese fell into this category - I've been eating feta with reckless abandon 😆.

The only thing I avoid is raw oysters (whole family came down with food poisoning from them one Christmas and only I escaped because I only ate the cooked ones).

[AKA13 in reply to Runrig01]

Thank you. A useful reference.

[Madmusiclover]

I’ve been on DMARDS, a biologic and a Jak. I was given no advice on this. I eat it with no ill effects I’ve noticed.

[Jackie1947 in reply to Madmusiclover]

Me neither!!

[Jackie1947]

News to me. I eat all cheese including cottage

[helixhelix]

It seems common in UK that you are advised to follow the same precautions as pregnant women. Here I was only recommended that I be careful about food hygiene - so think about things like open buffets, whether market stall food is freshly cooked and hot, avoid pink chicken and so on. Chicken is a far bigger risk, especially cheap industrial stuff as apparently a lot of contamination.

I eat unpasteurised cheese, pâtés, raw eggs - but look for quality sources.

I would eat cottage cheese, but I can’t stand it, so I don’t!!

[Pythagorus]

I believe the advice is not to eat cheese that is made with unpasteurised milk. I love Brie and the unpasteurised version taste so much nicer and gooier than when made with pasteurised milk. So I eat the former😊 Cottage cheese I am almost certain is made with pasteurised milk. If in doubt check the label of ingredients .

[bpeal1]

I’ve never been told not to eat any foods. I, too, am more concerned about food hygiene than cutting out certain foods.

[Haz58]

I'm just about to start biologics. I've been told to have well cooked meat and fish, no redness in the middle, only pasteurised cheeses, I asked about blue cheese and she said a little now and again won't hurt. I don't like cottage cheese anyway but if it's pasteurised I would think it's ok. Pate not mentioned and I love pate so I'd better ask about that! Yet again we get told different things by different staff, it really annoys me.

[bpeal1 in reply to Haz58]

I love a medium/medium rare steak. I wouldn’t cope with only well cooked meat! 🤣

[Haz58 in reply to bpeal1]

Me too. 🫤

[madme1]

I was told when I was 1st diagnosed to follow the pregnant women's diet ie no soft cheeses at all, including cottage cheese but thinking may have changed. I think as long as its pasteurised, but I'm still not sure.

[cyberbarn]

As others have said, it is more about what kind of milk is used rather than the type of cheese. Almost all milk in the UK is now pasteurised. It is much harder to find something that isn't pasteurised.

But there is also common sense to be used. Eg I eat my own chickens' eggs, fresh from the nest box, and I would have no problem making and eating mayonnaise that way. But I wouldn't want to eat egg mayonnaise that had been sitting on a buffet table for half an hour.

Unpasteurised milk in the UK is called raw milk, it can only be sold directly to the consumer by a register milk production farm, by farmers at registered farmers' markets and a few other similar direct sales situations. It is illegal to sell raw milk in any other setting and completely banned in Scotland.

As an aside, I have drunk raw, unpasteurised, unhomogised milk for many years straight off an organic dairy farm. They were not selling it to me so they weren't breaking the law. I made some wonderful cheeses in the winter when we were snowed in and the milk tanker couldn't pick the milk up. In those cases it is just dumped into the slurry pit so we were gives buckets full so we could make butter and cheese. Great fun! None of us got ill, and of course those diary farmers have been drinking their own raw milk all their lives.

[Fra22-57]

wow .my rheumatologist never told me any of this and I’m definitely not pregnant.It is rare I eat cheese thou as my husband hates it…even the smell of cheese n on onion crisps

[CagneysMum]

I’ve been on biologics for 3 years and and not had any problems. I was aware of this advice but personally don’t class any foods as being out of bounds to me … I eat all cheeses and still enjoy a rare cooked steak. I am more particular about the cleanliness of any places I eat out at (particularly when traveling in Asia) believing this is a bigger potential risk to my health. Each to their own 🤷‍♀️

[Wobbies in reply to CagneysMum]

I was never given any advice about avoiding any foods by anyone in the NHS but when I contracted food poisoning which made me very ill, I googled it as it took ages to clear the food poisoning bug and that has made me wary.

[CagneysMum]

Completely understandable… I’d be wary too if that had happened to me.

[Wobbies in reply to CagneysMum]

Thank you😁

[AgedCrone in reply to CagneysMum]

I got amoebic dysentery in .India…that was traced back to the chef in the hotel we were staying in having visited his brother & helping out in the rice fields. So has anybody been told to beware of rice?

Of course not..because it’s the hygiene to beware of.

[CagneysMum in reply to AgedCrone]

Wow that must have been rough 😮

[AgedCrone]

Yes it was….it was a long time ago, but back then I was very impressed with how the department of health followed me up at home as it is a notifiable disease & because my job involved food handling.

I had to be tested & have three negative tests before I was allowed back to work, & then I had to go through all the same testing procedure by my employer!

[CagneysMum in reply to AgedCrone]

very thorough 👍

[KittyJ]

well this is enlightening, I’ve never been told to avoid any foods on any drug and so I haven’t done so but I’ve had no problems so must just be lucky .