Alternate the cheese cubes with grape tomatoes, broccoli florets, bell pepper strips and other favorite crudités. Or go the fruit route with berries, kiwi and other fruits in season. With skewers, you save the calories of the bread or crackers too!

In general, avoid high-fat Brie and other double-and triple-crémes: The creamier the cheese, the higher the butterfat and calories. Soft and semi-soft cheeses like Brie contain 60%-74% butterfat, triple-crème cheeses like Saint André and Explorateur have at least 75% butterfat.

Stick with harder cheeses such as Parmesan (40% butterfat), Cheddar (43%), Swiss (43%), Gouda (48%), mozzarella (24%) and others with a firm or dry consistency (called the “paste”). We love Cabot’s Reduced Fat Cheddars (50% and 75% reduced fat) and Pepperjack (50%). The 75% reduced Cheddar has just 7% total fat.

Cheese kabobs are a fun food in
addition to a lower-calorie food. Photo
courtesy KraftCanada.com

• Check out Cabot’s Reduced Fat Cheddars.
• See all of our favorite cheeses, including a cheese glossary, cheese trivia quiz, the history of cheese and cheese recipes.
• Fnd more of our favorite calorie-reduced foods in our Diet Nibbles section.