We at Cheese Grotto have long known that a colorful cheese board can be a delicious, nutritious meal or snack. Health educator and cheese researcher Babs Hogan—AKA the Healthy Cheese Lady—gave us the lowdown on some of the most nutritious artisan cheeses you can buy.

Check out her picks for cheeses with lots of vitamins, minerals, and microflora to support wellbeing below. Looking for a beautiful, durable, and affordable bamboo board to help you enjoy these good-for-you cheeses? Check out our picks for the best bamboo cheese servers.

Cheeses full of Vitamin K2.

Vitamin K2 helps fight coronary disease and osteoporosis.

Gouda

Brie

Jarlsberg 

Top 4 calcium-rich cheeses

Parmesan 336 mg/1oz

Romano 302 mg/1 oz

Gruyere 287 mg/1 oz

Goat (hard) 254 mg/1 oz

The most microbial diverse washed rind cheese, Livarot (for a healthy microbiome).

"Livarot showed the greatest microbial diversity, containing 10 species of yeast and 38 species of bacteria."  (Pg 237 Catherine Donnelly, Cheese Microbes)

Photo source: http://www.lepoint.fr/gastronomie/livarot-fier-normand-17-06-2010-1204570_82.php

Top 4 cheeses for diabetics. 

"Many cheeses are excellent for diabetics because many of them contain zero carbohydrates and are packed with healthy fats and protein. First, let's define insulinogenic:  Foods that promote the production and release of insulin. A food that ranks high on the insulinogenic scale is known to release high amounts of insulin, such as table sugar, which is 100% insulinogenic. One of my favorite writers is Ivor Cummins.  I recently found this article titled 'Optimising Nutrition, Managing Insulin' (Ivor spells it with an s, not z.  He's Irish). The article shows calculated proportion of insulinogenic calories for various cheese products. These four cheeses ranks the lowest because they contain ZERO carbohydrates." -Babs Hogan

Brie and Camembert

Limburger

Gruyere