These TikTok Cottage Cheese Hacks Aren’t Good
TikTok is Pinterest for the younger generation. It’s where they go for recipes, product recommendations, and tips that will “change your life.” TikTok is their Pinterest, and cottage cheese ice cream is their banana ice cream.
If you were on Pinterest during its height of popularity, you likely saw this “ice cream.” It’s just a frozen banana, blended with cocoa powder and (sometimes) peanut butter until it reaches a soft serve consistency. If you like chocolate-covered frozen bananas, you would probably enjoy it. I enjoy it myself.
Instead of “cutting calories,” we’re “adding protein,” and people are using cottage cheese to do just that.
Of course, it has a diet food quality to it. It’s a substitute for ice cream, so you don’t eat the “bad” ice cream. Banana pancakes give me similar feelings, not because there is anything naturally restrictive or punishing about bananas, but because these substitutes are often coded as “better” for you than the guilt-inducing “real thing.”
Wanting to be thin is less cool than it was a decade ago, when Pinterest was at its peak; meanwhile, body acceptance is more mainstream and is rapidly being commodified. How we talk about food substitutions has shifted as well. Instead of “cutting calories,” we’re “adding protein.” And people are using cottage cheese to do just that.
At face value, this is fine. As someone who has been powerlifting for a little over a year, adding protein is something I’ve been doing a lot of. I also love cottage cheese and am delighted to see it gaining popularity. I love watching the youth discover the simple joys of cottage cheese bowls and whipped cottage cheese—I even made the cottage cheese pasta sauce and found it pleasing. But we are asking too much of curds and whey. We want cottage cheese to be everything—from breakfast to dessert—and often it’s just not working.
The problem with some cottage cheese recipes
Two recipes I often see on TikTok and…
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