The Blue Zone Diet emulates the diet of people that live in blue zones — areas of the world where the inhabitants live longer than the average person and have fewer chronic diseases. Most foods eaten in the blue zones are plant-based and chock full of complex carbohydrates, but two types of cheese are consumed in these uber-healthy zones.

Goat and sheep's milk are the preferred cheese varieties, as both are considered easier to digest and well-tolerated by those with dairy sensitivities. Sheep and goat's milk cheese also have more A2 casein than cow’s cheese, making them easier on the digestive system, and they have more calcium, essential vitamins, and minerals like B12, vitamin C, and zinc. 

The sheep and goat's cheese consumed in the Ikarian and Sardinian blue zones are grass-fed, meaning the animal grazed on grass instead of conventional feed. In addition, blue-zone inhabitants do not drink milk but enjoy it after fermentation in the form of yogurt, sour milk, and cheese, as fermented dairy is easier to digest.