String cheese. It’s one of the few stereotypical childhood snacks that never seems to go away: as juice boxes and Scooby Snacks tend to fall out of lunch boxes, string cheese stands the test of time.

The best part? It’s so fun to eat! You don’t have to let go of your childlike sense of wonder and curiosity: you get to play with your food and it’s socially acceptable.

However, some individuals chose bite their string cheese. Sad.

When you bite your cheese stick, you let go of that childhood zeal and nostalgia. You succumb to the daily pressures placed on you to work quickly and get things done efficiently. What happened to doing things for enjoyment? What happened to taking a breath to enjoy a string cheese as it was intended to be enjoyed — strung! It’s in the name for Pete’s sake!

Food is more than fuel. Food is fun. We gather friends and family around grandiose meals or enjoy a sweet treat at the end of a long day to make us feel better. There’s no reason to brutishly scarf down your string cheese like a savage picking the meat off a week old carcass.

String cheese’s signature fun factor comes with the added benefit of forcing you to slow down while enjoying the dairy-based delicacy. According to Healthdata.org, a whopping 160 million Americans are obese. The main cause? Overeating.

But according to WebMD, eating slowly allows your body to realize you’re full before you’ve already consumed too many calories. When you string your cheese, you give your body more time to digest and avoid putting yourself at risk for a slew of health issues associated with overeating.

WebMD also says that eating slowly can also help you enjoy food more. Taking the time to truly savor every string of that cheese will make it last longer, and it creates a nicer, lighter texture than just taking a big chomp.

Now, say you’re ravenous after a long day, and you want the protein and calcium that string cheese possess stat. According to WebMD, waiting to eat until you’re extremely hungry, such as in the above scenario, is very unhealthy and messes with your metabolism. You’re better to bring your string cheese on the go and eat it before you feel too hungry, rather than scarfing it down all at once.

If you are in a rush and want to eat your cheese quicker, simply buy a kind of cheese that is meant to be bitten. Babybel has some nice on the go varieties, and sargento makes bite-friendly cheese sticks that are meant to be bitten since they do not “string” easily. These are great to bite, but when you’re eating string cheese, it’s best to take the time to savor it.

If you’re worried that stringing your cheese could be unsanitary, the simple solution is to wash your hands, which you should probably do before you eat anyway. You’re no cheese-biting savage; you know how to properly use soap. Saying string cheese is unsanitary is a poor excuse to succumb to such low levels of cheese consumption.

String cheese is something that we’re lucky to have access to. In a world that seems to spin faster every day, it’s important to be able to occasionally take a pause, close your eyes and enjoy a string cheese as nature intended – one string at a time.

String cheese. A light snack high in protein and calcium. We’ve been taught from a young age to peel it from top to bottom. What if I told you that isn’t the best way to eat it? What if I said, “Bite it.”

Although the name implies that peeling the cheese into strings is the correct method of consumption, biting from the top is actually a much more convenient and satisfying experience.

A cheese stick should have a mild mozzarella taste with a pinch of saltiness. Long, thin strands of cheese instead of a thick piece can make you focus more on how to fit that thing in your mouth. The rich flavor of a full bite of mozzarella is unmatched, and a long and inconvenient strand will only distract from the actual taste of the cheese.

Peeling string cheese may be slightly more enjoyable than biting, but the efficiency in biting is much greater. In a classroom, stealth eating may be the only option if a teacher doesn’t allow food. Peeling the cheese stick is much slower and extends the risk of being caught. Also, trying to peel a cheese stick quickly can get messy. Small strands of mozzarella can fall on the floor and attract unwanted guests like mice or ants.

Outside of the classroom, the cafeteria is another popular spot to eat a cheese stick. With only 25 minutes to eat lunch, balancing socializing and eating can be difficult, especially with long lunch lines. Biting your cheese stick can shorten your time eating and save more room for talking with friends.

Throughout the school day, your hands make contact with so many different things, and most people don’t wash them unless they go to the bathroom. Using your dirty fingers and fingernails to peel the cheese stick is extremely unhygenic and could increase your chances of getting sick.

Although biting string cheese is clearly the superior eating method, there is still a lot of stigma surrounding it. As a cheese stick biter, I receive disapproving comments from my peers just because of the way I eat it. “That’s so weird” and “Why do you eat your cheese sticks like that?” are common phrases I hear from cheese stick peelers.

In a world that seems to spin faster every day, it’s important to keep up. Don’t fall behind, bite your string cheese.