Eating Dairy Foods the Healthy "Weigh"

Are you getting all the benefits of dairy foods? Enough to maintain beautiful bones and teeth? Enough to help maintain a healthy weight, to lower blood pressure and to reduce the risk of diabetes? Two to three servings a day is definitely the healthy weigh to go.

1. Drink Milk

A tall, cold glass of milk is the most refreshing way to close your calcium gap and enjoy a long list of bodybuilding nutrients at the same time. For maximum nutrition and minimum fat, drink 1% or skim milk (labeled as low-fat or fat-free in your dairy case).

 2. Eat Yogurt

There is a yogurt to suit every taste from key lime pie and Peach Melba to plain and old-fashioned vanilla. Perfect for breakfast-on-the-run, high-octane snacks and cooking at home, yogurt now also comes as a drinkable beverage and shelf-stable yogurt-to-go.

3. Sprinkle on Cheese

Natural hard cheese can be a nutrient-dense way to add flavor to food. Looking for tasty ways to minimize your fat intake? Use grated cheese with a strong flavor like Parmesan or Romano. Choose part skim cheese like mozzarella or cheddar made with 2% milk.

4. Choose Cottage Cheese

For real protein power, choose versatile, low-fat cottage cheese perfect for cooked dishes like lasagna, blended in dips and salad dressings and combined with fruit for summer salads.  Bone note - cottage cheese is not as high in calcium as some dairy foods.

5. Indulge in Dairy Desserts

Cold, creamy and sweet everyone screams for ice cream, especially in summer. Get wise to portion size (go for a single rather than a double) and add nutrition with fresh fruit and a sprinkling of nuts. For less fat, go for low-fat varieties or for frozen yogurt.

6. Cook with Powdered Milk

Dry milk is an easy, inexpensive and powerful way to pump nutrition into everyday cooking. Ways to use non-fat powdered milk are almost endless - casseroles, creamed soups (canned, dry and homemade), hot cereal (microwave or regular) and pudding.