Healthy Food Choices: Dairy

Dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt are popular for calcium content and their many varieties and uses. Try these tips for buying dairy in this healthy shopping video.

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High in vitamins A, D and calcium
Choose fat-free or low-fat options
Try skim & low-sugar chocolate milk
Watch sugar & fat in yogurt

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Michelle Cooper has been a registered dietician for more than 10 years. She currently works for the state of North Carolina for the New Hanover County School District in the Child Nutrition Department as the supervising registered dietician on staff. She specializes in child nutrition, child fitness and overall child health. She enjoys her job because it allows her to be a pivotal piece of child development.

MICHELLE COOPER: Next, we're going to talk about dairy. Foods from the dairy group provide us with much needed vitamin A, D and calcium which are needed for strong bones and teeth. Make sure that when you're choosing foods from the dairy section that you choose fat free or low fat. For example, whole milk has about two teaspoons or tablespoons of saturated fat. What you want to look for is either 1% milk fat or skim milk, which is even better. Also, if you're going to buy a chocolate milk, make sure that that's skimmed as well, and you might want to look for one that has a reduced sugar content in it. Yogurt is also a very good source of calcium and vitamin D, and again, you want to choose fat free or light yogurt. If you're a diabetic or you're trying to watch calories also opt for the sugar-free ones. So remember to get your 1,200 milligrams a day, you need about three servings, choose the fat-free, low-fat or skimmed portions of the milk; make sure you're using skim, non-fat, low fat or sugar free yogurt. Thirdly, if you're lactose intolerant or if you have problems digesting the protein in milk, there's also soy milk available or lactate milk available.

Healthy Food Choices: Dairy Video

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