Healthy Economy: Nutrition and Shopping Strategies

Milk Products

• Use lower-fat milks (skim and 1%), as they are heart-healthier choices and contain as much calcium as higher-fat milks. Milk is fortified with vitamin D, which plays a role in bone formation and maintenance and helps your body maintain normal blood levels of calcium.

• Choose cheeses that contain 20 per cent or less milk fat (MF), such as lower-fat mozzarella and feta. Generally, lower-fat cheeses cost the same as full-fat cheeses and provide lots of calcium, though they may not melt as nicely and may be less flavourful.

• Use yogurt cheese made from lower-fat plain yogurt – instead of cream cheese or sour cream – in desserts and dips, or flavour it with herbs or garlic and spread it on crackers. A 1/4-cup (50 mL) serving of regular cream cheese has 17 grams of fat and only 39 milligrams of calcium. The same-size serving of sour cream (14 per cent MF) has seven grams of fat and 51.8 milligrams of calcium. But a 1/4-cup (50 mL) serving of 1 or 2% plain yogurt (12 per cent MF) provides only one gram of fat and approximately 107 milligrams of calcium.