Inside the new Dietary Guidelines: Dairy

Workout recovery. Research has shown that milk, especially chocolate milk with its extra calories and carbs, is an excellent post-workout recovery drink.

It’s cheap. For folks on a budget, you can’t beat milk. A gallon of milk costs about $4.39 and provides 16 one-cup servings, for 27 cents per serving.

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( iStockPhoto ) - Cheese accounts for nearly half of the milk products Americans consume, but low-fat milk and yogurt would be better options, one nutritionist says.

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• Inside the new Dietary Guidelines: Dairy

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Consumer concerns

Shopping for milk. Look for skim (nonfat) or 1 percent (low fat). Both deliver all the nutrients whole (full-fat) milk offers but with substantially less saturated fat, and therefore fewer calories. (Reduced-fat milk, with 2 percent fat, and whole milk outsell the lower-fat versions.)

Milk myth. USDA-sponsored focus groups have shown that some people believe skim milk is just full-fat milk with water added, says Jackie Haven, director of nutrition marketing and communication for the USDA. In fact, skim milk is what’s left when the fat is skimmed away from whole milk. The key nutrients remain intact.

Chocolate milk is okay. Despite the controversy over whether sweetened, flavored milk should be served in schools, the guidelines give chocolate milk (and other flavored varieties) a thumbs up. “If it’s the deciding factor whether someone’s going to drink milk or not, we’d rather have them consume the milk and the nutrient package, even with the extra sugar,” says Colette Rihane, a USDA nutritionist. “It just has to be balanced with the calorie intake for the rest of the day.”

Easy on the cheese. The guidelines note that cheese (mostly full-fat) accounts for nearly half of the milk products Americans consume. Because of the way it is made, though, cheese contains way more sodium, fat and calories and far less potassium than low- or nonfat milk or yogurt, and usually no Vitamin D, says Trish Britten, a nutritionist with the USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. “We don’t say ‘never eat cheese,’ ” she says, “but low-fat milk and yogurt offer a better package.”

Go for yogurt. You don’t have to rely solely on milk to meet your daily needs. Yogurt — particularly that made with low-fat or nonfat milk — fits the bill, too. If you choose sweetened varieties or those with sweetened fruit mixed in, be sure to account for the extra calories and sugar and cut back elsewhere.

Adding dairy to your diet

One way to meet your daily dairy needs is to have a cup of skim milk with every meal. If that’s too boring, try these ways to add milk products to your diet, from Dee Sandquist, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

- Make a cheese quesadilla with a corn or whole-wheat tortilla and reduced-fat cheese.

- Snack on a reduced-fat mozzarella stick.

- Blend plain yogurt and frozen berries for a treat “with the consistency of ice cream.”

- Use Greek yogurt instead of sour cream in dips and salad dressings and to top baked potatoes.

- Instead of a juice box, pack an individual-serving carton of skim milk for your child’s lunch.

- Use reduced-fat buttermilk or yogurt in baked goods and pancakes. Also, try adding a bit of powdered milk to the dry ingredients in place of some of the sugar.

- Use milk instead of water when making hot chocolate or heating canned soup. With the soup, though, heat it slowly to keep milk from curdling.

Food section recipes: Try Blueberry Yogurt Coffee Cake or Peaches and Cream with Raspberries. Learn how to make both at washingtonpost.com/recipes.