Food & Fitness

Low-fat Milk and Yogurt

Including sources of dairy products in your diet is an easy way to get calcium and high-quality protein. Many dairy products, like no sugar added, fat-free yogurt, can be eaten as a dessert with only about 15 grams of carbohydrate and 100 calories per 6 oz container.

What are the best choices?

The best choices of dairy products are:

• Fat-free or low-fat (1% milk)
• Plain non-fat yogurt
• non-fat light yogurt without added sugar
• unflavored soy milk

If you are lactose intolerant, you may want to try fortified soy milk as a source of calcium and vitamin D.

General tips:

• Each 1 cup serving of milk or 2/3 cup serving of yogurt has about 12 grams of carbohydrate and 8 grams of protein.
• If you are trying to switch to lower fat dairly products, take the time to get used to the taste and texture difference. For example, first change from whole milk to 2%. Then to 1% or non-fat milk.
• Switching from whole to 1% milk will save you 70 calories and 4 grams of saturated fat in every serving!

Tips for Carb Counters
1 cup of milk or yogurt is equal to 1 small piece of fruit or 1 slice of bread

Tips for the Plate Method
Your meal plan calls for 8 ounces of milk. If you don’t drink milk, you can substitute another carbohydrate containing food like a piece of fruit or a small dinner roll.

Tips for using the Glycemic Index
Milk has a low glycemic index so choose lower-fat dairy products to fit into your meals.

See "What Can I Drink?" for additional drinking guidelines.