The Dish

2%, 1% and skim milk are all considered low fat so no need to switch. The difference between 1% and skim per cup of milk is only 1 gram of fat or 9kcal. Remember some fat is necessary in our diets, we need it to help absorb fat soluble vitamins and it is a dense source of energy.

I contacted a local producer of Paneer, Nanak Foods to get their product’s nutritional information.

Every 30g of Nanak Paneer has 90 calories, 6 grams of protein, 1 gram of carbohydrate and 7 grams of fat. However, 5 grams of that 7 are saturated fat (the one we want to try to limit). See the label below. You can see that 30grams gives us a quarter of our recommended intake for saturated fat, that is high.

Paneer has more fat than cottage cheese and the above mentioned serving size is very small, 30grams is about ¼ cup. A 30g serving of a 2% cottage cheese only has 26 calories and less than 1 gram of fat. “2%” refers to milk fat, just like 2% milk. Nanak Paneer is made whole milk (3.5% fat).

Sorry for the delay in responding to your question, I received it just before my holiday break. But interestingly enough, I brought paneer for lunch today:) It’s a sometimes food for sure, enjoy in moderation.

Thanks to Nanak Foods for the information.

YES! Chocolate milk surpasses sports drinks because not only does it have electrolytes and carbohydrates, it also has protein.  I know there are a lot of you “protein shake” fans out there as well, and chocolate milk has advantages over protein powders too, it’s cheaper, it has the same kind of protein (whey) and it’s widely available. In fact, most protein shakes give you too much protein.  I realize that you may be thinking, well chocolate milk has so much sugar!  You can mix half white milk with half chocolate milk.  Also, depending on your needs, you could just go with plain white milk.

Please see this fabulous website from Dairy Farmers of Canada, www.rechargewithmilk.ca 
I will be at the SFU Fitness Centre tomorrow, November 10th from 12-1:30pm to answer your questions and give you more information on this.

I never used to drink milk as a kid, in fact I hated it. Maybe that is why I never grew as tall as my sister. But now I love it. And when you make your choice in the grocery store, you have tons of options: organic, micro-filtered, skim to 3.5% fat and flavoured. I often get questions about hormones in milk as well. Check out a new, short, humorous video clip which explains that Canadian milk is… just milk, pure and simple. It has been produced by BC Dairy Foundation, BC Milk Producers and Dairy Farmers of Canada. Enjoy!

You can watch it on You Tube or at the BCDF website:

Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWw_P_CH638

BC Dairy Foundation
http://bcdairyfoundation.ca/persona/new-stuff

Banana Berry Smoothie
(Makes 2 servings) 

1 ripe banana
1 cup milk or soy milk
0.5 cup frozen/fresh berries

Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Tips
Replace the berries with any other fruit, try canned peaches, mango or pineapple.
If you have over ripe bananas, peel and freeze them so they are ready to toss into a smoothie.

Nutrition Tips
You can add extra protein with skim milk powder or soft tofu.
Per serving: 115kcal,  5 g protein, 24g carbohydrate, 2g fiber and 0.5g fat.

Printer-Friendly Version – Banana Berry Smoothie

The sugar found in fruit is called fructose and the sugar in milk is called lactose. Table sugar is sucrose. Sugars are broken down into monosaccharides (single units of carbohydrate) during digestion.

Lactose = glucose + galactose

Sucrose = glucose + fructose

All sugars provide 4 calories per gram. After sugars are broken down they pass through the wall of our intestine into the blood stream, to the liver and to our body’s tissues.  I would not recommend choosing foods that contain sugar based on the way our body breaks them down.

However, fructose in fruit and lactose in milk are naturally occurring sugars in foods which fit into Canada’s Food Guide. Fruit provides additional nutrients such as vitamin C, potassium and fiber while milk is a great source of calcium and vitamin D. Sucrose (table sugar) is an added sugar and is one we want to limit, as the advice in Canada’s Food Guide states, “Limit foods and beverages high in calories, fat, sugar or salt.” Sucrose does not provide any additional nutrients; it is often referred to as an “empty calorie” meaning it is contributing energy to our diet and not much else. So in terms of your question when we think of healthy eating, these sugars are NOT equal. See another similar question on fructose by clicking here.

Powerful Probiotics

Every time I hit the yogurt section of the grocery store there are new products – some that claim to boost your immunity, others that make your belly dance, you know that commercial right?

Yogurt is made from adding active bacterial cultures to milk, that is what causes the change in texture. And don’t be scared of the word “bacteria”. We have naturally occuring bacteria in our gut to help digest the food we eat. When these good bacteria are in food and we eat them, they are called “probiotics”. Research suggests probiotics may help keep your immune system healthy and help maintain the good bacteria in your intestine. They may also help deal with diarrhea, reduce the symptoms of lactose intolerance and irritable bowel syndrome(IBS).

So what to choose when we are in that expansive yogurt section? Well, if you don’t have any of the conditions mentioned above (diarrhea, lactose intolerance or IBS) you don’t really need an extra dose of probiotics. You know that saying, “if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it”. But that’s not to say yogurt isn’t a great food choice. There is just so much marketing happening with yogurt these days that I need to remind you of a few key points when choosing a yogurt.

1)       Many of the lower fat products are sweetened artificially to make them low calorie – I don’t recommend artificially sweetened yogurt.

2)       You don’t even need an extremely low fat product either, it can even be hard to find a full fat yogurt these days. Choosing lower fat dairy products is a recommendation in Canada’s Food Guide but 1-2% fat still counts as low fat.

3)       The probiotics in yogurt can have great benefits but if you are choosing a sweetened yogurt then you are also getting extra added sugar. Some of the small containers of yogurt can have 3 or more teaspoons of added sugar. Can you imagine putting 3 teaspoons of sugar into one of those individual size containers? I hope not.

4)       The strain of bacteria is not as important, as long as the yogurt label says it contains active bacterial cultures it has probiotics. In fact, you may have heard of a class action lawsuit against the makers of the yogurt with the belly dance commercial. That is one of the commercials that frustrates me most as a dietitian so I was pleased to hear the news.

So what do you choose? I recommend purchasing plain yogurt which tends to be cheaper because you aren’t paying for all the additions. It is also more economical to buy the large (500ml) tub rather than the individual size. Try adding your own sliced fruit on top of plain yogurt. I like to take some frozen berries and put them in the bottom of a reusable container and top with plain yogurt. By the time I eat it after lunch, the berries have softened and become almost syrupy. If you prefer it to be a bit sweeter you can top with a bit of sugar or honey, but this way you can control how much you add rather than having a food company do it for you. Try any fruit (banana, berries, melon, peach), a sprinkle or cinnamon, granola or another high fiber cereal for yogurt toppings. The combinations are endless and you still get the power of probiotics.

The short answer is NO whey supplements are not necessary for muscle building and YES eating normally can help you build muscle as well.

Remember that whey protein actually comes from milk, so you don’t need to buy an expensive powder version. You can drink milk instead and to give regular milk added protein (if you really want to) you can add skim milk powder. Keep in mind we often overestimate the amount of protein we need. Check back to Canada’s Food Guide for serving sizes and recommendations especially the Meat and Alternatives group.

Also, after a check on references, there is fair evidence to support:

“The regular consumption of protein or amino acids during recovery from resistance exercise over 10-24 weeks of resistance training increases gains in muscle mass and strength among recreationally active young adults”.

So it can be any protein, it doesn’t have to be whey.

You can get calcium from other sources but it is hard to equate what is in milk. For example, a cup of milk has about 300mg of calcium. You would have to eat about 10 cups of raw spinach to equal the amount calcium that is in a cup of milk. It’s also important to get enough Vitamin D to make sure you can absorb the calcium. If you choose other milk substitutes such as rice or almond milk make sure it is “fortified” – that means the calcium and Vitamin D are added. The recommendations from the food guide remain the same if you are choosing equivalent products.

Please see the answer to the other question on calcium and I would recommend speaking to your doctor or pharmacist. Soy milk doesn’t contain lactose so I wonder what you are actually reacting to. Depending on your symptoms after drinking milk, you may get relief from products such as LactAid pills. They help you digest the lactose in dairy products.

For other suggestions for managing lactose intolerance click here.

Thanks for your comments. Here is the dish on cheese. The thing is, it is a higher fat food. When you see different cheeses look for the %MF on the label. This is the percentage Milk Fat. Many cheeses are up to 35% MF, so about ten times the fat of homogenized milk! But you wouldn’t eat as much cheese as you would drink milk, that just helps put things in perspective. So if you can choose one that is 15-20%MF that is great if you tend to eat a lot of cheese. Many mozzarellas come made with part-skim milk which lowers their fat content. But do not go for the “light” or “low fat” products as they usually have a lot more sodium in them. That being said, enjoying a high quality cheese is pleasurable as well as provides us with a source of calcium. As you mentioned I’m all about balance, so in moderation regular cheese fits into a healthy eating pattern. A serving from Canada’s Food Guide is 50grams or 1.5 ounces. To help visualize what that looks like imagine the size of 6 dice.

Also, as adults we need to have 2 servings from the Milk and Alternatives group per day but Canada’s Food Guide also recommends that we drink 2 cups of milk every day so that really takes care of all our servings from that food group. This can be somewhat contradictory. The recommendation for number of servings in each of the food groups is based on a sedentary individual. So if you are more active, additional servings in any of the food groups is warranted ie. having cheese as well as your 2 cups of milk. Make sure cheese isn’t replacing your milk intake because although cheese contains calcium it isn’t fortified with vitamin D like milk is. I am definitely a friend of cheese as well. Just about to have my cheese and veggie sandwich for lunch!