Download Why Full-Fat Dairy May Be Healthier Than Low-Fat

10 Tips for Healthy Grocery Shopping
By Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD, Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Good nutrition starts with smart choices in
the grocery store. Cooking up healthy meals
is a challenge if you don't have the right
ingredients in your kitchen.
"When planning your grocery list, consult
the guidelines of MyPyramid to make sure
you are including all the foods you need for
good health," advises Elizabeth Ward, RD,
author of The Pocket Idiot's Guide to the
New Food Pyramids.
But who has time to read all the food labels
and figure out which items are the most
nutritious and the best buys? Grocery
shopping can be a daunting task, simply
because there are so many choices.
To help meet the pyramid guidelines, you
should be filling your cart with plenty of
fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, lean
meat, fish, poultry, beans, and nuts, she
says.
"Markets perform a great public service, but
keep in mind they are designed to get you to
buy (and, therefore, eat) more food, not
less," says Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH,
professor of nutrition at New York
University and author of What to Eat: An
Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices
and Good Eating.
Most of us tend to eat the same foods over
and over again. But variety really is the
spice of life, says Ward.
"One of the tenets of the pyramid is variety,
so instead of white potatoes, choose sweet
potatoes, which are much richer in betacarotene, or baby spinach instead of iceberg
lettuce," she advises.
But with a little guidance, healthy choices
are a cinch to find in any supermarket.
Plan Ahead for Success
Be adventurous; aim to try a new fruit or
vegetable each week, she advises.
The process starts even before you head to
the grocery store, experts say. Before you
set out for the market, plan your meals for
the week, and create a list to shop from. It
takes a few minutes, but saves time in
running back to the store for missing
ingredients.
Both Ward and Nestle say organic foods are
a great option, but note that they may not be
the most economical choice.
"You get the same nutritional benefits with
fewer pesticides [with organics], but eating
plenty of produce is more important than
choosing organic foods," says Ward.
To save money, use coupons, check the
weekly grocery ads, and incorporate sale
foods into your meal planning. And don't
shop hungry: An empty belly often results in
impulse purchases that may not be the
healthiest.
Convenience is often worth the extra cost,
especially when you're packing lunches or
are trying to control portions. Ward relies on
single-serve packages of precut apples and
carrot sticks for food to go for her three
young daughters.
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"Anything that will get you and your family
to eat more fruits and vegetables is worth the
extra expense, especially when you consider
there is no waste associated with washed
and prepped produce," says Ward.
barley. To help your family get used to
whole grains, you can start out with wholewheat blends and slowly transition to 100%
whole-wheat pasta and breads.

Meat, Fish, and Poultry. The
American Heart Association recommends
two servings of fish a week. Ward
recommends salmon because people often
like it, and it's widely available, affordable,
not too fishy, and a good source of omega-3
fatty acids. Be sure to choose lean cuts of
meat (like round, top sirloin, and
tenderloin), opt for skinless poultry, and
watch your portion sizes.

Dairy. Dairy foods are an excellent source of
bone-building calcium and vitamin D. There
are plenty of low-fat and nonfat options to
help you get three servings a day, including
drinkable and single-serve tube yogurts, and
pre-portioned cheeses. If you enjoy higherfat cheeses, no problem -- just keep your
portions small.

Frozen Foods. Frozen fruits and vegetables
(without sauce) are a convenient way to help
fill in the produce gap, especially in winter.
Some of Ward's frozen favorites include
whole-grain waffles for snacks or meals,
portion-controlled bagels, 100% juices for
marinades and beverages, and plain cheese
pizza that she jazzes up with an extra dose
of skim mozzarella cheese and a variety of
veggies.

Canned and Dried Foods. Keep a variety of
canned vegetables, fruits, and beans on hand
to toss into soups, salads, pasta, or rice
dishes. Whenever possible, choose
vegetables without added salt, and fruit
packed in juice. Tuna packed in water, lowfat soups, nut butters, olive and canola oils,
Nestle also recommends splurging in the
produce aisle for the best fruits and
vegetables.
Ward offers this checklist for making
healthier food choices in every department
of your supermarket:


Produce. Spend the most time in the produce
section, the first area you encounter in most
grocery stores (and usually the largest).
Choose a rainbow of colorful fruits and
vegetables. The colors reflect the different
vitamin, mineral, and phytonutrient content
of each fruit or vegetable.
Breads, Cereals, and Pasta. Choose the least
processed foods that are made from whole
grains. For example, regular oatmeal is
preferable to instant oatmeal. But even
instant oatmeal is a whole grain, and a good
choice.
When choosing whole-grain cereals, aim for
at least 4 grams of fiber per serving, and the
less sugar, the better. Keep in mind that 1
level teaspoon of sugar equals 4 grams and
let this guide your selections. Ward points
out that cereals -- even those with added
sugar -- make great vehicles for milk,
yogurt, and/or fruit. Avoid granolas, even
the low-fat variety; they tend to have more
fat and sugar than other cereals.
Bread, pasta, rice, and grains offer more
opportunities to work whole grains into your
diet. Choose whole-wheat bread and pastas,
brown rice, grain mixes, quinoa, bulgur, and
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and assorted vinegars should be in every
healthy pantry.


little processing and as few additives as
possible. If you want more salt or sugar, add
it yourself.
Nestle offers these simple solutions to savvy
shopping without spending hours in the
grocery store:

Shop the perimeter of the grocery store,
where fresh foods like fruits, vegetables,
dairy, meat, and fish are usually located.
Avoid the center aisles where junk foods
lurk.
Stay clear of foods with cartoons on the
label that are targeted to children. If you
don't want your kids eating junk foods, don't
have them in the house.

Avoiding foods that contain more than five
ingredients, artificial ingredients, or
ingredients you can't pronounce.
Choose "real" foods, such as 100% fruit
juice or 100% whole-grain items with as
Why Full-Fat Dairy May Be Healthier Than Low-Fat
Danny Kim for TIME
Skim milk or whole? Non-fat yogurt or fullfat? For decades, public health officials have
treated these decisions as no-brainers. Cut
the dairy fat, they’ve maintained, and you’ll
sidestep calories without missing out on
good stuff like calcium and protein. Winwin. But they might have been wrong, a
chorus of experts now say.
Seattle. Of the 25 studies included in his
team’s review, Kratz says 18 reported lower
body weights, less weight gain, or a lower
risk for obesity among full-fat dairy eaters.
The other seven studies were inconclusive.
“None of the research suggested low-fat
dairy is better,” he says.
More research supports his team’s findings.
A 2013 study in the Scandinavian Journal of
Primary Health Care tracked the dairy intake
and obesity rates of more than 1,500 middleaged and older adults. Those who frequently
ate full-fat butter, milk, and cream had lower
obesity rates than those who eschewed dairy
fat. “Based on my own research and on the
research of others, I believe high-fat dairy is
less likely to contribute to obesity that lowfat dairy,” says Dr. Sara Holmberg, first
author of the study.
A recent review published in the European
Journal of Nutrition of the existing research
on dairy fat came to some surprising
conclusions: People who eat full-fat dairy
are no more likely to develop cardiovascular
disease and type 2 diabetes than people who
stick to low-fat dairy. When it comes to
weight gain, full-fat dairy may actually be
better for you, the review found.
“In terms of obesity, we found no support
for the notion that low-fat dairy is healthier,”
says Dr. Mario Kratz, first author of the
review and a nutrition scientist at the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in
The belief that fat isn’t a health villain has
been gaining traction the last few years,
especially as data has piled up showing
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that low-fat diets don’t work. And while
national health organizations seem to be
softening their stance on fat, they still
recommend reaching for low- or non-fat
dairy at the supermarket.
much energy your body burns, or limit the
amount of fat your body stores. “We don’t
know any of these things for certain,” Kratz
adds. “But they could help explain why our
findings show full-fat dairy consumption is
preferable to low-fat when it comes to a
person’s risk for obesity.”
Their justification: “Research has shown
consistently that nutrient-rich foods—that is,
foods that pack a lot of micronutrients into
every calorie—are healthier,” says Isabel
Maples, a registered dietitian and
spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition
and Dietetics. Maples says reduced-fat dairy
provides calcium, potassium, and other good
things Americans need in their diet, and
does so with fewer calories than full-fat
dairy. She says reduced-fat dairy also
contains less saturated fat.
Holmberg, the author of the Scandinavian
study, calls dairy “paradoxical,” and says
it’s not possible to judge dairy’s health
effects based only on its macronutrient
content. “It is important to study the effect
of real food and not just nutrients,” she adds.
Several more European studies have
suggested similar links between full-fat
dairy and lower rates of obesity, heart
disease, and diabetes. And a just-published
review from the journal BMJ concludes that,
back in the 1970s—when health regulators
established national diet guidelines that
encouraged people to avoid fat—there
wasn’t evidence to support those warnings.
Basically, the foundation for all your “fat is
evil” beliefs may have always been weak.
Kratz doesn’t disagree with Maples’s
comments. But he says they make
assumptions about dairy that aren’t backed
up by existing evidence. “Data should be
weighed more heavily than assumptions,” he
says. “And the data don’t support the notion
that eating full-fat dairy is worse for your
health than reduced-fat or non-fat dairy.”
At the same time, none of this means you
should gorge yourself on full-fat dairy. “We
shouldn’t swing the pendulum too far in the
other direction and say, ‘Put butter in
everything and eat as much dairy as you
want,’ ” Kratz warns. (Compared to many
foods—especially vegetables and fruit—
dairy contains no fiber, which is critical for
digestion, for how the body manages sugar,
and which plays an important role in
maintaining a healthy weight.)
How could something with more calories be
better for your waistline? Some researchers
argue that not all calories are equal—
especially when it comes to weight gain.
Also, focusing on calories-per-serving
largely ignores a mammoth factor when it
comes to obesity: fullness. Kratz says the
fatty acids that are stripped out of reducedfat dairy may help you feel full sooner and
stay full longer—meaning you’ll eat less
now and in the coming hours.
But if you’re deciding between skim milk
and whole milk, the existing research argues
you may be better off grabbing the full-fat
stuff.
Dairy’s fatty acids may also play a role in
gene expression and hormone regulation. In
simple terms, these acids may crank up how
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