Dieting By Knowing Your Dairy Products

This food group includes milk, cheese, yogurt and fromage frais. Calcium fortified soya alternatives to milk can also be included. This group does not include butter, eggs and cream as these fall into other food groups.

Try to eat 2-3 servings a day. A serving of milk is a 200ml glass, a serving of yogurt is a small pot (150g), a serving of cheese is 30g (matchbox size). Choose lower fat versions whenever you can, such as semi-skimmed milk, low fat yogurt and reduced fat cheese.

These foods provide:

Calcium: needed for development and maintenance of healthy bones
Zinc: required for tissue growth and repair
Protein: needed for growth and repair, and also a source of energy
Vitamin B12: required for blood cells and nerve function
Vitamin B2: needed for the release of energy from carbohydrates and protein
Vitamin A: (in whole milk products) for growth, development and eyesight

Healthy eating tips

• Choose low fat milk i.e. semi-skimmed or skimmed milk
• Choose low fat yogurts and reduced fat cheeses

Meat and Alternatives

This food group includes meat, poultry, fish, eggs and alternatives (see below). Meat products include bacon, salami, sausages, beefburgers and paté. Fish includes frozen and canned fish such as sardines and tuna, fish fingers and fish cakes.

Proteins are required for growth and repair. Proteins contain Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and sometimes Sulphur. Proteins are very large molecules, so they cannot get directly into our blood; they must be turned into amino-acids by the digestive system. There are over 20 different amino-acids. Our bodies can turn the amino-acids back into protein. When our cells do this they have to put the amino-acids together in the correct order. There are many millions of possible combinations or sequences of amino-acids; it is our DNA which contains the information about how to make proteins.

Choose lower fat versions whenever you can. Some meat products, e.g. beefburgers and sausages, can be high in fat. Trim visible fat off meat where possible. The Government recommends that we eat two portions of fish each week, one of which should be an oily fish (e.g. salmon, mackerel, trout, sardines or fresh tuna).


The authors of e-books, newsletters and other site content of www.weightlossdietexpert.com are competent, experienced writers or health care specialists within their own field. They have made every effort to ensure all information produced is correct and up to date at time of writing.

Please note no documentation on this site has been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and no documentation on this site should be used to diagnose,treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Any information given on www.weightlossdietexpert.com is to be used for educational and information purposes only. It should never be substituted for the medical advice from your own doctor or other health care professionals.

We do not dispense medical advice, prescribe drugs or diagnose any illnesses with our literature. www.weightlossdietexpert.com is not responsible or liable for any self or third party diagnosis made by visitors based on the content of this website. Neither does www.weightlossdietexpert.com in any way endorse any commercial products or services linked from other websites to this website.

Please, always consult your doctor or health care specialist if you are in any way concerned about your physical wellbeing.