Molly Morgan, our registered dietician, is the author of To Your Healthy Life.Style. Here you'll find past month's articles containing helpful advice and information on healthy eating, dairy foods, and Crowley products.

Top 5 Reasons You Need Dairy!

To Maintain A Healthy Weight - Maintaining or achieving a healthy weight is at the top of most everyone's "to do" lists! The good news is that there is a growing amount of scientific research to prove that having 3 servings of dairy foods per day in conjunction with a balanced eating plan can help promote a healthy weight! Even more interesting, the research shows that dairy consumption helps promote a healthy weight and has been shown to improve body composition, for example reducing total body fat and increasing lean body mass! Scientists are still trying to determine the exact link between the nutrients in dairy foods and their role in weight loss; the preliminary reason that dairy foods help promote weight loss seems to be thanks to dietary calcium's effect on the bodies ability to use energy. Click here for tips from Crowley that will help your waist line!

To Keep Your Blood Pressure Healthy - Often times when it comes to controlling blood pressure we think of reducing sodium intake, which is an important step. We have some good news, increasing your intake of low-fat dairy foods has been shown to help control blood pressure. In fact, it is part of the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan which is a low-fat diet that incorporates fruits and vegetable intake along with increasing low fat dairy products, as key components to the eating plan. For more information on the DASH eating plan, click here.

To Prevent Cancer - Certain nutrients found in dairy foods may play a role in the prevention of certain types of cancer, such as breast, colon, and prostate cancers. The nutrients include: vitamin D, calcium, bacterial cultures (e.g. L.acidophilus), and CLA (conjugated linoleic acid). Although, dairy foods are loaded with health helping nutrients, on average, Americans only consume about 1.7 servings of dairy foods per day, compared with the recommended 3 to 4 servings per day! If you're interested in ways to kick-up your intake of dairy foods, check out this article titled Kick Up Your Calcium!

To Keep Your Bones Strong - From young to old, dairy foods play a key role in bone health largely because they are a major source of calcium and vitamin D! In fact, about 99% of the calcium in the body is stored in bones and vitamin D is a key ingredient in the absorption of calcium into the bones. Some of the additional nutrients found in milk like: protein, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, vitamin B12, and zinc may play a role in bone health too! Check out our Build Your Bones. It's Never Too Late from May 2007, with tips and ideas to improve your bone health.

To Protect Your Dental Health - There are many dairy foods that can help to protect your teeth and who likes getting a cavity? Cheese has been found to be a food that reduces the risk of cavities and there is evidence that indicates that flavored or plain milk does not contribute to cavities! In fact many professional organizations like, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry encourage parents to serve nutritious snacks like: cheese, chocolate milk, yogurt, and vegetables to protect children's teeth! Other organizations suggest the reduction of sweetened soft drinks and recommend low fat milk or flavored milk as an alternative!

Enjoy this quick recipe!

Super Shake
Refreshing!
Servings per recipe: 1

INGREDIENTS
1 cup Crowley 1% Lowfat Chocolate Milk
1 frozen banana*

Directions:
Combine the lowfat milk and banana in a blender and blend until icy & smooth.

*Peel a banana, place in a freezer bag, and freeze until frozen.