Going Mediterranean with Dairy

  • Article
  • 2 min read May 3, 2016

The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans focused renewed attention on helping Americans choose healthy eating styles to follow, but some may be unfamiliar with one of the newest eating styles: The Healthy Mediterranean-Style Pattern. It includes more fruit and seafood than the Healthy U.S.-Style Pattern.

Although the Mediterranean eating style may not appear to emphasize dairy foods as much as other foods, new research is helping define the role of dairy foods in a healthy Mediterranean eating style.

A Mediterranean style of eating is based on traditional foods of the 21 countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. It abounds in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seafood, poultry, fermented dairy foods like yogurt and cheese, nuts, legumes and fats such as olive oil or avocado. Whether originating in Greece, Italy, Spain, Morocco or Egypt, there are a tremendous variety of foods to try.

With that in mind, let’s explore some tempting ways milk, yogurt and cheese can be used to enhance your own Mediterranean style meals. If you love food as I do, you will be inspired by the tremendous variety of foods to try from different countries in the Mediterranean region.

Embrace the Mediterranean-lifestyle by dressing salads with Greek yogurt, adding part-skim mozzarella to salads and sandwiches or using low-fat milk in your lattes, smoothies or on its own as a beverage with your meal.