Uncertainty about milk aside, the USDA's recommendations are clear-cut.
In 2005, the agency in charge of the food pyramid started recommending three cups of dairy products a day for anyone over 8, a full cup more than before. By the USDA's standards, one cup of yogurt, one and a half ounces of hard cheese, one-third cup of shredded cheese or two cups of cottage cheese counts as a cup of dairy. So, of course, does a cup of milk.
The USDA actively promotes dairy products — it administers the National Milk Processor Board that gave us the ubiquitous "Got milk?" media campaign — but the change in guidelines wasn't simply an attempt to sell more milk, says Dr. Theresa Nicklas, a dairy researcher and professor of pediatrics with the Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Waco, Texas. According to Nicklas, the push for more dairy was driven by fears that Americans weren't getting enough calcium, potassium and magnesium, nutrients that are relatively plentiful in milk.
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