Models for nutrition education to increase consumption of calcium and dairy products among African Americans.

Calcium and dairy consumption are documented to be low among African Americans and have demonstrated benefits to bone growth, overall nutritional status, and health throughout the life cycle. There is also an emerging relationship to the prevention of obesity. This low consumption has been attributed to both cultural and community/environmental barriers.

Lactose digestion in pregnant African-Americans.

Objective: This paper reports on the status of lactose digestion during early and late pregnancy and at 8 weeks postpartum in an African-American population. The hypothesis is that lactose digestion and milk tolerance do not change throughout pregnancy and do not differ from those of non-pregnant African-American women.

Design And Subjects: This longitudinal study determined lactose digestion after ingesting 240 ml of 1% fat milk containing 12 g of lactose at: (1) early pregnancy, prior to 16 weeks (n=148); (2) late pregnancy, 30-35 weeks (n=77); and (3) 8 weeks postpartum (n=93).