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Tips for the Lactose Intolerant

During pregnancy, it's critical that you get enough calcium. Otherwise, your body will draw from the calcium stored in your bones to build your fetus' skeleton.

Your prenatal vitamin will give you a head start by supplying 200 to 300 of the 1,000 mg of calcium a day that doctors recommend during pregnancy.

If you're lactose intolerant, try milk treated with lactase (an enzyme that breaks down lactose so the body can absorb it easily). And because much of the lactose is removed from cheese when it's made, it provides an easily digestible calcium boost.

Milk-loathers may enjoy chocolate milk -- a tablespoon of chocolate syrup adds just 50 calories -- as well as yogurt. Preparing such foods as mashed potatoes and pudding with dry milk, which has more than three times the calcium of regular milk, is another way to fool milk-shy taste buds.