After years of being treated like the pariah in the fridge, dairy is making a comeback. A raft of recent health and nutritional studies have shown that cutting milk, cream and cheese from our diet has made us deficient in essential nutrients.

If the benefits of eating more dairy cannot be disputed, the challenge of how we include it in our diet without gaining weight remains. In The Modern Dairy, Annie Bell revisits and revises old habits, overturns myths and puts paid to bad science and misconceptions with recipes that celebrate dairy but demonstrate how it can be used in new, healthier ways. Most cheeses, for example, come loaded with flavour, so can be used sparingly - you can can make a fab salad with a pile of crips leaves, walnuts and pistachios, plus a few shavings of Parmesan, which will allow you to omit the salt in the dressing and go easy on the oil, and it will be as delicous as it is healthy.