Research News: Grass Fed Cow Milk Brimming with CLA

Cows that eat their natural food - grasses - produce healthier milk. The conventional dairy industry and its regulators are unable to acknowledge this. The high levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) found in grass-fed cows will undoubtedly please the organic dairy industry and the manufacturers of supplementary CLA

Study finds grass-fed cows produce healthier milk

New Zealand's livestock farmers may be able to cash in on new research into potential health benefits of meat and milk from grass-fed animals, Federated Farmers says.

Cows fed on fresh grass produce milk with five times as much unsaturated fat as cows fed on grain, said Federated Farmers dairy chairman, Lachlan McKenzie.

"Lab-based research suggests these unsaturated fats, known as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), protect the heart and actually aid weight loss," he said. "It's also great news for our beef farmers as grass-fed beef also contains higher concentrations of CLA's".

Mr McKenzie was commenting on a new study from Harvard University's school of public health which found that milk from grass-fed cows may be healthier than milk from cows raised on feedlots -- a common practice in affluent nations in the northern hemisphere.

Earlier studies in animals have suggested that CLAs can protect the heart, and help in weight loss, and two big dietary supplement companies have won regulatory approval in Europe and the United States to sell CLA ingredients in foods for people wanting to lose weight.

Hannia Campos of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and her colleagues found, in a study of 4000 people, that people with the highest concentrations of CLAs -- the top fifth among all participants -- had a 36 percent lower risk of heart attack compared to those with the lowest concentrations.

Those findings held true even once the researchers took into account heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and smoking, Reuters reported.

These heart-healthy benefits could more than offset the harms of saturated fat in milk, Dr Campos said.

"Because pasture grazing leads to higher CLA in milk, and it is the natural feed for cattle, it seems like more emphasis should be given to this type of feeding," she said.

The study was carried out in Costa Rica where dairy cows are grazed on pasture, similar to New Zealand and Australia.

They identified nearly 2000 Costa Ricans who had suffered a non-fatal heart attack, and another 2000 who had not. Then they measured the amount of CLA in fat tissues to estimate each person's intake, the researchers reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The lower risk attributed to CLA when this was taken into account was to 49 percent.

"Whole-fat milk and dairy products have got such a bad reputation in recent years due to their saturated fat and cholesterol contents, and now we find that CLA may be incredibly health-promoting," said Michelle McGuire, spokeswoman for the journal's publisher.

Another study in Sweden, published in the same issue of the journal as the Costa Rican study also hints at heart attack protection through milk fat.

Further, the benefits of CLA may extend beyond the heart to the prevention of cancer and diabetes, suggested Ms McGuire, pointing to results of other animal studies. "Milk is actually the only food ever 'designed by nature' to be fed to mammals," she added. "We need to look to milk as the perfect food and learn everything we can from it."

Mr McKenzie said it was evidence that New Zealand had an opportunity to differentiate itself at the higher end of the market.

"Federated Farmers totally agrees with the American Society for Nutrition that milk is the perfect food and we need to learn everything we can from it," he said.

Earlier studies in animals have shown CLA to be effective at preventing the formation of tumours and may be able to destroy cancerous cells.

CLA is a byproduct of metabolism that occurs in the cow's first stomach, or rumen. Bacteria acting on foods containing linolenic and linoleic acid -- such as corn and soybeans -- convert those fatty acids.

In 2005, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported people who have high levels of high-fat dairy foods and conjugated linoleic acid, a component of dairy foods, in their diet may have a reduced risk of colorectal cancer.

Source: National Business Review