Eat Yak Cheese for a Healthy Heart
NEPAL - A new study suggests that cheese produced from Yak milk in Nepal are healthier than those produced by dairy cattle.
17 March 2008
1 minute read
* "Results suggest that cheese from yak, grazed on Himalayan alpine pastures, might have a more healthful fatty acid composition" |
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Lead author Mamun Or-Rashid
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The research concluded that the Yak milk was found to contain more polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than Canadian cheddar cheese made from cow's milk, report the researchers in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Food Production Daily says that the higher ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids found in yak's cheese would mean it could be "classified as a healthy food in human diets," state the researchers from the University of Guelph (Canada), the Asia Network for Sustainable Agriculture and Bioresources in Katmandu, and Kantipur City College in Katmandu.
Previously, evidence has linked an increased omega-3 to omega-6 intake ratio to improved health.
Yak's cheese, made from the milk of the long-haired humped animals native to Tibet and the Himalayan region of south central Asia, is already commercially available, but has so far remained a delicacy, commanding high prices in the West.
"Our results suggest that cheese from yak, grazed on Himalayan alpine pastures, might have a more healthful fatty acid composition compared to cheese manufactured from dairy cattle fed grain-based diets," wrote lead author Mamun Or-Rashid.
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