Yak-milk cheese for health
 Found mainly in the highlands of the Nepalese Himalayas, Indian Kashmir,
Tibet, Mongolia and Bhutan, the yak is a large, shaggy, horned animal
able to survive at temperatures as low as –40C and at altitudes
where the atmospheric pressure is little more than half that at sea level.
The yak is a member of the subfamily Bovinae, which also includes the
domestic cow and the buffalo, and, as with those species, its milk and
milk products are part of the human diet in the regions where it is found.
And researchers have now found that cheese made from yak’s milk
has a better health profile than that from dairy cattle.
The nutritional value of dairy products is, in part, related to its fatty
acid composition, in particular conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), trans-18:1
fatty acids and odd- and branched-chain fatty acids.
CLA is believed
to have some anticarcinogenic properties as well as a range of positive
health effects in experimental animal models, including beneficial effects
on reducing body fat accretion, delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes,
retarding the development of atherosclerosis, improving the mineralisation
of bone and modulating the immune system.
However, all these benefits
are debatable as scientific research is as yet inconclusive. CLA is found
in ruminant food products due to the process of bacterial biohydrogenation
of linoleic acid in the rumen.
Dr Mamun Or-Rashid at the University of Guelph, Canada, and colleagues
compared the fatty acid content of cheese made from a Nepalese yak’s
milk with a standard Canadian cheddar. In a paper published in Journal
of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (March 2008), they found that
the yak cheese had a lower overall fat content than the cow’s milk
cheese. It also contained much higher levels of heart-healthy “good
fats” such
as CLA and omega-3 fatty acids.
These results suggest that cheese from yaks, grazed on Himalayan alpine
pastures, may have a more healthy fatty acid composition compared to
cheese manufactured from dairy cattle fed grain-based diets.
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