Nova Scotia Agricultural College 

Fighting the Fear of Milk Fat

By Mara Gerriets
NSERC SPARK Intern (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge)
Research and Graduate Studies Office, Nova Scotia Agricultural College
June 25, 2002

Many health-conscious consumers are concerned by studies reporting that the fat in milk contains a high proportion of saturated fat, a known cause of cardiovascular disease. These consumers are choosing skim milk and milk substitutes because they believe they are healthier, but they are also missing out on a fat with important health benefits. Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a fatty acid which has been shown to fight cancer, prevent diabetes, promote weight loss, reduce atherosclerosis, and stimulate immune response. At the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, Dr. Chaouki Benchaar, a researcher working with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, believes that the micro-nutritional benefits of milk fat outweigh the risks of saturated fat. He is investigating natural methods of increasing the amount of CLA and omega-3 fatty acids in milk.

There are a wide variety of feed supplements known to increase the concentration of CLA in milk, but most are prohibitively expensive for the farmer. Dr. Benchaar is currently studying the effect of grazing dairy cows on pasture on the CLA content in milk. In addition to producing milk with a greater concentration of nutrients, keeping cows on pasture is known to be more profitable to farmers, healthier for cows, and more appealing to consumers.

This study is the first one to evaluate the effect of the season and the botanical composition of pasture on the CLA content of milk. Dr. Benchaar has found that cows grazing pasture had three times more CLA in their milk than cows fed a prepared diet indoors and that pastures particularly rich in red clover produced the strongest results. This information could help dairy farmers interested in producing CLA enhanced milk to plan how to graze their cows to gain the maximum benefits from pasture.

Dr. Benchaar hopes to convince dairy farmers to market a CLA enriched "pasture brand" of milk. Such a brand would appeal to modern consumers who are both health-conscious and concerned about the ethical treatment of animals. The profits from a pasture brand could be similar to those for the poultry industry's omega-3 enriched brands of eggs, which regularly sell for $1 more per dozen than other brands. Since dairy farmers are paid according to the fat content of their farm's milk, even a simple switch by consumers from skim milk to a higher fat pasture brand will put more money in the farmers' pockets. Such brands are only for sale in Europe today, but they will hopefully be adopted in Canada in the near future, allowing both the farmer and the consumer to benefit.

*Dr. Benchaar has received funding for this research from Dairy Farmers of Nova Scotia, Technology and Development Program of Nova Scotia, Agriculture Agri-Food Canada, and from the Agri-Futures Nova Scotia Program.