FOND of cheese but depressed about its high levels of saturated fats? Now there鈥檚 a healthier alternative: yak cheese.
Mamun Or-Rashid at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues compared the fatty-acid content of cheese made from a Nepalese yak鈥檚 milk and a standard Canadian cheddar.
They found the yak cheese had a lower overall fat content and, compared with cow鈥檚 milk cheese, contained much higher levels of heart-healthy 鈥済ood fats鈥� such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and omega-3 fatty acids (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, ).
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Some of the difference is due to the yak鈥檚 diet of pasture grasses and shrubs, which gives their milk a better fatty-acid profile than that from animals raised on industrial grain-based feed. However, the yak cheese had even higher levels of these beneficial fats than pasture-fed cattle, says Or-Rashid. And, he adds, it tastes good, with a delicate flavour.
Though yaks are not common dairy animals outside the Himalayan highlands, Or-Rashid suggests cold-climate farmers elsewhere might like to try them.
