For healthier milk and butter, try starting at the source: cow feed

Changing dairy cows’ feed can lead to more healthful milk and butter, researchers have found.

Food science researchers at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland gave study animals the daily equivalent of 200 grams, 400 grams or 600 grams of rapeseed oil -- or no rapeseed oil. They found that the higher the amount of rapeseed oil, the healthier the milk. Cows ingesting 600 grams of rapeseed oil a day produced milk with 35% more oleic acid -- a heart-healthy unsaturated fat also found in olive oil -- compared with cows given standard feed. Their milk also had 26% less palmitic acid, a saturated fat associated with clogged arteries and obesity.

Healthful butter made from such milk is commercially available in Great Britain. Although it’s spreadable straight from the refrigerator, it “tastes just the same as other butter ... and can be used in the same way butter has always been used for cooking and baking,” said lead researcher Anna M. Fearon.

The study appeared in the March 15 online issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

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Jane E. Allen