Nutrients in Dairy and Their Implications for Health and Disease

Ronald Ross Watson, Robert J Collier, Victor R Preedy, Victor R. Preedy

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780128097625
• eBook ISBN: 9780128097632
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Nutrition, Dietics & Bariatrics

Nutrients in Dairy and Their Implications for Health and Disease addresses various dairy products and their impact on health. This comprehensive book is divided into three sections and presents a balanced overview of the health benefits of milk and milk products. Summaries capture the most salient points of each chapter, and the importance of milk and its products as functional foods is addressed throughout.- Presents various dairy products and their impact on health- Provides information on dairy milk as an important source of micro-and macronutrients that impact body functions- Addresses dietary supplements and their incorporation into dairy products

Section E

Milk as a functional food From nonbovine sources

Outline

Chapter 27. Minerals in Sheep Milk

Chapter 28. Nutritional Value of Deer Milk

Chapter 29. Bioactive Components in Camel Milk: Their Nutritive Value and Therapeutic Application

Chapter 30. Camel Milk as a Potential Nutritional Therapy in Autism

Chapter 31. Nutritional Value and Potential Health Benefits of Donkey Milk

Chapter 32. Influence of Goat Milk on Bone and Mineral Metabolism During Iron Deficiency Recovery

Chapter 33. Goat Milk and Oxidative Stress During Iron-Deficiency Anemia Recovery

Chapter 34. Role of Milk From Small Ruminant Species on Human Health

Chapter 35. The Nutritional Value and Health Benefits of Goat Milk Components

Chapter 36. Nutraceutical Properties of Camel Milk

Chapter 27

Minerals in Sheep Milk

Jade Chia¹, Keegan Burrow¹, Alan Carne¹, Michelle McConnell¹, Linda Samuelsson², Li Day², Wayne Young², and Alaa El-Din A. Bekhit^{1 1}University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand ²AgResearch Limited, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Abstract

Sheep milk presents an attractive nutritional and health-promoting food source due to its high- mineral and -protein contents compared to milk from other lactating species such as cow and goat. The macrominerals Ca, P, Na, and Mg are reported to be present in sheep milk at much higher levels compared to cow and goat milks. In particular, sheep milk contains approximately 36% more calcium than cow milk and 31% more than goat milk. However, the mineral content of sheep milk exhibits considerable variation depending on factors such as breed, geographical location, diet, stage of lactation, parity, and farming practices. Sheep milk is commonly processed into cheese and yogurt and can be frozen or dried to powder for storage. Sheep milk therefore represents a dense food source high in minerals that is attracting increasing interest and leading to expansion of this species dairy industry. Considerable opportunity exists to fully explore the health-promoting effects of the minerals in sheep milk for human health and well-being.

Keywords

Bone; Ewe milk; Health; Macrominerals; Properties; Trace minerals

Introduction

Although sheep milk production is quite small compared to cow and buffalo milk (Fig. 27.1), there is considerable interest worldwide, as well as in New Zealand, for expansion of sheep dairy. While there was a 20% increase in sheep milk production over the period 2000–13 (from 8 to 10 million tons), the parallel increase in milk from other species has meant that the sheep milk contribution to the total world milk production has remained constant at 1.4% of the total world milk production within that period. The main sheep milk–producing countries are China, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, but significant amounts are also produced by France, Spain, and Russia. Significant numbers of sheep are available in Iran, India, Sudan, Romania, Syria, Algeria, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, and Bulgaria (FAO, 2016). Exact numbers are difficult to obtain as large numbers of sheep are found in nomadic and transhumance pastoral activities (Boyazoglu and Morand-Fehr, 2001; Morand-Fehr et al., 2007). In these countries, fresh milk is used for sustenance, unlike in Western countries where sheep milk is used for specialty dairy products such as cheese (Morand-Fehr et al., 2007; Pandya and Ghodke, 2007). The majority of sheep milk (about 66%) is produced in the Mediterranean region (Pandya and Ghodke, 2007).

Milk Composition and Physicochemical Properties

Generally speaking, milk composition varies due to factors related to the animals (species, age, genetic background including breed and individual animal characteristics, number of lactations, lactation stage, health); farming practices (management system, diet, number of offspring) and environmental (soil, climate, altitude) factors (Pulina et al., 2006). The composition and the physicochemical characteristics of the milk dictate its nutritional and functional properties. This, eventually, will have an impact on the yield, structure, sensory attributes, and the value of the dairy products produced from the milk. Significant differences exist in the composition and physicochemical properties of milk from the four major commercial milk-producing animal species (Table 27.1). In particular, the higher solid and ash contents appear to be potentially useful indications for higher technological (e.g., yield) and nutritional (protein, lipids, and minerals) advantages for sheep milk (Table 27.1).

It must be emphasized that the figures are general and the composition will vary depending on the factors mentioned before, and consequently, some differences can be found among studies on the milk from the same species produced at different localities/regions. Sheep milk has higher total solids and major nutrient contents than goat and cow milk, but comparable contents to buffalo milk. Among all of these commercial milk sources, sheep milk has the highest viscosity and micelle mineralization. This is due to the high solids and protein contents in sheep milk. Based on the compositional data, sheep milk per unit volume basis has the advantage of higher cheese yield and higher nutrient density as well as unique ratios of fat to protein that play an important role in developing structural and sensory properties of dairy products. Therefore, the majority of sheep milk is destined to become cheese and other dairy products especially in the European and Mediterranean regions (Todaro et al., 2015). A growing recent interest in sheep milk in New Zealand for infant nutrition opens new opportunities for capturing higher value for sheep milk. The potential of high health-promoting bioactive compounds in sheep milk is likely based on sporadic folklore, epi...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Section A. Dairy milk in context: The dairy cow, milk Production, and yield
• Section B. Ingestion: nutrients in Milk and its products On health
• Section C. Contaminants in dairy milk And their implications for Health
• Section D. Preclinical studies of dairy Milk and dairy components On health
• Section E. Milk as a functional food From nonbovine sources
• Index