News & Notes
Skimmed milk better than isotonics for post-sport rehydration
Drinking skimmed milk after exercise may promote recovery and rehydration better than water or an isotonic sports drink, suggests a new study from the UK.
Writing in the British Journal of Nutrition, researchers from Loughborough University’s School of Sports and Exercise Sciences report that volunteers in their trial remained hydrated after drinking milk, but remained dehydrated after drinking the other drinks.
“The results of the study are really exciting as they show skimmed milk to produce a significant improvement in re-hydration compared to the other drinks evaluated in the study. As dehydration can have an impact on performance, it is essential to re-hydrate in preparation for subsequent exercise in order to help maximize one’s abilities,” said lead author Susan Shirreffs from Loughborough University.
The researchers recruited 11 healthy volunteers (average age 24) for the randomized crossover trial. Lactose-intolerant people were excluded from participating. The participants performed exercise to lose 1.8 percent of their body weight and then consumed one of the beverages – the volume consumed was equivalent to 150 percent of the sweat lost. Drinks included skimmed milk (0.2 percent), skimmed milk with added sodium chloride, water or Powerade. Urine samples were taken five hours after exercise.
The researchers report that urine excretion over the recovery period was unchanged as a result of drinking the milk, while excretion increased between one and two hours after drinking the water and sports drink.
“The results suggest that milk is more effective at replacing sweat losses and maintaining hydration than plain water or a commercially available sports drink following exercise-induced dehydration by approximately 2 percent of initial body mass,” said the researchers.
“Given that hypohydration results in an increase in cardiovascular and thermoregulatory strain, and a reduction in exercise capacity in the heat, it is important to ensure that fluid losses accrued during exercise are replaced prior to the performance of a subsequent exercise bout,” they concluded.
Source: British Journal of Nutrition, Volume 98, Pages 173-180, “Milk as an effective post-exercise rehydration drink,” S.M. Shirreffs, P. Watson, R.J. Maughan.
Fuel from cheese? Whey cool: research may save state plants
Filling your car’s gas tank with fuel made from cheddar might sound cheesy, but it could happen soon. Scientists and a former cheese plant manager from Stratford, Wis., are studying the feasibility of making ethanol from whey left over from cheese-making. When mixed with gasoline, ethanol is a popular biofuel.
The research could help save dozens of small cheese plants struggling with high operating costs. Whey, once regarded as a waste product from cheese plants, has become a popular ingredient in packaged foods such as cake mixes, candy and nutrition bars.
Finding another use for whey could help the plants make ends meet, said Joe Van Groll, owner of Grand Meadow Energy, a Stratford firm that’s experimented with making ethanol from cheese waste.
Van Groll bought the former Grand Meadow Co-op cheese plant after it closed three years ago and converted the facility into a biofuels research and development laboratory. Now, he’s ready to sell licenses to use the yeast-based technology developed with the help of a $29,000 state grant.
Van Groll said his process focuses on making ethanol from sugar water extracted from whey. He believes the same method could be used to make ethanol from other organic waste. His next step is to acquire another former cheese plant and use it to produce up to 6 million gallons of ethanol a year.
Making ethanol from cheese whey has been done before, but the technology is not widely used in the United States. Most ethanol here is made from corn.
There are advantages to making ethanol from whey, including lower energy costs. About 50 percent of the ethanol in New Zealand, a dairy-rich country, is made from whey, said John Fieschko, executive director of the Central New York Biotechnology Research Center in Syracuse, N.Y. A German dairy products company recently invested $27 million into a plant to make ethanol from cheese waste. A California start-up company, called Earthanol, raised about $7 million in venture capital for similar work.
Whey is a viable but less grandiose alternative to corn for making ethanol, said Fieschko, whose laboratory recently received a $400,000 government grant to design an energy-efficient bioreactor for the whey process.
“I am not going to compete, volume-wise, with corn. But I can make ethanol for about 80 cents a gallon, compared with $1.50 per gallon from corn,” Van Groll said.
But rising whey prices could dampen some of the enthusiasm. The value of Wisconsin whey exports nearly tripled in the first half of the year to $37 million. Wisconsin whey exports to China grew from $2.7 million in the first half of 2006 to $10.8 million in the same period this year.
“It all comes down to economics,” said John Umhoefer, executive director of the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association. “The trick is to anticipate market prices, which is a very difficult thing to do,” he said. “You can definitely make ethanol out of whey . . . but it comes down to the price. Markets dictate the best use of products.”
A former cheese plant manager with a bachelor’s degree in food science, Van Groll hopes that his primary revenue will come from selling whey technology licenses that use his trade secrets. He’s already sold one license to a group of California investors.
“My plans are to take this global,” Van Groll said. “There’s more money to be made in Europe and South America than in the United States because their fuel prices are much higher. The Japanese, and people from Brazil, have already looked at this.”
Whey could be used to make biodegradable plastics, in addition to ethanol and food ingredients. “There’s tremendous potential for replacing fast-food wrappers with something that’s biodegradable,” Fieschko said.
This article by Rick Barrett was excerpted from an article found in an IDFA Smart Brief posted on Nov. 10, 2007.
Dairy dental benefits played up in industry health drive
A UK-based nutrition group kicked off a new scheme in February designed to promote the consumption of dairy products like cheeses and milk as a key element of good dental health. The Dairy Council says that the Slurp and Chew ad scheme began in early February, and will be played at 160 dental surgeries in the UK. The scheme aims to push the message that cheese and milk consumption can offer consumers an effective means of fighting tooth decay – claims that have been accepted by the British Dental Health Foundation.
The latest Dairy Council campaign is in line with an industry-wide attempt to play up dairy products as a major part of a healthy diet, amidst growing consumer and regulatory concerns over issues like obesity and heart health. Council director, Dr. Judith Bryans, said the Slurp and Chew scheme plays up the importance of components like calcium and phosphorus in developing and protecting teeth.
“With regards to dental health itself, milk is one of the few drinks that is safe to have between meals, and a small piece of hard cheese chewed on its own after meals can actually help reduce the risk of tooth decay,” she stated.
Independent charity The British Dental Health Foundation agreed that certain dairy products could indeed be good for teeth. Foundation chief executive Dr. Nigel Carter told DairyReporter.com that the high pH value of cheese and milk helps to neutralize plaque acids from sugars.
“It surprises many people that a small piece of cheese is actually far better for your teeth than an apple, [as] apples are quite acidic and can cause dental erosion,” he said.
This article was excerpted from an article by Neil Merrett in the Feb. 13, 2008 issue of Dairy Reporter.com.
