If milk does the heart good, it might do the heart even more good if it comes from dairy cows grazed on grass instead of on feedlots, according to a US study. Earlier studies have shown that cows on a diet of fresh grass produce milk with five times as much of an unsaturated fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than cows fed processed grains. Studies in animals have suggested that CLAs can protect the heart, and help in weight loss. Hannia Campos of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and her colleagues found in a study of 4,000 people that people with the highest concentrations of CLAs - the top fifth among all participants - had a 36 percent lower risk of heart attack compared to those with the lowest concentrations. Those findings held true even once the researchers took into account heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and smoking. Campos said these new findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggest that CLA offers heart-healthy benefits that could more than offset the harms of saturated fat in milk.
