Horse Milk Ice Cream: A Healthy Low-fat and Probiotic-rich Frozen Treat

Highlights:

Ice creams and yogurt can be made from horse milk too
Mare’s milk is blended with cow’s cream to produce a lip-smacking scoop of ice cream
Horse milk ice cream is delicious, low in fat, more nutritious and rich in probiotics

Ice creams are one of the all-time favorite desserts loved by people of all ages. But, is it healthy to eat ice cream? Traditionally, ice creams are made from cow’s milk and cream, however, it is considered unhealthy as they are calorie-dense and contain high sugar and fat. But, what if this tasty frozen treat could provide you with a bundle of health benefits?

Health Benefits of Probiotic Yogurt Diet
Probiotic yogurt adds bountiful of beneficial bacteria to the intestinal tract which prove to be effective in aiding digestive problems.

‘Ice cream made from mare's milk blended with cow's cream becomes a healthy frozen treat with beneficial probiotic qualities. Come on let’s grab a scoop of gut-friendly horse milk ice cream. #icecream #horsemilkicecream #frozentreat #medindia’

Horse Milk Ice Cream: A Frozen Joy in Every Scoop

Scientists have successfully developed probiotic ice creams and yogurts using mare’s milk (horse milk). Horse milk is often believed as a functional food. Hence, this new horse milk ice cream could be a potential game-changer in the world of frozen desserts as well as functional foods.

The findings of the study are published in the journal Plos One ().

Probiotics - Support System for the Gut
Probiotics are live microorganisms that resemble the “good bacteria” in our gut. Science is yet to fully explore the healing potential of probiotics; meanwhile some studies have ruled in their favor.

Mare’s Milk for Health

The mare’s milk contains beneficial substances like

Lactoferrin:
A protein found in human breast milk which strengthens the immune system and aids in easy digestion.
Lysozyme:
An antimicrobial enzyme which helps fight against a wide range of diseases.
Additionally, it is also
lower in fat content
than cow’s milk.

The researchers did not just stop at creating a regular ice cream. They took the extra mile by creating synbiotic ice cream, commonly known as yogurt ice cream or probiotic ice cream.

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Is Probiotic Ice Cream Healthy?

Synbiotic ice cream involves combining good bacteria (probiotics) with special fibers that feed them (prebiotics). In this case, the scientists used inulin (a type of fiber) derived from plants such as chicory root, as their prebiotic of choice. This combination creates an ideal environment for the good bacteria to thrive. Thus, consuming a probiotic ice cream can boost your gut health and immune system.

For the study, the research team created four types of mare’s milk ice cream: yogurt ice cream with inulin, yogurt ice cream without inulin, and two synbiotic ice creams with different probiotic strains and inulin.

The study results were eye-catching. All ice cream variants maintained a good balance of protein, fat, and total solids. The yogurt ice cream without inulin was found to have the highest acidity. In the case of sensory evaluations, all ice cream varieties scored well.

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Goodness of Gut-Friendly Ice Cream

But, the actual victory came from the tests focused on the bacteria count. In the ice creams with inulin, they observed counts of beneficial bacteria above 7 log CFU/g (scientifically described as good). This indicates there were sufficient live probiotics ready to reach the consumer’s gut. The key fact that these bacteria survived the freezing process and remained viable in the ice cream is indeed a notable achievement.

Study limitations

- The study was conducted on a laboratory scale, so findings might vary in large-scale production. The researchers didn’t analyze shelf life of the ice cream or how the bacterial counts might change over a period of time.

Hence, ice cream made from horse milk could be used as a healthy substitute for cow milk ice cream. So, hurry up, let’s start galloping and go neigh to grab the goodness of this yummy frozen treat.

Reference:

The use of mare’s milk for yogurt ice cream and synbiotic ice cream production - (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0304692)

Source-Medindia