Kefir is a fermented dairy that is becoming more popular on supermarket shelves. Being a product derived from milk by lacto-alcoholic fermentation , different health benefits are assumed thanks to its proteins and peptides with biological activity. However, there are not many studies regarding the benefits of this food.
Researchers from the University of Córdoba (Spain) have been in charge of analyzing all the proteins and peptides of goat kefir . Find out how many have been discovered and what benefits they have for your body.
Study on goat kefir
Much is known about the benefits of kefir, but there is little empirical evidence about goat kefir; That is why a research team from the University of Córdoba has decided to carry out a peptidome of this food. Specifically, researchers from the Biochemistry, Proteomics and Biology of Plant and Agroforestry Systems group and the Central Research Support Service (SCAI) participated.
The objective of the research was to discover all the peptides in goat kefir in order to learn more about their beneficial properties in the future.
Goat kefir peptidome
To make the peptidome, the researchers looked at 22 proteins and applied the tandem mass spectrometry technique to kefir at 3 fermentation times (at 12, 24 and 36h) to detect, in addition to beneficial compounds, concentration peaks. depending on the fermentation time.
The study found that goat kefir has up to 2328 unique peptides and that the highest peak in peptides occurs 24 hours after fermentation, at which point the concentration of peptides begins to decrease (Izquierdo-González et al. ., 2019).
In addition to this, up to 11 beneficial compounds have been detected in goat kefir, most of them related to casein, which can have antihypertensive, antibacterial and antioxidant effects in the body.
4 Benefits of goat kefir
The benefits that goat kefir can bring you are the following:
1. It is less allergic
In cow's milk there is a protein called Alpha 1 casein, to which some people are intolerant, while goat's milk contains the Alpha 2 variant, which is less allergic and makes it more similar to breast milk.
2. Has more prebiotics
There are 4-5 more oligosaccharides in goat milk than cow's milk. These compounds are prebiotics that are commonly found in some foods and in breast milk.
3. It is easier to digest
Goat's milk contains 2% less casein than cow's milk, and its fat molecules are smaller, making it more digestible. Furthermore, only 2% of goat's milk is curd; while cow's milk can have up to 10%.
4. It is higher in minerals
Goat's milk has 13% more calcium, 25% more vitamin B6, 47% more vitamin A and 134% more potassium than normal cow's milk. It is made more digestible by the fact that all these vitamins and minerals are bioavailable.
References
- Izquierdo-González, J., Amil-Ruiz, F., Zazzu, S., Sánchez-Lucas, R., Fuentes-Almagro, C., Rodríguez-Ortega, M. (2019): Proteomic analysis of goat milk kefir: Profiling the fermentation-time dependent protein digestion and identification of potential peptides with biological activity. Food Chemistry . doi: 10.1016 / j.foodchem.2019.05.17
- 7 Reasons to Make Goat Milk Kefir. For Culturedfoodlife [Reviewed July 2019].
