For generations, people in Central Asia have believed in the supposed health benefits of mare’s milk.
Now researchers in Poland believe it should even be used in ice cream.
Because this sweet not only tastes delicious but can also be good for your gut.
By developing four different ice creams, they found that those that included fermented mare’s milk were good probiotic treatments, helping to prevent harmful bacteria from taking hold in the gut.
When digested, these proteins have antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects.
By developing four different ice creams, they found that those that included fermented mare’s milk were good probiotic treatments, helping to prevent harmful bacteria from taking hold in the gut.
In the study, scientists from the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin developed four types of ice cream using mare’s milk.
The first contained yogurt bacteria, and the second, yogurt bacteria and the probiotic inulin.
A third included the bacterium lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus and the fourth, the bacterium lactiplantibacillus.
The mare’s milk was first pasteurized at 65 degrees Celsius for half an hour (a temperature similar to that of cow’s milk) before 60 ice cream samples were prepared.
When they tested the products a day later, they found that “no samples differed significantly in overflow value and melting rate.”
Protein and fat levels did not differ between the ice creams tested.
Likewise, the “creamy white” color of all the samples was “natural and attractive,” the researchers said.
The texture was also assessed as “smooth, quite creamy and slightly chunky,” with a “pleasant, creamy taste.”
Only one sample, which contained inulin and the bacteria lactiplantibacillus plantarum, had a “clearly more acidic taste than other samples.”
Writing in the diary Plus oneScientists say mare’s milk is a good environment for probiotics.
“It may be related to the high lactose content, which is a substrate for probiotic bacteria.”
While they acknowledged that “the literature on mare’s milk ice cream is very limited,” they added: “Mare’s milk can be considered a viable raw material for the production of yogurt ice cream and synbiotic ice cream.”
Independent research on mare’s milk has long suggested that it can be used to treat tuberculosis, gastric ulcers and even chronic hepatitis.
In the UK, more and more people are switching from cow’s milk to plant-based alternatives.
In recent years, allergy-related illnesses in children have increased and the World Health Organization predicts that half of the world’s population will suffer from some form of allergy by 2025.
The latest Government figures suggest that around 2.4 million adults are living with a food allergy in the UK, and that hospital admissions for severe reactions have more than tripled in the past 20 years.
The growing number of allergies in children includes those who cannot drink cow’s milk.
However, it was found that children with a severe reaction to cow’s milk could consume mare’s milk as a substitute.