Obese Children and Diet – Scientists making healthy foods to fight Obesity

March 9th, 2006

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are exploring how to make healthier yogurt and cheese products.

Yogurt could possibly become a heart healthy food choice with a C-Trim ingredient.  The C-Trim is a derivative of oats and barley and contains beta-glucan which is a soluble fiber.  The goal that ARS scientists have is to find ways to cut calories and to increase the foods nutritional value.

ARS scientists from across the country reported some of their successful results in the March 2006 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.  This issue’s main focus was all about obesity.  By improving the food nutrition and lowering calories it would hopefully turn the trend of obesity around.

ARS scientists since 1992 have been looking at ways to lower the fat content in mozzarella’s cheese without losing the flavor or texture.  They would hope that if they could come up with a better cheese pizza topping it would make a big impact on the health of many people.  Chemist Michael Tunick along with colleagues has worked on changing the milk protein casein in the cheese.  They ended up with a longer shelf life and with only a 10 percent content of fat.  That is half the fat compared to regular mozzarella cheese. 

The researchers did taste tests and found that students liked the cheese.  Since 1995 the low-fat mozzarella has sold nearly 39 million pounds of the cheese to help supply the school lunch programs with a healthy alternative.

The ARS scientists hope that C-Trim will become a commercially successful ingredient that will lower the calories in food and at the same time increase nutritional value.   The scientists are trying to incorporate the C-Trim ingredient into yogurt, chocolate, peanut spreads and other foods. 

By replacing it with less calories and improving the nutrition with C-Trim it will do more than just fight obesity.  The beta-glucan has been found to help in the regulation of blood sugar levels and it will also lower the LDL “bad” cholesterol.  It would help slow down obesity related problems that cause heart disease and diabetes.

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