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Researchers say dairy products like cheese might reduce hypertension

A University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research study is researching how certain dairy product components can improve human health. Researcher Rodrigo Ibanez says that includes reducing blood pressure.

Ibanez tells Brownfield cheese is a matrix of protein and fat, and during the ripening process, the enzymes start to break protein down into peptides that can help improve human health. “They can reduce inflammation. They can reduce the level of anxiety.” He adds the peptides in dairy can help reduce levels of stress in people.”

Ibanez says many varieties of cheese naturally have these peptides, but it’s unclear if a certain cheese will be a better candidate for having more of them.

Ibanez says they are studying the bioactive peptides to see how they can improve the compounds. “To see how we can improve this type of compound so we can have a higher concentration of this, as well as to establish what is going to happen after we consume the cheese.”

Ibanez says part of the study includes simulating digestion of cheese in test tubes.