Benefits of A2 Milk for Sports Nutrition, Health and Performance.

Bovine milk is one of the best pre-and pro-workout sources for athletes owing to its rich nutritional content. Even though bovine milk consumption significantly benefits athletes' health and performance, many athletes cannot consume bovine milk since they struggle with gastrointestinal problems caused after milk consumption. Especially, the consumption of regular milk, which contains A1 ß-casein, is associated with a variety of diseases ranging from gastrointestinal discomfort to ischemic heart diseases. The main reason behind this is related to ß-casomorphine 7 (BCM-7), which is derived from A1 ß-casein during the digestion of A1 milk. A1 ß-casein is formed as a result of a point mutation in the position of 67th in the amino acid sequence A2 ß-casein by changing proline to histidine. Therefore, this mutated form of ß-casein in regular milk cannot easily be digested by the human-associated digestion enzymes. A2 milk, which includes A2 ß-casein instead of A1 ß-casein, is the best substitute for regular milk with the same nutritional content. This natural form of milk positively affects the athlete's health as well as performance without causing any gastrointestinal discomfort or more serious problems which are seen in the consumption of regular milk. In this review, A2 milk and its potential health effects in comparison to diseases related to A1 milk consumption are discussed.

Production of Bovine Colostrum for Human Consumption to Improve Health.

Colostrum contains all essential nutrients for the neonate during the first days of life, with impacts that continue far beyond these first days. Bovine colostrum has been used for human consumption due to the high concentrations of bioactive proteins, vitamins, minerals, growth factors, as well as free and conjugated oligosaccharides. Processes involved in the preparation of bovine colostrum for human consumption play a pivotal role in preserving and maintaining the activity of the bioactive molecules. As bovine colostrum is a multifunctional food that offers a myriad of benefits for human health, assessing the main processes used in preparing it with both advantages and disadvantages is a crucial point to discuss. We discuss major processes effects for colostrum production on the nutritional value, some advanced technologies to preserve processed bovine colostrum and the end-product forms consumed by humans whether as dairy products or dietary supplements.