Low-fat meat products always have harder texture, lower juiciness, and worse flavor. Due to their higher water-holding, water absorption, and organic molecule absorption, chia seeds (CHIA) have been applied in powders, nutrition bars, breads, and cookies. Hence, the objectives of this study were to: (1) analyze the nutritional compositions in CHIA; and (2) look for the possible application of CHIA on restructured ham-like products. CHIA has high amounts of α-linolenic acid, crude polysaccharides, and also contains essential amino acids, minerals, and polyphenols. Regarding processing properties of CHIA, a combination of CHIA and carrageenan (CA) increased (p<0.05) production yield of restructured ham-like products. A scanning electron microscope observation indicated that CHIA and CA addition can assist an emulsification in this ham-like product. Addition of 0.5% CA and 1.0% CHIA in this ham-like product showed the similar overall acceptance as products with added fat. Following storage at 4°C, higher (p<0.05) purge and centrifugation losses, as well as hardness of this ham-like product can be improved by adding CHIA and CA. CHIA addition also resulted in lower (p<0.05) lipid and protein oxidation, especially a 1.0% addition. In summary, due to both nutritional addition and improvements on physicochemical and sensorial properties of restructured ham-like products, CHIA seeds have great potential on the development of healthy and good-quality meat products.

The effects of oral administration of milk and soy milk kefirs on tumor growth in tumor-bearing mice and the mucosal immunoglobulin A response in mice were studied. Oral administration of milk and soy milk kefirs to mice inoculated with sarcoma 180 tumor cells resulted in 64.8% and 70.9% inhibition of tumor growth, respectively, compared with controls. In addition, oral administration of the two kefir types induced apoptotic tumor cell lysis. Total immunoglobulin A levels for tissue extracts from the wall of the small intestine were also significantly higher for mice fed a milk kefir or a soy milk kefir regimen for 30 days. These results suggest that milk and soy milk kefirs may be considered among the more promising food components in terms of cancer prevention and enhancement of mucosal resistance to gastrointestinal infection.

This study aimed to evaluate the hypocholesterolaemic property of milk-kefir and soyamilk-kefir. Male hamsters were fed on a cholesterol-free or cholesterol-enriched diet containing 10% skimmed milk, milk-kefir, soyamilk or soyamilk-kefir for a period of 8 weeks. The soyamilk, milk-kefir and soyamilk-kefir diets all tended towards a lowering of serum triacylglycerol and total cholesterol concentrations, and a reduction of cholesterol accumulation in the liver, the decrease in serum cholesterol concentration being mainly in the non-HDL fraction. The soyamilk-kefir diet led to a significant increase in the faecal excretion of neutral sterols and bile acids compared with the other two diets. The soyamilk-kefir diet also elicited a significant decrease in the serum ratio of non-HDL-cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol, compared with the control, than was the case for the other diets. These findings demonstrate that soyamilk-kefir may be considered to be among the more promising food components in terms of preventing CVD through its hypocholesterolaemic action.