Specialty milk marketer A2 Milk has bolstered its push to sell more products in China through a recently completed human clinical trial.
It compared the gastrointestinal and cognitive effects of consuming milk containing the A1 beta casein with that of the A2 variant on people with self-reported lactose intolerance.
Theresults of the Chinese study were published this month in the Nutrition Journal.
It is part of a bid by A2 to get more credible scientific validation of its marketing claims, that have been in contention since the late 1990s, that its products might be better for people intolerant to standard cow milk.
A2 Milk's marketing material claims A1's BCM-7 can trigger inflammation in the body that could "potentially" lead to medical problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, autism and schizophrenia but until now it has had no hard scientific evidence from human clinical trials to back that up.
The Chinese study of 45 Han Chinese people compared the impact of consuming milk with the A1 beta-casein with that of milk containing only the A2 variant.
It found milk containing the A1 beta-casein worsened gastrointestinal symptoms and slowed cognitive processing speed.
