Sweet Solutions

Researchers at the University of Auckland are working with dairy company Fonterra to develop a “medical dessert” which is proving to be useful in reducing the side-effects of chemotherapy in cancer sufferers. The ice cream, called ReCharge, is using active ingredients from dairy products to relieve diarrhoea, anaemia and lack of appetite in people undergoing chemotherapy. Participants in a trial have been eating a 100 gram tub of the strawberry-flavoured ice cream each day. “The two bio-active milk components developed for ReCharge have the unique potential to assist the body in coping with the side effects of chemotherapy,” Fonterra’s chief technology office Jeremy Hill said.