Dairy products such as butter and ice cream aren’t commonly thought of as health food, but Virginia Tech’s Joe Herbein is ruminating on how he might change that perception.

The dairy science professor — working with researchers from several states, four countries and even Arden Hills, Minn.-based Land O’Lakes — hopes to beef up the health benefits of milk to make it more of a hit with health-conscious consumers. Half the fat in milk today is saturated, the type nutritionists warn against. So Herbein wants cows to produce more unsaturated fat, which has been credited with helping prevent diabetes and cancer, as well as helping reduce the risk of heart disease.

Why not simply reduce the total fat in cows’ milk? Dairy farmers are paid in part based on the fat content, Herbein explains. Americans may be shifting to skim, but milk fat is still a hot commodity. "Even though they take it out of the milk we drink, it is being used," he says. Fat is fine, it just needs to be the right kind. So researchers are working to refigure the ratio of saturated to unsaturated milk by tweaking the cows’ diets. "We would like to reduce saturated fat [in milk] to 30 percent or less if we could," Herbein says. "I think that’s achievable."

Researchers have had some luck with putting oleic acid — a mono-unsaturated fatty acid, such as that found in olive and sunflower oils — in bovine diets. "When cows are fed [a diet high in] oleic oil, ... some will end up in the mammary gland," Herbein says. Most is incorporated into the milk fat, and the higher concentration of oleic acid in the mammary gland also reduces a cow’s saturated fatty-acid production.

Right now, researchers are adding the oils when they mix a feed of grain and protein supplements. "On an economic basis that’s not practical because oils are expensive," Herbein says. But seed companies are developing plants that contain a higher proportion of oleic acid, which could potentially translate into an affordable bovine diet for dairy farmers — and a double-scoop waffle cone that passes as health food.