The International Society of Hypertension, ISH, met in Seoul on 29 September, and awarded the prestigious “Gold Award for best clinical study” to the Italian study on reducing arterial blood pressure in patients suffering from hypertension by regularly adding Grana Padano PDO to their diet.
The award-winning clinical study had been conducted by the Hypertension Unit at Guglielmo da Saliceto Hospital in Piacenza, led by Dr. Giuseppe Crippa, and the Institute of Food Science and Nutrition at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Piacenza. The work involved adding, for two months, into the daily diet of 30 patients affected by hypertension, 30 grams of Grana Padano PDO cheese aged 12 months. The same patients, in random order, took an inactive placebo, free of peptides, over the same 2 month period.
GRANA PADANO CAN HELP LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE – “I’m very pleased to have received this prestigious award, commented Dr.Crippa. I think it’s excellent news to learn that, in order to lower blood pressure when it’s too high, you can get some help from food as well. I think the judges favoured this study for at least two reasons: first, the applicability of the results in daily clinical practice, since adding 30 grams of Grana Padano to one’s diet is easy to do, as this is an easy ingredient to find. Additionally, the method used to assess the hypertensive effects was especially accurate”. The assessment on the efficacy of the treatment is therefore based on over 350 blood pressure measurements for each patient evaluated in the study. In 30 g of Grana Padano there are 32 mg of cholesterol, a minimal amount compared to 220 mg, the average daily recommended level for an adult. Crippa concludes that “in terms of overall cholesterol levels, triglycerides, blood sugar, sodium, and potassium, no change was observed in the patients who participated in the study; moreover and very interestingly, no change to BMI took place, in other words, they did not gain any weight. The study demonstrates that Grana Padano acts as nutraceutical against hypertension without changing other important health values. It is therefore reasonable to think that milk fat and derivatives are not burdened with the typical cardiovascular risks of other animal fats”.
EXPORTS POST A GROWTH RATE OF 8% – In the first seven months of 2016, the hard-cheese market share of Grana Padano and Trentingrana in Italy was 47.6% (+6.5% for Grana Padano), while the whole sector recorded a 5.9% growth. Of every 100 kg of PDO Grana Padano marketed in stores, 71.3 kg are represented in shapes, such as in chunks, while 3.2 kg are in pre-weighted chunks, 2.3 kg in tid bits, and 23.2 kg grated. In 2015, gross production for general consumption reached €2,434 million, with 1,530 remaining in Italy and 904 being exported. The most flattering result comes from exports, which, last year, achieved 1,646,008 forms (+8%), accounting for 36% of branded production.
