Parmigiano-Reggiano: a delicious delight for your health-promoting battle!

Parmigiano-Reggiano is a traditional hard cheese from Parma, Italy. It is widely used in Italian cuisine because of its particular flavor. Prior to commercialization, this cheese was always aged for a few years before consumption. Diverse bacteria are already present in Parmigiano-Reggiano at an early stage. However, the cheese’s acidity tends to alter during the maturation process, with some bacterial species disappearing, and others turning up.

Mature Parmigiano-Reggiano is very rich in Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus rhamnosus, also called lactic acid bacteria (LAB). The LAB’s health-promoting features have been proven beneficial in many different medical conditions, such as diabetes, obesity, and even cancer.

Let’s consider cancer, specifically colon cancer, which is one of the most common cancers worldwide. In an experimental model using human colon carcinoma cell lines, the administration of live Lactobacillus casei to cell cultures resulted in a significant anti-proliferative impact (1). In brief, there was a dramatic decrease in colon cancer cell viability. Moreover, these live Lactobacilli casei were shown to induce colon cancer cell death by a separate mechanism called apoptosis.

In conclusion, these LAB strains were proven to exert beneficial tumor-inhibitory, anti-proliferative, and pro-apoptotic effects. As a result, cheese is a now considered a health food that contains its own microbiome, with plenty of beneficial health-promoting effects.