Got Milk? It 'Does a Body Good' in a Whole New Way

For more information on this topic, or others like it, go to WebMD's Food and Nutrition board moderated by Martha McKittrick, RD, CDE. continued...

Still, says Sprong, it's best that adults stick to low-fat and nonfat dairy, for now. It's just not clear yet whether milk digestion, in the human body, actually releases enough of these components to produce the same bactericidal effect seen in the laboratory. "That still needs to be established," she says.

"We are going to look further into this and measure the effect in rats, because [in live animals] all sorts of digestive factors are involved," she says. Later on, she says, they'll test the isolates in humans. Since few folks are likely to sign up for a dose of Salmonella, "we'll test it in people who are already infected," she says.