## 3 Results and Discussion
### Milk Fatty Acid Composition
Among the medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA), BEET milk had significantly higher MCFA than that of PALM milk (\(P\) = 0.014). Among long-chain fatty acids (LCFA), the CONC diet produced milk with highest content of LCFA, significantly higher than that of BEET (\(P\) = 0.021). However, while increased levels of LCFA can have a positive effect on milk fatty acid profile, increased levels of unsaturated LCFA can have a negative effect on the oxidative stability of milk fat ([PERSON], 2015). Given changes in nutritional perceptions of milk and milk fatty acids as a whole, it could be suggested that judging dairy products by their total SFA content alone can be misinformed and erroneous, while other indices such levels of Omega (\(\Omega\)) 3 and \(\Omega\) 6 fatty acids should also be considered. As discussed by [PERSON] et al. (1998), both \(\Omega\) 3 and \(\Omega\) 6 are essential fatty acids and precursors to anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory eicosanoids respectively. However, dietary changes in line with the western diet has resulted in an increase of \(\Omega\) 6 fatty acids in the diet coinciding with increases in prevalence of chronic inflammatory diseases. CONC feeding was demonstrated to produce milks with highest level of \(\Omega\) 3 fatty acids. PALM feeding, however, resulted in milk with significantly lower \(\Omega\) 3 content than that of CONC (\(P\)\(\leq\) 0.001), BEET (\(P\) = 0.002), and SOYA (\(P\) = 0.001). PALM feeding also produced milk with significantly lower \(\Omega\) 6 than that of BEET (\(P\) = 0.017) and SOYA (\(P\) = 0.005). The thrombogenic (TI) and atherogenic (AI) indices are both dietary risk indices for cardiovascular disease. CONC milk had the lowest AI of each of the diets and was significantly lower than that of BEET (\(P\) = 0.031) and PALM (\(P\) = 0.004). The SOYA diet also resulted in a significantly lower AI than that of PALM (\(P\) = 0.022). Multivariate analysis of the fatty acids of milks has previously been shown capable of distinguishing milks from pasture versus conventional feeding systems ([PERSON], 2015). Similar results have been shown in this study where there is clear separation between the SOYA-, BEET-, and PALM-derived milks. However, each of the diets appeared to share a similar composition with that of the CONC. This is perhaps to be expected given the similarities between the base ingredients of CONC and other diets composition (Figure 1). The top 10 fatty acids for the observed separation in Figure 1 are shown in Supplementary Figure S1, which include C16:0, C12:0, C18:0, C14:0, C16:1, C8:0, C17:0, C24:0, C18:2n6t, and CLA c9t11. Lauric acid was highest in PALM-derived milks, significantly higher than that of CONC, BEET, and SOYA (\(P\)\(\leq\) 0.001). While C12:0 can be produced by _de novo_ synthesis, the levels of the fatty acid in the diet can have a direct effect on its concentrations in the final millks as was demonstrated by [PERSON] et al. (2015), who reported supplementation of C12:0 doubled its concentrations in raw milk. Increased levels of C12:0 in PALM milk corresponds with increased levels in the PALM feed compared to that of the other diets (Table 5). Stearic acid (C18:0) could be referred to have a neutral effect on human health, as it has not been shown to increase total cholesterol or LDL-cholesterol concentrations ([PERSON], 2015). BEET-derived milks had significantly reduced concentrations than that of CONC (\(P\) = 0.019) and SOYA (\(P\) = 0.047). Myristic acid, along with palmitic acid, have been demonstrated to have cholesterol increasing properties [32]. Diet had a significant effect on the milk content of myristic acid (C14:0) where it was significantly higher in PALM than that of BEET, SOYA, and CONC (\(P\leq 0.001\)). CONC feeding resulted in the lowest level of C14:0 in milk, which was also significantly lower than that of BEET (\(P=0.044\)). Such results follow similar trend to the level of C14:0 being provided by the diet. These results are in agreement with those of [PERSON] et al.