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elchivito · #15 06-21-2012, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tonkovich

there's a school of thought - not totally recognized by the medical/research community, for whatever reason? - that goats' milk is healthier, and that there may be a link between cow milk and diabetes? especially type I / early onset? perhaps a certain intolerance to certain fats and sugars and proteins in cow milk? one can be certain that the dairy lobby in the u.s. certainly isn't sponsoring research into this field.

I hear about that school of thought from people who buy my milk all the time. They'll say "I'm lactose intolerant, I can only drink goat milk". I patiently explain to them that if they were truly lactose intolerant, they wouldn't be able to drink goat milk either. It contains just as much lactose as cow's milk. All mammalian milk contains lactose. It's milk sugar. Goat and cow's milk are nutritionally nearly identical as regards butterfat, calcium, protein, vitamins and minerals. What's different is the size of the fat molecules. Goat milk is naturally homogenized. Let a jar of raw cow's milk and a jar of raw goat milk sit in the fridge overnight and then compare the cream that has risen on top of both. The cow's cream will have almost completely risen to the top and there will be a thick layer. The goat cream will have formed only a very thin skim, maybe a mm or two, yet the two milks are the same in butterfat (cream) content. The cow's milk fat molecules are much much larger than the goat milk fat and are harder to digest, which makes people assume, without any medical confirmation, that they are lactose intolerant. What they are is cow's cream intolerant, and possibly also intolerant to the proteins in the milk.

Because of the fat and maybe other factors that haven't been well studied, goat's milk is really easy for people and animals to consume. I have raised colts, calves, baby pigs and lambs on goat's milk and my poultry get it all the time and love it. I swear my chickens lay better when they're getting a steady supply of it.
Now that there is so much interest in goat cheese in this country, it may be that eventually some real money will be spent studying the nutritional aspects of goat's milk as compared to cow's milk. While cows produce over 90 percent of the milk consumed in the U.S., goats produce 65 percent of the milk consumed world wide, most of that is small scale, locally distributed product. Virtually all the scientific work being done on goat's milk is done outside the U.S.