Cow Vs Goat Milk -The Best Choice

Cow Vs Goat Milk- The Best Choice

Cow Vs Goat milk, the better choice of these two kinds of milk is becoming quite a debate.  We love milk. A cold glass of milk with a piece of chocolate cake, yum!!! Or a steaming mug of milky hot chocolate on a cold winter’s day, delicious! The battle of cow vs goat milk has begun.

When I was a little girl growing up in Liverpool, the milkman used to leave three bottles of milk on the doorstep every morning. Each bottle had a silver foil lid and through the glass, you could see an inch of cream sitting on the top. Sometimes, when it was very cold, the birds would get there first, pierce the lid and drink the cream!

Fast-forward to 2018…where has the cream gone? Milk no longer has its customary layer of cream on the top anymore, even though this is a natural part of milk. Why are so many people intolerant to cows milk? Why can it make us feel bloated and be difficult to digest?

Milk is a great source of calcium and therefore we want to keep it as part of our daily diet, whether it is for pouring over our cereal in the morning or simply adding to our coffee or cappuccino. So, recently I have been using an alternative, goats milk, and these are a few reasons why.

The following observation got me wondering. Somehow, the size of a cow had escaped me!  The milk produced by a pretty-eyed cow is originally destined for its calf. This calf already weighs around 50 kg at birth and arrives at a whopping 600 kg later in life.  Our babies weigh in at anything between a healthy 3 to 5 kg…so ooops… there is a bit of a difference there! The goat, however, produces a comparably sweet little kid of 3 to 5 kg that will become an adult of between 50 to 100 kg. It could be argued that weight-wise, the goat is proportionally more adapted.

Where has the cream gone?       

Next is the mystery of the disappearing cream. Well, in fact, the cream is still in there, it just can’t be seen. It is the fun bit of shaking the milk bottle which has gone and not the cream itself; (also the secret thrill of drinking the cream and pretending you don’t know who drank it!). In today’s world, we expect homogenised products, uniform and all merged together.  However, unlike the naturally homogenised milk that the goat produces, cow milk requires an industrial procedure that breaks down the cell wall of the fat globule. Unfortunately, the price of breaking down the cell wall is that it releases free radicals, (yes…those ghastly oxidants…oh no!).

DIGESTION:  

Concerning the digestion of cow vs goat milk; the fat globules in goat milk are smaller which make it easier to digest. The lactose (milk sugar) in goat milk is lower. As many people are deficient in an enzyme lactase that helps to digest lactose, goat milk is more digestible. (See Lactose Intolerance below).

CALCIUM & CHOLESTESTEROL:  

Goat milk is higher in calcium than cows milk and also higher in fatty acids (30-35 per cent compared to 15-20 per cent in cows milk). The fatty acids and triglycerides found in goat milk, keep your ‘insides’ running smoothly.  (Triglycerides store unused calories and provide your body with energy between meals).   Also, it provides you with an energy boost and helps lower cholesterol. In fact, goat milk helps to increase “good cholesterol” and reduces “bad cholesterol”. It has healing properties comparable with olive oil that will keep high cholesterol in check.

BEAUTY BENEFITS: 

I would like to add a cool piece of information and certainly a bonus for us ladies. Goat milk contains precious skin minerals such as selenium; selenium neutralises free radicals.  Free radicals can lead to skin damage and consequently, wrinkles appear. It is also full of vitamins and especially high in vitamin A which has wonderful qualities for moisturizing our skin. If you are in luck, you might even manage to locate goat milk soap. It won’t be easy but if you do manage to find some, your skin will love you for it.

Cow Vs Goat milk COST: 

On the downside, goat milk is more expensive at approximately three times the price of cow milk and not as readily available. If you can’t find it in your local supermarket you will find it easily in a health-food store. Also, depending on the brand and if you have been blessed with an acute sense of smell, you might find that certain goat products pong a little!

LACTOSE INTOLERANCE: 

As the levels of Alpha s1 Casein which is dramatically higher in cow milk; over 90% of children have no adverse reaction to goat milk. However, due to the concentrated proteins in goat milk, it is not suitable for babies and young children and as some sources of it are unpasteurised it raises the risk of bacterial infection, diarrhoea and sickness for them.

On a positive note for the adversary,  vitamin B12, important for the formation of healthy red blood cells, wins hands down in cows milk.

Anyway, for now, my family and I are enjoying goat milk…and yoghurt…and cheese, as a tasty alternative. Why not give it a try?

Cheers!!

MYTH: the growth hormone injected in cows to encourage milk production is not considered to be harmful as it is almost totally destroyed during the pasteurization process. (Pasteurization is the process of heating raw milk at a high temperature for a short time in order to kill bacteria. This makes milk safe and does not in any way reduce its nutritional value).

N.B. Serious illness and even death can result from drinking raw unpasteurized milk as it can contain dangerously high levels of bacteria such as E Coli, Listeria, Salmonella or Campylobacter.

Read the Italian version   “Meglio il latte di Capra o il latte di Mucca?”

Also available with other of my articles on this great site