Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Goat's Milk vs. Cow's Milk


This is a topic that I honestly never thought in a million years I would ever be discussing.  So random!  I must start by saying that Kyle is not allergic to cow's milk, nor is he lactose intolerant.  We started him on cow's milk around 12 months of age, and when he was around 13 months old we took him to meet a naturopathic doctor.  (This was after the whole MMR rash thing, and we wanted another opinion from someone who might be more sympathetic to our concerns with the vaccinations than Kyle's pediatrician was.)  

Anyway, I had brought up cow's milk for some reason or another, and he immediately responded, "If you have to do milk at all, goat's milk is a much better choice than cow's milk."  I wasn't sure what to even think of this comment right away, but he continued on...  He explained to us that cow's milk is okay for baby cows, who have 4 stomachs, and are built to digest that kind of milk.  But for humans, who have one stomach and aren't meant to digest another animals milk...cow's milk isn't healthy for any of us to drink, really.  Made sense to us, we had just never thought about it before!  Milk has so much in it that is good for toddlers growth, that we didn't want to take milk out of Kyle's diet entirely.  We had never seen goat's milk in the grocery before, so this was totally new to us!


That afternoon we made a trip to Sunflower supermarket.  What do you know...they sell goat's milk!  We realized upon viewing the price why cow's milk is the popular choice.  The goat's milk is much more expensive than cow's milk!  But, we figured that for our son's health we would give it a shot.  We bought one quart to start.  Kyle LOVED the goat's milk!  It was obvious to us that he definitely preferred the goat's milk over the cow's milk.  Who knew!!??


So, I guess I should tell you a little bit about goat's milk.  :)  Upon doing some research on the internet about goat's milk, here are some things that I have learned.  Feel free to browse some of the links that I have provided on the side bar regarding goat's milk.  I copied some of these facts from a couple of those links.

*Goat milk is closer to human milk and is therefore easily accepted.
*Goat and sheep’s milk are less likely to contain hormones and additives.
*goat milk is more digestible because the fat molecules are one-fifth the size of those from cow milk.
*The flavor of goat milk is comparable to that of cow milk.
*Goat milk contains pre-formed Vitamin A in the milk fat that allows it to be readily available for use by the body (apparently this is not the case with cow's milk).
*Goat milk has an alkaline reaction the same as mother's milk. Cow milk has an acid reaction.
*Goat milk does not form mucous (phlegm) and is therefore better tolerated by asthmatics and those with allergies.
*Goat milk contains 2% curd, which precipitates in the stomach. Cows milk is 10% curd.
*Goats milk has the ability to "sweeten" the intestinal tract and assist with constipation.
*Goats milk contains a higher evolved carotene (pro-Vitamin A). Researchers have found this to have cancer preventing properties.
*Goat's milk contains slightly lower levels of lactose (4.1 percent versus 4.7 percent in cow's milk) - but take note that it is not lactose free!

The minerals in goat's milk are similar to cow's milk, but slightly different.  You can read all about those in the article Got Goat's Milk, which is from the Dr. Sears website.  I won't bore you here with all those numbers.  :)

I do have to say that Josh and I aren't against cow's milk at all...in fact we both drink it almost daily ourselves!  But we made a different choice for Kyle since he is so little, and starting fresh with a new little body.  It just seems like a healthier choice.  :)  It would probably be healthier for Josh and I to start drinking goat's milk too, but it's too expensive...so we'll splurge for Kyle.

Maybe this is something new to you (or maybe not) ...it certainly was new to our family!  Kyle will be 15 months old at the end of this month and he's still drinking the goat's milk.  After his first sip of goat's milk at 13 months, we decided that this was the milk better suited for Kyle.  :)  He just loves it! 

Josh keeps trying to talk me into getting a goat for our backyard now (to save money of course), LOL, but I'm saying no to that one!  :)  I heard that with dairy goats you have to milk them twice a day and at the same time every day.  That would put lots of restrictions on activities away from the home and traveling!  Not to mention that Toby (our dog) would probably not be thrilled about an addition to his yard.  LOL  So, for now, we will just keep making trips to Sunflower Market for our supply of goat's milk!


 

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