Superiority of Goat Milk

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Superiority of Goat Milk

 

G.F.W. Haenlein And R. Caccese,

Univ. of. Delaware, Newark

 

To most people today, especially in the more developed countries,

the term milk is synonomous with cow's milk, as if cow's milk alone

possesses a singular ability to produce mammary secretions.

 

Perhaps nowhere has the feeling been more prevalent than in the

U.S., where over 10 million cows are maintained,

producing more than 125 billion pounds of milk annually.

 

Yet on a world-wide basis, there are more people who drink the milk

of goats than any other single animal.

 

Over 440 million goats (world-wide) produce an estimated 4.8 million

tons of milk that is predominantly consumed locally.

 

Here in the U.S. there are approximately a million dairy goats

actively producing milk.

 

Most of the upsurge in goat popularity has been the result of a

growing trend towards attaining some measure of self-sufficiency on

the part of many people, for both economic and

aesthetic purposes.

A goat will eat little, occupy a small area and produce enough milk

for the average family (a good milker will produce about a gallon a

day).

 

As the interest in dairy goats and their products continue to rise,

it is apparent that many misconceptions, discrepancies and

exaggerated claims are being perpetrated.

 

A comparison of cow and goat milk seems to be in order, so that some

prejudices against goat milk may be erased.

Diet also plays a large role in the palatability of goat milk, as

well as cow milk.

 

 

Goat milk is similar to cow milk in it's basic composition. In

average, cow milk contains about 12.2% dry matter (3.2% protein,

3/6% fat, 4.7% lactose and 0.7% mineral matter).

 

Goat milk contains about 12.1 dry matter (3.4% protein, 3.8% fat,

4.1% lactose and 0.8% mineral matter). These figures are only

averages of course, as there are considerable differences between

breeds and among individual dairy cows in the US, and 6 breeds of

dairy goats producing milk.

 

The Saanen is best known as the Holstein of the goat world,

producing a high quantity of milk with somewhat low fat levels.

However, there are also differences that give goat's milk a place

for special purposes.

 

In Summary:

 

 

1. Goat milk has a more easily digestible fat and protein

content than cow milk.

 

2. The increased digestibility of protein is of importance to

infant diets (both human and animal), as well as to invalid and

convalescent diets.

 

3. Goat milk tends to have a better buffering quality, which is

good for the treatment of ulcers.

 

4. In under-developed countries, where most consumption is low,

goat milk is an important daily food source of protein, phosphate

and calcium not available otherwise because of a lack of cow milk.

 

5. Goat milk can successfully replace cow milk in diets of those

who are allergic to cow milk.

 

Allergies appear to be more common than originally thought,

especially in very young children.In an allergic type reaction, the

symptoms are produced by histamines, which are stored in body cells.

Histamines are released when triggered by a local stimulus. Antibody-

antigen type reactions that manage to find an anchorage on cell

walls trigger a release of histamine and produce the allergic

symptoms. Such a release brings on a congestion of the capillaries

and a flooding of the intracellular spaces by the lymphatic glands.

The stimulation of local nerve endings also occurs. People who

display an allergic reaction are usually more sensitive to the

release of a given amount of histamine and also tend to produce

greater numbers of antibodies to certain proteins.

 

The so called " sudden deaths " of infants seem to be related

to allergic type responses resulting in anaphylactic shock.

 

About 6% of the infants in the US suffer allergic responses to cow's

milk.

 

Fats

One of the more significant differences from cow milk is found in

the composition and structure of fat in goat milk. The average size

of goat milk fat globules is about 2 micrometers, as compared to 2 ½-

3 ½ micrometers for cow milk fat.

 

These smaller sized fat globules provide a better dispersion,

and a

more homogeneous mixture of fat in the milk

 

The natural homogenization of goat milk is from a human health

standpoint, much better than the mechanically homogenized cow milk

product.

 

It appears that when fat globules are forcibly broken up by

mechanical means, it allows an enzyme associated with milk fat,

known as xanthine oxidase to become free and penetrate the

intestinal wall.

 

Once xanthine oxidase gets through the intestinal wall and into the

bloodstream, it is capable of creating scar damage to the heart and

arteries, which in turn may stimulate the body to release

cholesterol

into the blood in an attempt to lay a protective fatty material on

the scarred areas.

 

This can lead to arteriosclerosis.

 

It should be noted that this effect is not a problem with natural

(unhomogenized) cow milk. In

unhomogenized milk this enzyme is normally excreted from the body

without much absorption.

 

Another significant difference from cow milk is the higher amount of

shorter-chain fatty acids in the milk fat of goats.

 

Furthermore, glycerol ethers are much higher in goat than in cow

milk,

which appears to be important for the nutrition of the nursing

newborn.

 

Goat milk also has lower contents of orotic acid which can be

significant in the prevention of fatty liver syndrome.

 

Goat milk… is higher in minerals, calcium, potassium, magnesium,

phosphorus, chlorine and manganese; but is lower in sodium, iron,

sulphur, zinc and molybdenum.

 

 

 

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