In recent years there has been a tendency to abandon cow’s milk in favor of goat’s milk and other vegetable milks.
As for the latter, only the following would be advisable according to a study conducted in Buffalo, USA:
- Rice milk of partially hydrolyzed protein source and enriched with lysine and tryptophan.
- Soy milk enriched with taurine, methionine and carnitine.
What about other milks such as goat milk?
In the case of animal milks such as goat milk, it can even be fed to newborns. In addition, some goat milks such as CAPRICARE 1 and 2 have nutritional advantages over cow’s milk.
Among these advantages we find that it has low levels of alpha s-1 casein, which confers a larger and softer rennet that is easier to digest. It is also rich in palmitic and MCT fat, which helps to combat constipation and is recommended in certain cases of malabsorption.
Goat and cow milk
Cow’s milk has been used in nutrition for 7,000 years, while goat’s milk has been used for about 10,000 years.
Let us remember that there are two types of milk secretion:
- Apocrine: vesicles filled with the substance are attached to the cytoplasm surrounding the cell membrane of the glands. In the process, the cells lose part of the cell membrane and cytoplasm. For example the milk gland, the skin odor glands, as well as the prostate.
- Merocrine or eccrine: small vesicles filled with the substance fuse with the membrane (exocytosis). In this process, the cells lose no part of the cell membrane and none or very little cytoplasm. Sweat is an example of merocrine secretion.
Goat’s milk is produced by the mammary glands of these animals and is of the apocrine type. In a work by Prosser we can read that the apocrine secretion with cellular remains provides much more bioactive components polyamines and nuleotides than cow’s milk and, only slightly inferior to those provided by mother’s milk.
In short, we could say that there would be no problem in replacing cow’s milk in our diet with goat’s milk or one of the vegetable milks mentioned above, as long as they comply with an adequate composition that shares benefits with cow’s milk.