Why Goat milk?
It’s easier to digest.
Fat globules in goat milk are small, making it easier for your body to digest.
Goat milk is also lower in lactose, or milk sugars, than cow milk. Because many people aren’t as lactose-intolerant as they believe — or simply have trouble digesting cow milk and aren’t actually allergic to lactose — goat milk can be a viable option.
It has fewer allergenic proteins and causes less inflammation.
Most people who are intolerant of cow milk are actually sensitive to the protein A1 casein, and lack the ability to digest A1. Additionally, cow milk is the number one allergy among children and can persist throughout adulthood. That’s because it contains more than 20 different allergens (including A1 casein) that can cause allergic reactions — often confused for seasonal allergy symptoms — which can range from hives and runny noses to abdominal cramping and colic in babies.
On the contrary, milk that contains mostly or exclusively A2 casein produces none of these inflammatory effects. Goat milk contains only A2 casein, making it, protein-wise, the closest milk to human breast milk.
It’s high in calcium and fatty acids but low in cholesterol.
While cow milk is often touted as one of the main sources for calcium consumption, there’s no need to worry about not getting enough of calcium when switching to goat milk. It’s actually richer in the minerals.
Goat milk also has high levels medium-chain fatty acids which helps increase “good” cholesterol levels while reducing the bad ones. In fact, it’s got healing properties similar to olive oil and is recommended for keeping high cholesterol in check.
It keeps skin looking good.
The fatty acids and triglycerides found in goat milk not only keep your insides running smoothly, but they help you look great on the outside, too. Their moisturizing qualities help keep skin baby soft. Goat milk also has high levels of vitamin A, which can improve your complexion, fight acne and improve overall skin health. In fact, it should be considered one of the home remedies for acne. The lactic acid found in goat milk helps rid your body of dead skin cells and brighten skin tone; no more pasty face!
It absorbs nutrients and minerals better than cows’ milk.
Early studies have found that nutrients like iron, calcium, magnesium and phosphorous were more easily digested and used by the body in goat milk than cow milk. Because of the bio-availability of these minerals, goat milk also looks promising for treatment of nutritional deficiencies like anemia and bone de-mineralization.
Regularly consuming goat milk enhances the body’s ability to use iron and boosts regeneration of hemoglobin, making it a safe and natural way to treat osteoporosis and combat anemia. Its high levels of zinc and selenium also help prevent neuro-degenerative diseases.
Why Unpasteurized?
Raw milk is a living food.
Raw milk is a living food. Several of milk’s natural components including beneficial bacteria, food enzymes, natural vitamins and immunoglobulins are heat-sensitive and therefore are destroyed through pasteurization.
Raw milk is rich in beneficial bacteria.
As a living food, raw milk is rich in beneficial bacteria which are so critical to human health that we cannot live without them. They’re responsible for stimulating and training your immune system to function correctly. By consuming foods rich in beneficial bacteria – like raw or cultured dairy products and naturally fermented foods – you can help to optimize the levels of beneficial bacteria present in your gut.
Conversely – Raw milk has the potential to harbor pathogenic bacteria which make you sick, just as raw oysters, rare meat and other foods do. While it’s relatively rare, it is a real risk.
Raw milk is rich in food enzymes.
As a living food, raw milk is also rich in natural food enzymes: lactase, lipase and phosphatase number among many of these natural enzymes. These enzymes help your body to better digest milk and better metabolize its vital nutrients. It’s the presence of the enzyme lactase that help some individuals who are otherwise sensitive to lactose better digest raw milk.
Raw milk is rich in natural vitamins.
The butterfat present in raw milk is rich in natural fat-soluble soluble vitamins, particularly preformed vitamin A, vitamin K and vitamin E. Raw milk is also rich in water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and B-complex vitamins. Many vitamins, like food enzymes, are delicate and are largely destroyed by pasteurization.
Raw butterfat is rich in Conjugated Linoleic Acid.
Meat and milk from grass-fed animals is rich in fatty compound called Conjugated Linoleic Acid or CLA. Actually classified as a trans-fatty acid, CLA offers myriad positive effects for those who consume it. Indeed, research indicates that this substance is known to fight cancer (particularly breast, intestinal and bone cancers), hypertension and adipose obesity.
If you’re sourcing your raw milk well, you’re only sourcing it from pasture-fed ruminants (cows, goats, or sheep) which means you’re consuming this important fatty acid – something that’s missing from that factory-farmed, pasteurized and skimmed milk at the grocery store (and yes, organic milk drinkers – there’s plenty of factory farming in the organic industry too!)
Raw milk supports small farmers, not confinement dairies.
Pastuerization of milk was born out of necessity – as unhealthy cows from concentrated animal feed operations (CAFOs = evil) produce unhealthy milk. Cows sickened by confinement and an unnatural diet of grain and mash produce lackluster, thin milk poor in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients and rich in pathogenic bacteria. Sick milk from sick cows makes for sick people. Pasteurization was then required by the FDA as a coverall band-aid solution to mask the bigger issue of poorly handled animal product processing.
By contrast, raw milk is not produced on a massive, concentrated scale. Instead, raw milk producers operate small operations with fewer animals spread out over a larger amount of space. Most allow their animals to graze exclusively on open pasture, though small amounts of supplementary feed may be given at milking for training and concentrated nutrient replacement.
Raw milk clabbers!
Leave a carton of pasteurized milk out on the counter for a few days, and you’ll end up with a putrid, stinking glop. By contrast, raw milk will clabber as its naturally occurring beneficial lactic-acid producing bacteria proliferate and turn raw milk into a probiotic-rich, yogurt-like food. Bonny clabber is a traditional food originally from Scotland, though most peoples across the globe enjoy similarly clabbered milks through their traditional food heritage. Clabbered raw milk is not only edible, but particularly healthful as its sugars have been metabolized by lactic-acid producing bacteria and continue to proliferate. Moreover, milk that has been subject to pasteurization at ultra-high temperatures isn’t even suitable for cheesemaking.
Raw milk supports your local economy.
Raw milk is a delicate food and is not suited to traveling long distance, nor is it shelf-stable at room temperature. Each lot is is usually single-batched each day and even hand-milked. However, pasteurized and UHT milks in particular can and do travel long distances before arriving from the dairy to your door. These milks are often mixed with the milks of several dairies prior to pasteurization so you, as a consumer, lose the traceability to meet your dairy farmer and know the milk you serve your family. Further, the money you spend on such milk is divied between your grocery store, the broker/supplier, the branded dairy and, lastly, the farmer. By purchasing raw milk locally and farmer-direct, 100% of the money you spend on your milk stays in your farmers pocket and in your local economy.