Goats' Milk Is More Beneficial To Health
Than Cows' Milk, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (July 31, 2007) — Researchers have carried out a comparative study on the
properties of goats' milk compared to those of cows' milk. They found reason to
believe that goats' milk could help prevent diseases such as anemia and bone
demineralization. Goats' milk was found to help with the digestive and
metabolic utilization of minerals such as iron, calcium, phosphorus and
magnesium.
Research carried out at
the Department of Physiology of the University of Granada has revealed that
goat milk has more beneficial properties to health than cow milk. Among these
properties it helps to prevent ferropenic anaemia (iron deficiency) and bone
demineralisation (softening of the bones).
This project, conducted
by Doctor Javier Díaz Castro and directed by professors Margarita Sánchez
Campos, Mª Inmaculada López Aliaga and Mª José Muñoz Alférez, focuses on the
comparison between the nutritional properties of goat milk and cow milk, both
with normal calcium content and calcium enriched, against the bioavailability
of iron, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium. To carry out this study, the
metabolic balance technique has been used both in rats with experimentally
induced nutritional ferropenic anaemia and in a control group of rats.
In order to know how the
nutritive utilisation of these minerals may affect their metabolic distribution
and destination, the UGR researcher has determined the concentration of these
minerals in the different organs involved in their homeostatic regulation and
different haematological parameters in relation to the metabolism of the
minerals.
Better results with goat
milk
Results obtained in the
study reveal that ferropenic anaemia and bone demineralisation caused by this
pathology have a better recovery with goat milk. Due to the higher
bioavailability of iron, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium, the restoration of
altered haematological parameters and the better levels of parathyroid hormone
(PTH), a hormone that regulates the calcium balance in the organism was found
in the rats that consumed this food.
Javier Díaz Castro
points out that the inclusion of goat milk with normal or double calcium
content in the diet “favours digestive and metabolic utilisation of iron,
calcium and phosphorus and their deposit in target organs - parts of the
organism to which these minerals are preferably sent - involved in their
homeostatic regulation.”
According to this
researcher, all these conclusions reveal that regular consumption of goat milk
– a natural food with highly beneficial nutritional characteristics - “has
positive effects on mineral metabolism, recovery from ferropenic anaemia and
bone mineralisation in rats. In addition, and unlike observations in cow milk,
its calcium enrichment does not interfere in the bioavailability of the
minerals studied.”
Although there is no
doubt that these findings may be a base for further in depth study of the
multiple health benefits of goat milk, the UGR researcher warns that “studies
in humans are still required in order to confirm the findings obtained in rats
and to promote goat milk consumption both in the general population and in the
population affected by nutritional ferropenic anaemia and pathologies related
to bone demineralisation.” Part of the results of this research has been
published in the International Dairy Journal and Journal Dairy Science.
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