Goat milk and health

Goat milk is very compatible with a healthy diet, and is suitable for persons above 1 year of age. Goat milk is a good source of protein, and provides for the nutritional requirements of a large number of essential amino acids. Moreover it is rich in calcium and a number of vitamins (A, D, B1, B2, B12). Goat milk contains appreciably less folic acid than cow milk.

This must be taken into consideration when goat milk is the only dairy component in the diet. It can then be necessary to supplement the nutritional requirement for folic acid in another manner.

Like cow milk, pure goat milk, is not suitable for babies. It contains too much protein, too many minerals, and too few vitamins to be able to satisfy the nutritional requirements of infants. However, in specialized baby formulae goat milk can be a valuable component due to its digestibility of fat and protein.

Goat milk is readily digestible. The small fat globules and the small protein agglomerates facilitate the action of the digestive enzymes on the milk. Moreover the goat milk-protein gel formed in the stomach is softer than that formed by cow milk. This is also beneficial to the digestibility. The fat contains relatively large amounts of short-chain and medium-chain fatty acids, which are readily digestible.