Some of this info is about cow's milk, but the first few are about goat's milk. Some stuff to consider:
Several local dietitians and lactation professionals are enraged at this blatent misinformation of baby's needs. Human milk has over 200 components in precisely the right proportions for baby humans. Goat milk is NOT an appropriate food for baby humans. The nutrients in goat milk are designed for four-footed animals with hooves and horns!
http://www.bflrc.com/ljs/news/dumb-ads.htm
...(Organic goat’s milk is chemically much closer to human milk, if human milk is not available for an infant, but we should ALL be weaned from milk by age 3!).
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php/?page_id=390
Most people are not aware that the milk of most mammals varies considerably in its composition. For example, the milk of goats, elephants, cows, camels, wolves, and walruses show marked differences, in their content of fats, protein, sugar, and minerals. Each was designed to provide optimum nutrition to the young of the respective species. Each is different from human milk.
http://www.mercola.com/article/milk/no_milk.htm
Infants should only drink mother’s milk or formula, really, especially as their main source of food. The total dietary composition of milk varies across mammals owing to differences in their life history strategies. Cows and goats are probably much more alike than either is to humans. Formula is an industrially produced imitation of human milk. Also, there are differences in electrolytes, which can cause intestinal bleeding or blood disorders like anemia.
The system is evolved to be very fine tuned within each species, with zero regard for how it would work across species! The fact that cows and goats, etc. instead of some other mammals are domesticated and thus provide us with milk is not because of their milk so much as because of their behavior. Maybe we should be milking monkeys…. (probably a bad idea…)
Here the Naturalistic Fallacy gets a chance to raise it’s ugly head. It might make more “sense” to substitute cow or goat milk for human milk (and avoid the factory-manufactured formula) because cows and goats are “natural” and formula is artificial. But think of this in a broader sense. Starting with a nice “Natural” human diet that, say, hunter gatherers would eat, would you prefer to switch to an artificially flavored, artificially colored, fast food strip mall diet, or the Natural Diet of some other mammal? If the mammal is a beaver all you get to eat is bark (which humans cannot digest). I’d prefer Burger King over Lumber Yard…
But yes, there is a protein (sometimes called agglutinin but I think there are other more specific names) in cow’s milk that is not in goat’s milk, so the goat milk is easier to digest. This protein globs together (aggutinates!) fats. There are also, maybe, fewer other proteins or enzymes that seem to cause bad “allergic” reactions in goat rather than cow milk, or so it is said.
Still, both cow and goat milk, if substituted wholesale for human milk, can cause serious medical problems.
http://gregladen.com/wordpress/?p=422
http://www.kidsnutrition.org/consumer/archives/goat_milk.htm
FOR YOUR HEALTH:
Dairy products are a health hazard. They contain no fiber or complex carbohydrates and are laden with saturated fat and cholesterol....
The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America's leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow's milk to children, saying it can cause anemia, allergies, and insulin-dependent diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease....
And dairy products may actually cause osteoporosis, not prevent it, since their high-protein content leaches calcium from the body. Population studies, backed up by a groundbreaking Harvard study of more than 75,000 nurses, suggest that drinking milk can actually cause osteoporosis.
http://www.curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=1184&i=117
High-Milk Diets Cause Cancers
Can Your Diet Determine if You Get Cancer?
By: Veronica Holland, ABCNews.com
A diet high in meat or milk increases your risk for developing stomach or esophageal cancer, according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Health have discovered people who enjoy a diet high in red meat run a 3.5 times greater risk of developing esophageal cancer and are twice as likely to develop stomach cancer compared to those who consume a more balanced diet.
A high-milk diet, which also typically includes large amounts of red meat, was found to double the risks of developing both types of cancers.
http://www.curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=1184&i=84
Oh yes...organic milk. The healthiest milk from the healthiest cow is naturally loaded with lactoferrins, immunoglobulins, and growth hormones. Horizon's organic milk contains animal fat and cholesterol, dioxins, and bacteria. The amount of somatic cells (pus) in organic milk is lower than milk from non-organic cows, but it's still dead white blood cells and dead bacteria. Ask yourself this question. Does organic human breast milk sound like a delicious drink for an adult human? Instinctively, most people know that there are substances in breast milk that are not intended for their adult bodies. Same goes for pig's milk and dog's milk. Same for cow's milk.
Some people may not be able to tolerate lactose, a milk sugar. One hundred percent of humans are allergic to casein, a milk protein. Eighty percent of the protein in Horizon's organic dairy products is casein, the same glue used to adhere a label to a bottle of beer. Eat casein and your body produces histamines, then mucous. This sludge congests your organs. Give up all milk and dairy products for just one week and an internal "fog" will lift from your body.
Is genetically engineered milk dangerous? You bet! Organic milk contains just a little bit less of the same hormones. I find very little difference between the two.
Robert Cohen
Executive Director
Dairy Education Board
201-871-5871
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=1184&i=22
There are students of human nutrition who are not supportive of milk use for adults. Here is a quotation from the March/April 1991 Utne Reader:
If you really want to play it safe, you may decide to join the growing number of Americans who are eliminating dairy products from their diets altogether. Although this sounds radical to those of us weaned on milk and the five basic food groups, it is eminently viable. Indeed, of all the mammals, only humans--and then only a minority, principally Caucasians--continue to drink milk beyond babyhood.
http://www.curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=1184&i=11
Cow's milk is species-specific food for calves. It is no more appropriate to drink the milk of cows than it is to drink the milk of other mammals. We do it because we've always done it. It's a "people" thing, and on close inspection, you'll see that all our beliefs about milk are "udder" nonsense.
http://www.curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=1184&i=12