Benefits of goat milk and cheese

Goat milk is easy to digest and is a healthier choice for asthmatics where as goat cheese is lower in fat and cholesterol. Find out the benifits of including goat milk and cheese in your diet.

Goat milk is easy to digest and is a healthier choice for asthmatics where as goat cheese is lower in fat and cholesterol. Find out the benifits of including goat milk and cheese in your diet.

My 10-year-old son gets diarrhoea when he drinks cow milk. He does not like the taste of soya milk. Please advise.

Inspite of being much easier to digest than cow’s or buffalo’s milk, goat milk is not popular in India. More and more people are now lactose intolerant and developing mucous conditions, gastric problems, asthma and other respiratory conditions. But most lactose intolerants are able to digest goat milk. This is because goat milk contains double the amount of medium chain fatty acids as compared to cow’s milk. This makes it easy to digest as the fat molecules are smaller and get converted into energy quickly. Goat milk is anti-microbial in nature. Also, it does not produce mucous and is a healthier choice for asthmatics.

Goat milk is a nourishing food for people who are allergic to cow milk. It improves the metabolism of iron and copper in people who face difficulty in absorbing minerals in their digestive tract. People with liver problems are able to digest goat milk better due to the natural homogenisation of small fat molecules present in it. It is unfortunate that very little attention has been given to the use of goat milk as a replacement for people unable to tolerate cow milk. Goat milk maintains good health and keeps the skin healthy and youthful.

I love goat cheese. I’d like to know if I can eat it regularly as I’m overweight and don’t want to eat anything fatty. I also suffer from a milk allergy. Is it advisable to eat goat cheese?

It can be used by people who are lactose intolerant or have milk-related allergies. However, it has a very distinct flavour. Goat cheese contains 80 calories and 6 grams of fats per ounce compared to cow cheese (110 calories and 10 grams of fats per ounce). Goat cheese can be used even for people who don’t have lactose intolerance as it is more easily digested than regular dairy products. However, goat milk and cheese are not easily available in India.

Dr Anjali Mukerjee is a nutritionist and founder of Health Total, a nutrition counselling centre