A study has found that drinking goat’s milk is healthier than consuming cow’s milk. The study was led by researchers at the University of Granada, and has revealed that goat milk has more beneficial properties when compared to cow milk.
Researchers conducted the study on mice with induced nutritional ferroferropenic anemia, and found that goat milk is better at preventing ferropenic anemia (iron deficiency) and bone demineralization (softening of the bones).
In order to know how the nutritive utilization of iron, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium may affect their metabolic distribution and destination, lead researcher Doctor Javier Diaz Castro determined the concentration of these minerals in the different organs involved in their homeostatic regulation and different hematological parameters in relation to the metabolism of the minerals.
Results obtained in the study reveal that ferropenic anemia and bone demineralization 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 hematological 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.
Dr. Castro points out that the inclusion of goat milk with normal or double calcium content in the diet ‘favors digestive and metabolic utilization 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 him, all these conclusions reveal that regular consumption of goat milk – a natural food with highly beneficial nutritional characteristics – ‘has a positive effect on mineral metabolism, recovery from ferropenic anemia and bone mineralization in rats. In addition, and unlike observations in cow milk, its calcium enrichment does not interfere in the bioavailability of the minerals studied’.