Goat Milk?

I have listened to enough of Channing's health talks and heard enough information about cow's milk to know that it should not be our #1 choice for calcium. In fact, studies have shown that we really don't get much calcium from milk after it has gone through all the processes it goes through before hitting the shelves in our favorite grocery stores. Not only that, cow's milk has been linked to asthma, allergies, and lowered immune systems.

Whenever Channing has led health talks at churches and explains that there are better, healthier alternatives to cow's milk (and that we really aren't designed for drinking cow's milk), he would often hear, "They drank milk in the Bible." And they would be right. The Bible speaks of "the land flowing with milk and honey" and has other milk references. However, where they were wrong is that the Bible doesn't speak of cow's milk. In those days, people drank goat's milk.

If you're anything like me, you're thinking...goat's milk. GROSS! I must admit, the thought of drinking goat's milk kind of makes me nervous (mostly because I don't know what it will taste like). However, Asher has now turned a year old, and I know at some point, he won't be nursing anymore, and I'm going to have to decide what to give him. Channing, Tristan, and I drink organic cow's milk (although Channing much prefers rice milk and would drink that if I would be more diligent about buying it). Tristan nursed a long time, and once he was finished, we mostly gave him rice milk. I, however, never developed a taste for it and continued buying organic cow's milk. Tristan just kind of followed suit as he got older.

With Asher, I really want to keep him on the right path with milk. He enjoys nursing but has already begun to show signs that he will be ready to give it up much more quickly than Tristan did. That leaves me with precious little time to figure things out. I don't think I'm going to go the rice milk route with him because I just don't know exactly what the nutritional value is, other than it's healthier than cow's milk. I really don't want to do cow's milk because of the asthma, allergy, and immune system issues that go along with (plus, check out calves. They only drink their mother's milk while they are calves. Once they are grown, they don't drink milk anymore. And check out the size of a cow. It grows from a tiny calf into a great big cow. That's what cow's milk was intended to do; produce large cows. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be a large cow! ;) ~ Please forgive my interpretation of a really important principle. I did a terrible job of explaining it!). I don't want to do formula because it has some not so great side effects too. So that leaves me with goat's milk. I think that's what I'm going to go with.

Check out this GREAT article that explains why goat's milk is better for us than cow's milk and ways to use it in our kitchens:

Goat Milk?

If you are already a goat's milk drinker, fill the rest of us newbies in.