Cows milk does not have the natural enzymes that help us digest it, is highly allergenic to almost all humans (for real, these are facts) and is rendered almost completely non-nutritious from the processing it goes through. Plus you don't even want to know how dairy cows are over grained, under exercised and over immunized. The average life of a dairy cow is only a few years because of this. In fact, Im going to get on my high horse about this for a minute. Bear with me. Ruminants are NOT meant to be grained. They should live off mostly what they forage and graze and have very little grain. I grain my goats only when they are pregnant or when I'm milking them and I ration it. Grain is hard on a ruminants stomach and can cause bloat and all sort of things. Farmers will tell you this but yet in order to make a living in todays harsh market they HAVE to grain their cows as it significantly improves the milk production of that cow. Very few dairy cows have access to fresh green pasture as its just not practical and they have little opportunity to exercise as that uses up the calories that need to be reserved for milk making. Not don't get me wrong, I'm a farm girl and grew up on a farm. So I will always be on the side of the farmer as they have to do what it takes to make a living in a cutthroat business.
Now compare the average goat farm. The goats usually have unlimited access to lots of room to run and play, which they will do ALL the time. (sometimes much to the dismay of the owners as they are climbing trees and getting into all sorts of trouble) They forage and graze for their food and the milk should reflect this. They are limited grain which will affect milk production, but not significantly, and the goats can live well over 10 years because of their healthy lifestyle. These are not just granola type facts I'm making up as I'm hugging our willow tree. All of the above are proven facts that anyone can prove. They are scientific facts proven in a lab by actual scientists. But I do believe that we have to have animal protein, so although we limit our cows milk consumption as a rule, (except when we don't have goat milking, like right now and my kids can't survive without milk so we get non homogenized cows milk. I don't always practice what I preach) nothing can beat the benefits of goat milk and even goat cheeses, like Chèvre. Our body needs these animal proteins we get from meat and from fresh dairy. I think the new Paleo craze that has hit the nation and caused improved health in many people, is proof of that.
In fact, Gandhi himself became so ill from abstaining from all animal and dairy products, (he was so traumatized by the mistreatment of dairy cows in India) that in his late forties he became dangerously ill. He refused all animal protein until in a fit of frustration someone asked him if he would try goats milk, as they were not known for being mistreated like the dairy cows were. He reluctantly agreed and the milk saved his life. In fact it improved his health so much that he took his nanny goat with him from that point on, every where he went. And we all know that entailed a lot of places. That poor goat traveled the world and provided him with milk for over a decade. He credits her with saving his life and she became not only his constant companion but in his own words "The goat has proved a mother to me."
Anyway, for milk to stay in a liquid form and be preserved, it HAS to be pasteurized. Which means in order to make milk lotion you will have to heat the milk up to the point that it will kill all the bacteria and you will HAVE to add lots of preservatives to the lotion. There is no way around this. Ever. You can NOT buy goat milk lotion that has not had this done or it would spoil. Do not be deceived just because they use the label natural and from fresh goats milk. It was once fresh goats milk but it has been heated to the point where it kills almost all of stuff that is actually good for you in it, and it has loads of preservatives. All lotion has preservatives to stay in the liquid state and milk lotion has even more because milk spoils, even pasteurized milk, as you all know. I am not a fan of loads of preservatives in a product. This is also the same for liquid soap, especially any that have milk in them. If you are buying goats milk lotion and really think it helps you, it might be other things in the lotion helping you instead. Like coconut oil or shea butter. Countless studies have shown that once you boil or pasteurize milk it becomes almost useless. Almost all the good stuff is killed off. The milk has been boiled dry so to speak and there is very little off the good stuff left and anything they tell you otherwise is to make a sale. These are only the opinions of an under educated and over caffeniated farm girl, but they are my convictions and I will not be making any lotions or liquid soaps for these reasons. I stand behind the quality and more importantly the benefits of my products. I'm not going to make a product I don't believe in just to have a sale.
However, it is true that milk has loads and loads of amazing skin healing properties. I won't go into them here, but google it or check out my why goat soap page. Soap is a great way to utilize these properties because the milk is not heated too high or pasteurized in anyway and the soap goes through a process called saponification where the oils bind together to form a solid bar. Even then, I would never expect my soap to last for years which is why I make it several times a year in small batches.
By far the best way to utilize the amazing benefits goat milk has for your skin, is to bathe in it. Don't be grossed out. Draw up a nice warm bath, not hot, and add some fresh goat milk to it along with some oatmeal (oat milk is amazing for your skin, so you could soak the oats in the milk for a few hours before hand if you wanted) and a few drops of lavender essential oil. Then soak in it for as long as you can want. It will not smell sour, it will be a creamy bath that will be AMAZING for your skin. Do this once a week and you can even add baking soda to draw the toxins in your body out or epsom salts. Your skin will become amazing and you eventually will NOT have to a lather yourself in high preservative lotions all day. No, I have never heard of anyone else doing this and I totally made this little bath recipe up one day while trying to figure out how to utilize the milk to its best advantage, but it works. Just trust me.
You want to get the ph of your skin back to where it should be and then it will naturally moisturize itself. We have destroyed not only the ph of our skin, but the ph of our entire bodies, so the best way to do this is to also have a highly alkaline diet. (I don't always practice what I preach here either but maybe you can. wink) Goats milk is very very close to the same ph that our skin should be, so bathing in it is very very good for us. Drinking it is even better. I have become such a huge fan of goat milk that my plan this year is to stagger breedings throughout the year so that I will always have a goat in milk. THis means I will probably never ever travel but we saw how well that went for me anyway. Turns out I am pretty content here on my goat farm. I think I have pastoral bloodlines.
If you don't have access to fresh goats milk, find someone who does. There are goat dairies, small or commercial all over the country now as Americans are realizing how much better it is for you. You might have to get tricky in how you buy it as the FDA has some of their priorities messed up, but I feel confident you can find some. If not, BUY A STINKIN GOAT!!
To see pictures of the new baby goats born yesterday, make sure and check out my Facebook page The Goat Lady.
