I bought a gallon of goat's milk yesterday from a farm with > 40 dairy goats including a recent Grand Champion Nubian (see photo of the champion). They are large with trademark floppy ears and known as the "jerseys of the goat world" for producing milk with high butterfat content. 
So why goat milk? I figured it would be fun to go to a goat farm to pet and feed them but only a giant pyrenees let me pet him.
But actually, goat milk is mostly known for being more easily digestible than cow milk which can be partially digested leaving behind slimy goo of undigested stuff that ferments in your colon!
Why is it more completely digestible than cow's milk?
#1. The average size of goat milk fat globules is about 2 micrometers as compared to 3-1/2 micrometers for cow milk fat. These smaller- sized fat globules provide a better dispersion and a more homogenous mixture of fat in the milk (?)
#2. Goat milk does not have agglutinin as does cow milk which makes fat glob together and harder to digest. (?)
#3. It also has more linoleic and arachnodonic (spider??) acids as well as more short-chain fatty acids which our intestines can easily digest (?)
#4. Goat milk curd is small and light (good for drinking) compared to cow milk curd which is big and dense (good for making cheese). There are lower levels of alpha-s1-casein in goat milk. Softer casein curd with smaller flakes results in more rapid digestion of milk proteins. (?)
But actually, goat milk is mostly known for being more easily digestible than cow milk which can be partially digested leaving behind slimy goo of undigested stuff that ferments in your colon!
Why is it more completely digestible than cow's milk?
#1. The average size of goat milk fat globules is about 2 micrometers as compared to 3-1/2 micrometers for cow milk fat. These smaller- sized fat globules provide a better dispersion and a more homogenous mixture of fat in the milk (?)
#2. Goat milk does not have agglutinin as does cow milk which makes fat glob together and harder to digest. (?)
#3. It also has more linoleic and arachnodonic (spider??) acids as well as more short-chain fatty acids which our intestines can easily digest (?)
#4. Goat milk curd is small and light (good for drinking) compared to cow milk curd which is big and dense (good for making cheese). There are lower levels of alpha-s1-casein in goat milk. Softer casein curd with smaller flakes results in more rapid digestion of milk proteins. (?)
Diabetes: "Recent research published in February, 2003 has implicated the protein A1 beta-casein as a trigger for Type 1 diabetes and other health issues (Elliott et al, 1999). Commercial efforts are now being made to select and farm cows which only contain A2 beta-casein, which is considered the safe variant of beta-casein. Goat milk only contains the A2 variant of beta-casein, and is therefore a natural choice for those seeking to avoid A1 beta-casein" See link
Why is it more nutritious?
#1. Some Granadian scientists made the news in 2007 showed there was higher bioavailability of iron, calcium, phosphorus and magnesium in rats. (?)
This is one of the main sires!
#2. One article online claimed that goat milk has 13% more calcium, 25% more vitamin B-6, 47% more vitamin A, 134% more potassium and 3 times more niacin. 27% more of the antioxidant Selenium, but way less vitamin B-12 and way less folic acid. (?)
Hmm, I had a hard time finding comparative nutrition info between raw cow and raw goat milk but claims of the higher minerals and vitamins listed above were like common knowledge.
I compared raw goat milk to fortified homogenized pasteurized cow milk using USDA nutritional database online. There is no entry in the USDA database for raw cow milk. It listed goat milk as having 13 mg of Ca compared to cow milk having 113 mg per 100g of milk. They missed a digit. In this goat milk study in Greece, they reported 132 mg. Conversely, other minerals were lower in the Greek goats than the USDA goats but there is a breed variability along with diet factors and seasonality.
Homogenization hurts milk!
Homogenization of milk became widespread in America in the 1930s and nearly universal in the 1940s--the same decades during which the incidence of atherosclerotic heart disease began to climb. Luckily, goat milk does not separate like cow milk because the fat globules small.
There is a big debate about these claims made famous by two Connecticut cardiologists Oster and Ross in 1973 and 74:
Homogenization of milk became widespread in America in the 1930s and nearly universal in the 1940s--the same decades during which the incidence of atherosclerotic heart disease began to climb. Luckily, goat milk does not separate like cow milk because the fat globules small.
There is a big debate about these claims made famous by two Connecticut cardiologists Oster and Ross in 1973 and 74:
#1. When fat globules cut into pieces with the machines, the enzyme xanthine oxidase is freed in a raw state and absorbed by your intestinal blood where it can scar arterial and hear tissue! wierd. And this can cause a release of cholesterol to pave over the scarred areas, yuck. (?)
#2. When milk is homogenized, it passes through a fine filter at high pressure so the fat globules are made a tenth as small and proteins are broken up. They become little express delivery packages that bypass the regular digestive process (sort of like the movie, fantastic vo
yage) so proteins that would normally be digested in the stomach or gut are not broken down, and are absorbed into the bloodstream. (?) Not good, this is like a foreign substance (I read a book about inflammation and this is a hot topic, partially digested things in your blood cause histamines and mucus and inflammation that causes disease). Oster & Ross demonstrated that milk antibodies are significantly elevated in the blood of male patients with heart disease! In 1983, there was this rebuttal and more after...Pasteurization hurts milk!
It's heated to about 161 degrees for about 15 seconds, which destroys the bacteria that cause foodborne illness. All enzymes and good bacteria dead! Ultra pasteurization (my organic milk I used to buy!) heats things up to 260 degrees. (?)
#1. Kills (denatures) phosphatase, critical for absorbing calcium.
#2. Kills lactase which works on lactose (everyone complains about that).
#3. Kills lactoferrin, helps us absorb iron.
#4. Kills lipase, which helps us break down fat
#5. Kills good bacteria (probiotics) so we are drinking lots of dead bacteria!
#6. Destroys lactic acids that allow good bacteria (if it were alive) to implant in our intestines (?)
Whereas raw milk naturally tastes sour from the lactic acid so is edible and nutritious, pasteurized milk rots because of all the dead bacteria in it.
Then there's the whole issue of grain-fed vs. grass-fed cows! Volume II of the story...
thanks kathleen!
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