Cow's Milk And Milk Alternatives -- Is Mare's Milk Too Exotic? Part 1

Milk is a word that brings about impassioned arguments. Some defend cow's milk like tigers; others demote it and do not give it a chance. You would think people are discussing a dangerous illegal drug.

To defend their position cow's milk critics maintain that humans are the only mammals that consume milk in adult age. This has never convinced me, because except when we humans become aggressive, we do everything different from the animal kingdom.

In the first place we should keep in mind that milk is a food, and treat it as such. Before modern measurement methods broke down every nutritious substance to the smallest possible unit, people relied on traditional knowledge, real life experience, and their own body intelligence to decide if a food was healthful for them. Likewise mothers' intuition regarding their children's nourishment was accepted as the most natural thing on earth.

Don't get me wrong, research is necessary and very useful, but it is not absolute. It has an incidental byproduct, which is that regarding nutrition too many consumers prefer to rely blindly on general recommendations, become lazy, and forget that an essential part of staying healthy is listening to their own body signals.

Most adults tolerate one glass of top quality or organic milk a day quite well. However, any amount of milk can cause stomachache if you insist on drinking more of it than your system can take. But isn't it the same with all foods?

Cow's milk is not the only good source of calcium, which seems to be the main worry. For example, dark green vegetables and the hiziki seaweed contain easily absorbable calcium. Real vegetarians need fifty per cent less calcium than those who eat meat every day.

If you love milk products, a reasonable compromise is drinking 8,5 ounces or 250 ml of warm cow's milk a day, at the most, and the rest as fermented forms of milk like kefir. Or you can emulate Mediterranean who add some milk to their morning coffee and that's it for the day.

Lactose Intolerance And Cow's Milk Allergy

In the Bible milk is a recurrent symbol of abundance. Today milk flows everywhere, but many adults suffer from lactose intolerance, which is the inability to digest this milk sugar easily, because the body does not produce enough of an enzyme called lactase.

Cow's milk allergy is not so widespread, but when it affects children mothers have to find a healthy milk substitute that gives them peace of mind. To avoid milk allergy symptoms those who are allergic to cow's milk protein should avoid any contact to milk.

Mare's milk can be an alternative for adults suffering from cow's milk allergy, lactose intolerance, or soy milk allergy. Parents should seek the advice of a doctor. Mare's milk is popular in northern European countries, but in North America it is still difficult to find a supplier.

Mare's milk is easier to digest than cow's milk. Its protein composition is closer to human milk than to cow's milk. It has a lower fat content, vitamin A and four times more vitamin C. It contains magnesium, potassium, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorous and sodium. Mongolian have drank lots of fermented mare's milk and used it fresh for their salty tea for centuries. This could explain how they survived with only a few vegetables in their diet.

The Belgian farmer who first sold me mare's milk was really enthusiastic about it. He told me that he had suffered from severe candida for many years and that he had cured himself drinking 250 ml or 8,5 ounces of mare's milk a day. For a year and a half he traveled all the way to the Netherlands to buy his precious mare's milk. Finally he himself established a mare's milk farm and he is now selling mare's milk succesfully.

I did not have such digestive complaints, but I wanted to taste it. And so I drank a glass of mare's milk every day for one month. Its texture is indeed thinner than cow's milk, and it is sweeter and very light on the stomach.

In northern Europe mare's milk is already a substitute for acne sufferers who prefer not to associate dairy and acne. Why not try mare's milk if you have trouble digesting cow's milk, acne breakouts, skin complaints, or simply to add more variety to your food?