Saturday, 6 June 2015

Give Goats A Go


Hi Everyone!

Today I am going to be covering a topic that I haven't really covered before on the blog, but something that is important and I think I should be doing more posts of, health. 

As you guessed from the title, this post is going to be specifically about goats' milk with a little help from the team at St Helen's Farm* who have provided the products featured in my photographs. They are a company that focus uniquely on the increasing demand for alternatives to cows' milk due to rising intolerances and they produce top quality goats' milk products such as yoghurts, butter, cheese but more on these later!


To begin with I thought I'd cover a really common question, what is the difference between goats' and cows' milk? Helen Bond, the Consultant Dietician for St Helen's Farm has covered this in real depth on the website here, however I will give a quick roundup.

Goats' milk is nutritionally the closest alternative to cows' milk but there are certain physical properties that make them stand apart from each other such as:

1. Less Allergenic Proteins
In depth research suggests that cows' milk intolerance is often down to the proteins and specifically the Alpha-S1-Casein, goats' milk has less of this and is a possible explanation for why people can get on much better with it. I must emphasise though, if you have an allergy to milk, then I would seek medical opinion before giving these products a go as while they can be great for intolerances, allergies work completely different and there are still some common physical properties between the two types.

2. Easily Digestible Fats & Proteins
In a nutshell, the globules of fat are smaller than cows' milk which can aid your digestion due to the softer curd.

3. Lower In Lactose
First of all, if you are diagnosed as lactose intolerant, it's important to stress that goats' milk does still contain lactose but slightly less than that in cows' milk. So depending on your particular level of tolerance and combined with the point above about easy digestion, this can result in some lactose intolerant people being able to drink goats' milk without repercussions. If you really want to give goats a go and try out for yourself, pop in to see your GP to just get the go ahead first if you want that peace of mind. 

Now that we have looked at the key benefits (there are more), I thought we could look at what products there are out there which are produced with goats' milk.



The most popular choice are the goats' milk cartons which come in the usual three varieties of skimmed, semi-skimmed and whole. Appearance wise you can see in the glass it looks just like regular milk, so if you are trying to move children over for example the differences aren't glaringly visible.


There are also different types of live and flavoured yoghurts available. The live yoghurt is perfect for breakfast over crunchy granola or cereal and the smaller flavoured pots go great in lunchboxes and to take to work and pop in the fridge as a snack. It isn't pictured here, but there is also a gorgeous vanilla icecream they do that I've had before and would recommend.


Next we move on to the cheese and butter. The cheese comes in either a spreadable version or the normal block and you can pick between rich and smooth or mild and creamy. The block can be grated/shredded and then sprinkled over a salad or pasta dish and that works nicely from my experience. The butter is delicious on toast as a spread but you can also use it in things like baking as an alternative to regular butter. 



I hope you found this post interesting, if you want to try out any of the products photographed or mentioned, head on over to the Where To Buy page for the full list of stockists which include the major supermarkets.

I'd love to hear about your experiences with goats' milk and whether it was something you would recommend and how you use it in your everyday routines. If you want to share your experience, pop me a comment below.

Thanks for reading!

Love Sally X

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4 comments

  1. I luuurve St Helens products. Especially the cheese! Add beetroot, spinach and low fat mayo and slap it all in a wrap. Delicious!

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    1. Great shout on the wrap idea! Maybe I need to do a follow up post with some recipe ideas.... hmmm!!! x

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  2. Love all St Helen's Farm products. We use the milk, butter, cream, yoghurt and ice cream..... soo good. I also love to use it to cook with. You should try this simple recipe. http://www.fififriendly.co.uk/2014/10/chicken-with-mint-goats-milk-yogurt.html

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  3. .... forgot to ask, where did you get the cool bag from.

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