Ok, so there’s a lot of info floating around here and elsewhere about how in the USA we milk pregnant cows which results in 33x the amount of Estrogen in the milk. This is stemming from a recent study and numerous articles about it. I’ve seen plenty of threads about this here, and most of what I’ve seen in response to this study is, “Duh, get grass-fed organic milk,” and “Look at all the dudes here who drink milk, they don’t have tits or a vagina, and are super swol.”
Here’s the thing. The grass-fed organic dairies milk pregnant cows too. They basically ALL do this to stay profitable - cows generally produce a calf a year, and since they have the same gestation period as humans (9 months), that means at a given time, more than half of the cows being milked are pregnant. On the flip side of this, there is Goat milk - which is supposed to be just as nutrient dense (if not more so), and have an even higher quality and easier to digest protein than Cow milk.
Furthermore, Goats only have a 5 month gestation period, and have been known to lactate for up to 2 years between kids. The common practice is to keep goats from milking after 3 months into their pregnancy, giving them 2 months to recuperate and bear their young. This leaves them (if they breed once yearly, which is normal) pregnant for only 3 months out of a year as opposed to 7 for cows (cows are also taken off the milking machine for two months), greatly reducing potential exposure to milk from a pregnant animal. Theoretically, this could mean less estrogen.
We basically bend over backwards to do anything possible to increase our T levels, and avoid Soy like the plague because it contains trace amounts of phytoestrogens. Oncologists are now often advising cancer patients to avoid eating milk products because of the hormone content which can cause some cancers to grow. If this is happening, that means we’re talking about more than “trace” amounts of hormones, and instead, noticeable exogenous levels with a very real effect on our bodies.
What I haven’t seen are the hard facts comparing the alternatives. How much estrogen is in an 8 oz glass of whole cow’s milk on average? Goat Milk? Soy Milk? What about IGF-1? (obviously none in Soy) I’ve been POUNDING the interwebz for days about this and just cannot find the hard data I feel like I need to draw accurate conclusions. If anyone knows where such data might be hiding, or how I can test for estrogens myself, I’d really appreciate it.
Obviously most of us rely on milk products and have for years - the good must outweigh the bad judging by the results of our bodies, but if there’s a BETTER solution, I think I’d rather know about it than not, and I suspect Goat milk IS that better solution. That’s the hypothesis, anyhow.
