Is It Worth Making A Switch To Goats Milk?

I LOVE milk, always have, and cheese is practically a food group in and of itself in my house, so when I was asked by the experts in all things Goats Milk, St Helen’s Farm, to test out some of their products and swap all dairy in my diet to goats milk products for two whole weeks I jumped at the chance! Deciding to switch to goats milk for fourteen days was a challenge that I was more than willing to accept, particularly from a brand that has in my experience always created exceptional products. That being said, I quickly realised that my experience with goats milk was much more limited than I thought and this was going to be a much more interesting experiment than I had originally thought! 

Naturally Good – My Switch To Goats Milk 

If you’re a cheese lover like me, the chances are that you’ve tried goats cheese in the past, but have you tried goats milk, yogurt or cream? If the answer is ‘no’, then it’s time to get yourself down to your local supermarket and fill your shopping cart.

I usually drink at least one large cup of milk every day, and since becoming pregnant I have practically lived off dairy (this baby is going to have Wolverine strength bones I swear!), so it was important to quickly stock up on lots of delicious St Helen’s Farm goodies when taking this challenge on and kindly St Helen’s Farm helpfully supplied a whole host of goodies to get me started! 

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Health Benefits of Goats Milk 

Whilst Goats Milk is not lactose free (so not suitable if you are lactose intolerant) it has been shown to have fewer allergenic proteins, which means it could be a great option if cows dairy makes your tummy a little bloated or you want to cut down on the amount of lactose you’re having in your diet. Similarly, goats milk wins out over cows milk when you’re considering digestion, as it contains smaller fat globules which makes them easier to digest – ideal if you’re experiencing any digestive issues. From a nutritional perspective goats milk is an excellent choice as just 3x200mls can provide more than 100% of the calcium you need per day and it is naturally low in cholesterol making it a heart healthy option too. When you consider too that it is a great source of iodine, phosphorus and chloride – all essential minerals – it starts to feel like the obvious choice doesn’t it? 

You can find out more about the health benefits of goats milk here – https://www.sthelensfarm.co.uk/health-benefits

My Main Worry Before Switching

If you do eat goats cheese then you’ll know that it has quite a distinctive, strong taste and smell, which is one of the things I personally love about it. However, in the run-up to making this swap to all things goats milk, I did have a slight worry that this might cross over to the rest of the range and whilst I was excited I was just a tad apprehensive. I didn’t love the idea of goats cheese flavoured milk or yogurt for breakfast…because no matter how much you love goats cheese you can’t pretend it goes well with Weetabix! 

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Other than this initial worry, I was excited to start because of the many health benefits of goats milk and interested to see what these products would bring to my normal weekly meals. Was I going to notice a big difference in taste, texture and quality? Would the switch make a difference to my digestion (which has been a tad iffy throughout this pregnancy)? I couldn’t wait to find out… 

Switching to St Helen’s Farm on Slimming World

Before I get to my actual experience swapping to St Helen’s Farm products, I must, of course, address the big elephant in the room and the important issue for many of my readers…is this a good thing to do on Slimming World? Well, my dears…I have good news! Not only are goats milk products suitable for Slimming World, you can often enjoy a greater quantity as your Healthy Extra A option than you can with cows milk products! Here are the syn values that you need to know for this range of exquisite products. I’ve highlighted the best ones to try…

• Milk:
  • Fresh, whole – 200ml HEA or 6 syns
  • Fresh, semi-skimmed – 275ml HEA or 6 syns
  • Fresh, skimmed – 400ml HEA or 6 syns
• Yogurt:
  • Natural Yogurt – 450g pot 11.5 syns
  • Fat-free Yogurt – free
  • Flavoured twin pack, Strawberry & Vanilla – 125g pot  5.5 syns
  • Flavoured twin pack, Blossom Honey – 125g pot 5.5 syns
  • Flavoured twin pack, Raspberry & Goji – these are very new so there’s no official syn value yet, however when put through the online syn estimator on lifeline online they’ve come out at 4.5 syns each
  • Flavoured twin pack, Peach & Passionfruit – exactly the same as above – they’ve come out at 4.5 on the estimator

• Cheese:
  • Mild – 35g HEA or 4.5 syns for 25g
  • Mature – 35g HEA or 4.5 syns for 25g
• Butter and cream:
  • Butter – 25g 10 syns
  • Double Cream – 1 level tbsp 3.5 syns

• Ice cream
  • Madagascan Vanilla – 100ml 6 syns
  • Belgian Chocolate – 100ml 6 syns

What Happened When I Switched To Goats Milk? 

The way I like to think about this switch is that it was split into two areas. Number one was switching all of my day to day dairy such as milk, cheese and butter and number two, was to try out the new products like their various flavoured yogurts. I knew that switching my usual cheddar cheese to goats cheese wasn’t going to be a problem, but as I’ve said above I was a little apprehensive about the rest of the products because I thought they might taste a bit cheesy. It turns out that I couldn’t have been more wrong! 

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In fact, the stand out products of the entire swap for me was St Helen’s Farm’s range of flavoured yogurts which were super thick, creamy and packed with flavour! I had one every single day, and they were more than worth the syns because they make a really filling way to start the day. If you’re looking for a quick snack or breakfast option to keep you going then these little pots of joy will more than satisfy. Similarly, the Fat Free Yogurt, which is syn free on Slimming World, was the perfect mix with my morning fruit and honey and worked perfectly when stirred in with a bowl of hot morning porridge. 

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Given the success of the sweeter (and initially more worrying) products, it will come as no surprise that the savoury uses for my Goats Milk goodies went off without a hitch! For two weeks I grated, melted and stirred in goats cheese, goats milk and goats butter into a whole host of different recipes including my Syn Free Roasted Vegetable Quiche. I have been totally converted to cooking with goats milk, not only because I can use more of it in my recipes for Slimming World, but also because I found that it made my recipes even thicker and creamy than anticipated. I don’t know exactly why that happens, but I’m not complaining!

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One of my favourite things I made during this two week was my syn free Tuna Pasta (pictured above). This was such as success because the St Helen’s Farm yogurt has such a creamy texture, making it ideal for replacing the mayo, and the goats cheese gave so much flavour that you don’t miss out on anything for the lack of fat! With a hint of lemon and some fresh apples for an extra crunch, it was something that I made a few times over the two weeks and will be making again and again in the future! 

Did I Notice Any Health Benefits? 

Whilst it’s impossible to say for sure that there was any official benefit to things like my cholesterol or blood pressure, I did find that I didn’t have as much heartburn over the course of these two weeks and I honestly found an improvement in my digestion. Moreover, I was really comfortable in the knowledge that I was properly nourishing my growing baby with plenty of vitamins, calcium, protein and good fats by swapping to goats milk. Blood pressure is also a big concern when you’re pregnant, and the fact that goats milk has been shown to be blood pressure friendly was a big relief! 

Conclusion

Despite my initial concerns about whether goats milk products would fit in to my diet, I was really happy after swapping for my whole two weeks! I’m not going to pretend it was super easy, as I wanted to be true to the challenge so avoided cows dairy even when eating out and that was tricky, however I’m really glad I stuck to it and tested out all of the products that I was sent. More to the point, I was thrilled that I actually enjoyed all of them! If the thing that is putting you off expanding your horizons is the worry that things made with goats milk will have a musky or farmyard smell (as is often said about goats cheese) then I urge you to give the St Helen’s Farm range a try because this is simply a non-issue. The only exception to this, other than the cheese itself of course, is the goats butter which does give off that slightly goats cheesy smell when cooked – for me though this was a positive as it added even more flavour to the dishes I tried it in! If you’re considering swapping to goats milk, or simply want to make a few swaps or try out some interesting new things, I can hand on heart recommend St Helen’s Farm who seem to have really understood what it is that people are looking for from their dairy products and deliver every single time. 

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*This post was created in collaboration with St Helen’s Farm, however all words and opinions are my own. To find out more about St Helen’s Farm, visit their website – https://www.sthelensfarm.co.uk/