A baby of a mammal is born and before it opens its eyes, it finds itself sucking mom’s milk storages. It happens before it comprehends what’s happening. It drinks the milk like there’s no tomorrow without even knowing to be breastfed and even the milk itself, that yellowish special juice. Later on it’ll learn that this juice is called “milk” and it contains things that’ll help the baby survive. However, if a mammal drinks another mammal’s milk it’ll survive somehow, as well.
Let’s say that we’re out of mother’s milk (as humans). In that case, cow’s milk? Nope. What about donkey milk? It’s a common conception that’s often get spreaded by the word of mouth that donkey milk is the closest kind of milk to human milk. So… What, the baby’s parents should milk a donkey if the mother’s milk is absent?
It’s not something that requires a spoiler alert but I couldn’t find an answer to that but we have some valuable information on it though. First of all, we add cow’s milk to our portfolio after mother’s milk. But just a moment ago we mentioned that cow’s milk wouldn’t work for a baby human. Let’s see why is that so.
Wouldn’t work, my ass… It actualy wouldn’t work, though: Cow’s Milk
If we compare a glass of cow’s mil and human milk:
Content
(Cow’s Milk/ Human Milk
Energy (kcal)
138/122
Protein (g)
2.6/6
Lactose (g)
14.4/9.4
Fat (g)
8.2/6
Vitamin B2 (mg)
0.06/0.38
Sodium (mg)
28/70-180
Potassium (mg)
116/220-340
Chlorine (mg)
84/180-220
Calcium (mg)
68/220-260
Phosphate (mg)
28/180-220
Renal solute load (mOsm/lt)
150-160/436
Human milk has lower protein content. Because, come on, how developed can be the kidney of a baby at the size of a fist?
All in all, we should take the things away from the body after digestion that we’re not gonna use and we do it either via sweat, feces or urine. The organ that’s in charge of producing urine is kidney. So, those things that should be taken away are a “load” on it. The solute load of the milk should be as low as possible in order not to wear the baby’s kidney out. Therefore, dissolved particles like protein should come to kidney at a limited amount. In that respect, cow’s milk causes a 5 times higher load on kidney than human milk. Hold your horses cow’s milk! I mean, the baby human has just come into the world!
We didn’t state it as “carbohydrate” on the table above and we mentioned that as “lactose” specifically. That’s because lactose is the main carbohydrate of milks in general. In fact, lactose is also called “milk sugar”. The lactose content of human milk may stand out but it also contains the means that’ll ease the digestion of lactose. Besides, lactose is imporant when it comes to intestinal development of the baby and the microflora of the intestines. Without going deep into details, here are some relevant infos:
-Cow’s milk contains a potentially allergenic protein, “beta-lactoglobulin” which is lacking in human milk. If our goal is to compare the content of milks in terms of the availability in babies and children, this should be one of the first things we should consider.
-The main proteins of the milks are whey and casein.
Whey dissolves in water while casein is dissolved in acidic environment or as a result of the effect of the enzyme called “rennin”. Actually whey “dissolves” while casein “precipitates”. That precipitation is the thing that turns milk into cheese and that’s caused by casein.
Whey is found in the fluid that leaks from cheese. Whey is easier to digest so it’s more convenient for the baby. The casein/whey ratio is 80/20 in cow’s milk while that’s 40/60 in human milk. It shows us again that human milk serves well for its purpose. Moreover, the particles of casein in human milk are both less and smaller. In other words, they’re easier to handle. The smaller, the easier (Present company excepted).
-There are enzymes in human milk that’ll maket he milk easier to digest. It comes with the package! Examples of it are lipase that breaks down fat and lipoprotein lipase that produces the milk fat in breast tissues. Apart from the fat content of human milk being low, most of those fat is comprised of unsaturated fatty acids (They wouldn’t cause fat accumulation in veins so wouldn’t lead to cardiovascular problems like saturated fatty acids do). Similar to the case in casein, these fatty acids are small in size as well. In fact, most of the content in human milk are small. Because… you know… that’s for the baby…
-The milk that comes in the beginning of the breastfeeding contains less fat and more lactose. The reason is to quench the thirst of the baby and balance its blood sugar. As the breastfeeding goes on, the fat content reaches up to 3 times more than the start. Protein content also increases and reaches up to 1.3 times more than the beginning. As the milk get denser, baby feel full at some point and stops nursing. So, baby needs to get the milk till it fulfills the daily recommended energy intake. Besides, breastfeeding is important because it helps baby sleep well, interact with its mommy and feel good in general.
The Clash of Milks
Let’s turn this into a challenge by adding other types of milks in the mix, like goat’s milk.
-If we talk about the fat content, goat would like to feed its baby more fat for some reason. In other words, goat’s milk is the fattiest of the bunch. It’s followed by human milk which is drunk by the most vulnerable baby among those mammals. And surprisingly, despite what its size would make us think, calf needs less fat.
-When it comes to lactose content, baby human needs more of it. To me, it’s probably caused by having the highest cognitive level among the mammalian species and glucose being the main energy source of brain (lactose is broken down to galactose and glucose and then galactose is also transformed to glucose to be metabolised). It’s followed by calf and goat.
-Protein content seems to be higher as the size of the animal increases, as we can see it in calf (That’s just a prediction, though. It can’t be generalized). Calf is followed by a mammal which is bigger than baby human: goat. Then it comes to human, at the last place. It may not be the real cause, I may be exhibiting my ignorance but hey, why wouldn’t I play the role of dedective?
As I mentioned before, the type of protein matters, as well. %35 of human milk is casein. It’s %80 in cow’s milk. When we consider that cow has a stomach with 4 separate chambers that are for certain processes which seems like an established and strict bureaucracy, calf wouldn’t care about casein that’s harder to digest (Phew… What a scientific deduction!)
Whey proteins being the dominant part in human milk is partly caused by it being easier to digest and also being protective against infections. Beta-lactoglobulin and alpha-lactalbumin, whey proteins, are protective against infections. Among the downsides of goat’s milk are the higher protein content for baby human and the sodium content that’s 3 times higher than human milk. Protein requires to be broken down before being processed in the body. When broken down, aminoacids appear. As in the name of it, they’re “acid”s. If the protein content is too high for the baby, it may create an acidic environment which can lead to acidosis. And that affects the tiniest bureacuratic process in the body. Excess sodium causes “hypernatremia” which may lead to dehydration (lack of water, to be clear). Nevertheless, goat’s milk is less allergenic than cow’s milk. But most of the children that develop allergy against cow’s milk also develop allergy against goat’s milk.
Another problem is that the babies that consume goat’s milk may experience anemia caused by the decrease in folic acid levels. The reason is the lower level of folic acid in goat’s milk (50 micrograms per liter in human milk, 6 micrograms per liter in goat’s milk). For some reason, baby goat don’t need that much of a folic acid (The main functions of folic acid are cell proliferation and division which are very important for babies). Baby human that’s younger than 6-month-old needs 65 micrograms of folic acids a day. So, it wouldn’ cover.
It’s like not seeing the couple we saw at the beginning till the end in “Pulp Fiction”. Maybe I made you forgot it let’s get back to our “honey bunny”: donkey milk.
Why does milk exist? In order to meet the needs of the newborn. The requirements of species vary. As we mentioned before, calf needs more protein while goat needs more fat.
Conferences always begin with the definition. It even begins with asking “What’s Powerpoint? Let’s talk about that”. So it’ll be like this a bit but I’ll give an info that I don’t think anyone would care. That makes me find it even more interesting. The question is: “Where did donkeys come from?”. The ancestors of donkeys are a old guy which was small and grey, in 4000 BC, at the coast of Mediterranean coasts in Africa. Donkeys are in the same family with horses. They’re stil the main means of transportation in some areas and also the main milk source.
The Content of Donkey Milk
100 mL (A half of a glass) of donkey milk contains:
1.5-1.8 gram of protein (0.6 gram whey)
0.3-1.8 gram of fat
5.8-7.4 gram of lactose
Whey is stil at the highest level in human milk. It’s less in donkey milk (%37) but more than cow’s milk (%17). In general, donkey milk is kind of a milk that’s rich in lactose but low in protein and fat. Let’s say that we need to know the figures of donkey invetory, the numbers are the highest in China, Pakistan and Ethiopia, respectively. Xinjiang, China, donkey farms are abundant and produce 40.000 tons of donkey milk a year. Actually, that’s problem: Let’s say that you raise the donkey, it’s hard to get the milk with efficiency. Okey, you got the milk with efficiency, it’s hard to distribute because the market is practically doesn’t exist. Let’s say that you distributed it, there are costs. Pricing is another problem, so the supply may not be the way we’d like it to be. Anyway, let’s not lose hope and take a look at a study carried out in China:
Donkeys that weighed 120-130 kilograms and 4-14 years old were divided into 7 groups. They divided them by their ages. The groups were consisted of donkeys that are 15-month-old, 30-month-old, 60, 105, 120, 150 and 180-month-old. There were 10 donkeys in each group. All the donkeys followed the same diet. Here’s the list (Now I’m the dietitian for donkeys, that’s a success!):
-1.04 kilograms of bran
-0.88 kg corn
-0.099 kg pulp (residue of fat)
-0.98 kg Qing Chu (Corn hay that’s stored after fermentation)
-1.32 kg shamrock
-0.99 kg wheat hay
So, this diet was consisted of %78.9 carbohydrates, %13 protein, %2.24 fat and %18.97 fibre (A diet of baby human is consisted of %40-60 carbohydrate, %35-40 fat and protein that’s changing accordingly to age and weight)
Those donkeys were milked 4 times a day: At 6 am, 12:00 at noon, 6 pm and 00:00 at night. After leaving the donkeys dazed and confused with no clue on what’s going on, milks were frozen and stored until being analyzed. Researchers proved what we already know: Donkey milk contained less protein and fat and more lactose than cow’s milk. Therefore, donkey milk is found out to be the closest milk to human milk in terms of its content. There you go, the info that’s distributed by word-of-mouth is now approved. The common people won. Good luck to them for the next challenge!
Protein Content
Donkey milk has higher whey but of course, not as high as human milk. Potential threats of donkey milk are beta-lactoglobulin content which may be allergenic and high lactose content which would cause problems especially the baby or child is lactose intolerant. Donkey milk contains 8 amino acids that we should take from foods (essential aminoacids) at higher levels than mare’s and cow’s milk. The study that we just mentioned declares donkey milk as “human milk substitute”.
One of the whey proteins of donkey milk is alpha-lactalbumin. Its levels peak during laboring and plateaus as long as the mother breastfeeds. This is similar to the case in human milk. Here’s another irrelevant information: Poney’s milk contains 2 times more alpha-lactalbumin than donkey milk. Why would it matter, though? It’s a whey protein, so it’s easier to digest, it supports immune system and is antimicrobic.
Donkey milk contains substances that would protect its baby from germs as well as human milk and other mammalian milks. Being antimicrobial is crucial because how can germs permeate milk when the milk contains a substance that fights microorganisms? Therefore, human milk, mare’s milk and donkey milk contains less germs (But they should be heated like in the case of cow’s milk anyway!).
Another antimicrobial substance is “lysozyme”. Maybe we can remember from high school: “Lysosome” is organel which unloads its enzymes and melt anything that comes on its way. “Lysozyme” does that to cell membranes of germs. It also does the same thing to bigger particles so breaks them down to littler pieces which make it eaiser to digest. If they’re small, it becomes easier fort he baby. So the cases of digestive problems like diarrhea, constipation, stomacache decreases.
Here’s a thing we should pay attention: Protein comes to mind first when it’s bout growth and other similar subjects, it’s understandable. But it’s wrong if we solely focus on protein. It’s also wrong thinking like “The more the better”. It’s not correct when we think that more protein is better for baby’s growth. Protein is filtered by kidney and we don’t store the surplus in our bodies. Therefore, if we challenge the baby’s little kidney with excessive protein then that would be a load on it.
Lactose Content
… but it’s difficult and also dangerous to say something about this with certainty. To say this seems to be alright, though: Donkey milk may be a substitute fort he ones with cow’s milk allergy. Besides, some sources suggest using probiotics because they contain lysozyme and lactase that help the development of Lactobasilli that are friendly and are located in our colons. What makes donkey milk consumable is lactose which gives the milk a distant taste and increases bioavailability of calcium. Something not to be forgotten: Lactose is required for the development of intestinal microflora. That’s one of the reasons why it’s high in human milk. And that’s one of the reasons of the usage of probiotics (Lactose intolerance requires attention).
There is a scarcity in studies about the association between diabetes and donkey milk but let’s say this: Donkey milk seems to be effective on repairing the beta cells in pancreas which are responsible for insulin secretion, on increasing the sensitivity of organs towards insulin and on increasing body’s antioxidant levels. So, it may be protective against diabetes.
Fat Content
The fat content of both donkey and human milk are low. But most of the fatty acids of human milk are unsaturated EPA and DHA which are important in brain development. Those two are lacking in donkey milk. Omega-6, another essential fatty acid, is also low in donkey milk. They are all needed for cognitive development. Therefore, we can say that this milk is insufficient in the first year of the baby human if one thinks about replacing it with human milk.
However… it may be more beneficial in preparing formulas than cow’s milk due to its higher fatty acid pattern. In other words, it would make more sense if we consider using donkey milk in formulas when the formulas are needed to be replaced with human milk instead of substituting it with human milk. Especially in order to avoid allergy development and if it happens, to aid the treatment of it. But you get a donkey, raise it, milk it, be kicked by it every now and then, get milk with high efficiency, then distribute it, sell it at a high price, inevitably… It’s complicated.
Mineral Content
Mineral content of donkey milk is similar to human and mare’s milk, more than human milk in total (but quality matters, not the quantity). The difference is that its calcium and phosphate levels are too high. But calcium/phosphate ratio is similar to human milk. Calcium and phospate are like the brothers that are always competing each other. They go to same places but if they compete, calcium whines and becomes reluctant (It’s bioavailability decreases).
In a study, 16 healthy Martina Franca (in Apulia region of Italia) donkeys were milked for 3 months. The were analysed and mineral content of their milks were as following:
-Calcium: 807 mg/liter
-Phosphate: 638 mg/liter
-Potassium: 746 mg/liter
-Sodium: 141 mg/desiliter
-Calcium/phosphate ratio: 1.26
They all are similar to mare’s milk. Here’s another important point we usually miss thinking about donkey milk: The content of it changes depending on the phase of breastfeeding. The calcium, phosphate and magnesium content decreases over time. As we mentioned before, we should consider the phase of the breastfeeding when thinking about the content (or “benefits”) of milk.
A Remedy for Allergies?
In a study, 81 children (49 male, 32 female) of 3-8 months of age. A group of it were given donkey milk for 6 months. Only one of them experienced reaction when 78 out of 81 children were fed with donkey milk orally.
22 children were given donkey milk products instead of cow’s milk products as a whole. They all tolerated donkey milk well and none of them were affected negatively in terms of development. In short, donkey milk was found out to be a suitable alternative –including the first 6 months of the life- when it comes to reactions against cow’s milk proteins (like beta-lactoglobulin).
Another thing about allergies is omega-3 content. The essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6) are high in the fat part of donkey milk. Omega-3 is already being used in the case of atopical dermatitis. Therefore, we can think that donkey milk would be beneficial in cases of allergies.
SUMMARY
Donkey milk is low in protein and fat while it’s high in lactose. The dominant type of protein in it is whey, which is easier to digest. It’s fat part is rich in essential fatty acids. Eşek sütü, proteini ve yağı az, laktozu yüksek bir süt. Besides, donkey milk contains antimicrobial substances that’ll protect baby from infections. Cow’s milk contains allergenic proteins so it pushes us to find a replacement that wouldn’t cause allergic reactions in babies and children.
However, to regard donkey milk as a substitute of human milk is digression. It may be attractive that its content is more similar to human milk than other mammalian milks but it wouldn’t make sense when adults plan to consume that because donkey milk only can meet the needs of a baby. For a baby. That’s it.
It’s problematic finding, raising, milking, shoeing the donkey, milk it with high efficiency, distribute the milk but set a high price inevitably due to costs and so on. But donkey milk that has the closest content with mare’s milk to human milk than any other mammalian milk seems to be a good alternative in the case of cow’s milk protein allergy. We shall see…
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