CRITICAL REVIEW ON GODUGDHA (COW MILK) HEALTH BENEFITS AND HAZARDS

Milk is touted as complete food. Cow milk is said to be one of the most commonly consumed amongst the many kinds available. Human beings are the only species that drink the milk of another species, specially cow’s milk. Besides humans no species drinks milk beyond their natural age of weaning or drinks the milk of another species. Some Constituents of Cow milk may be useful, and some may be harmful to human beings. Depending upon the variants of β-casein (30% of cows’ milk-proteins) found genetically, the Milk is divided into A1 and A2 type. Cow milk is deficient in essential fatty acids as compared to human milk. A1 and A2 milk variants differ by a single amino acid. A1 type of milk has serious health hazards on hu-mans. In order to fulfill the increasing demand and make profitable business, today the farmers are exces-sively using the Chemical drugs, antibiotics, forced feeding plans, Hormones and specialized breeding plan to increase the milk production. All these additives are having serious health adverse effects on both ani-mals and consumers of Godugdha (Cow milk). The present review article is compiled from many articles and research papers collected from different websites along with related materials from ancient Ayurvedic classics.