Milk Nutritional Value of Mother Cow Gaumatha

 According to Vastu-Shastra, all vastu dosh is corrected in a house where cow is living. Cow is considered to be the mother, most loving entity.

Krishna lives in Goloka Vrindavana. That is the biggest spiritual planet and it is lotus-shaped. Goloka Vrindavana is much, much bigger than all the Vaikuntha planets plus all the material universes put together. And Krishna lives there. But what is that place. It is the "planet of the cows." It is simply a huge pasturing ground for Krishna's cows.

So we can see how much Krishna likes & love the cows. And from this you can understand how many problems and how much suffering is being caused in this world because cow killing is going on such a huge scale. In United States, about 1, 00,000 cows are slaughtered daily. Even in India 40 thousand cows are slaughtered daily or 1 crore 40 lacs annually.

Less intelligent people underestimate the value of cow’s milk. Cow’s milk is also called gorasa, or the juice from the body of the cow. Milk is the most valuable form of gorasa, and from milk we can prepare many important and valuable foodstuffs for the upkeep of the human body. The killing of cows by human society is one of the grossest suicidal policies, and those who are anxious to cultivate the human spirit must turn their attention first toward the question of cow protection. Today's society is so foolish that they are ready to pay 45 Rupees for a liter of Coco Cola or Pepsi, but do not want to pay 20 Rupees for a liter of Milk. All these cold drinks are so much harmful for the body and causes many diseases. Wheres cow's milk not only is good for the mind and body but also for the soul.

Protection and grazing ground for the cows are among the essential needs for society and the welfare of people in general. The animal fat required for the human body can be well derived from cow’s milk. Cow’s milk is very important for human energy, and the economic development of society depends on sufficient food grains, sufficient milk, and sufficient transportation and distribution of these products. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, by His personal example, taught us the importance of cow protection, which is meant not only for the Indian climate but for all human beings all over the universe.


That everything in the Vedik Culture is centered around service to God - Krishna. What He requests or orders, that is what we do. We are His servants, and thus act accordingly serving His culture - that of Human Civilization, Daivi Varnashram Dharma. The Cow is very dear to Krishna, and as anything dear to Krishna it is dear to His devotees. Thus the Cow and the Bull are the emblems of Vedic life.

That the Cow is a very useful member of the community. She provides much more milk than her calf can healthily consume, and that excess can be used to help in preparing foodstuffs to offer to the Deity, which in turn are offered to the people in general to consume.
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Milk Nutritional Value

Milk is an unavoidable part of human diet. Different types of milk that we consume include different kinds of nutrients. Milk provides us with minerals, protein, fat, carbohydrate, and vitamins. So it is also called as a complete diet.

It is recommended that every human being should consume a certain amount of milk for fulfilling their nutritional deficits. Milk can be consumed either as a drink or in the form of milk-derivates like dairy products. "Nothing is perfect." The statement is true for food as well. There is no food item, which has all the nutritional supplements. Still, milk is something which at least comes next to perfection in the world of food products. The nutritional facts prove that milk has most of the nutrients that your body needs to carry out its daily functions. You will find carbohydrate, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals in milk. Milk have all minerals, fat, vitamins except vitamin "C". Curd has everything including vitamin C. So a person can survive just on Curd with a healthy body.

Milk Nutrition Facts

Carbohydrates: 250 gm of milk contains approximately 13 gm of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates found in milk are in a di-saccharide (made of two sugar units) form called lactose. It is also sometimes referred to as milk sugar. One molecule of lactose is made of one molecule of glucose and fructose each. There is no dietary fiber or starch found in milk.

Fats: The fat content in 250 gm of milk is 2.5 gm. Out of this 2.5 gm of fats, 1.7 gm is saturated fats while the rest is unsaturated. The amount of monounsaturated fats is 0.7 gm and that of polyunsaturated fats is 0.1 gm. Milk is also rich in essential fatty acids. The amount of omega-6 and omega-3 essential faty acids present in 250 gm of milk is 73.2 mg and 9.8 mg respectively.

Proteins: 250 gm of milk has 8.2 gm of proteins. The proteins mainly present in milk are casein and whey proteins. The amount of casein is 0.2 grams and that of whey proteins is 0.0252 grams. Milk has alpha-s1, alpha-s2, beta and gamma casein. In the category of whey proteins, milk has beta-lactalbumin, immunoglobulin and blood serum albumin. Milk also has fat globule membrane proteins and certain enzymes.

Vitamins: Milk is a very rich source of vitamins. 250 gm of milk meets approximately 44% of your body's daily requirement of vitamins. The amount of vitamin A is 478 IU, vitamin D is 127 IU, vitamin K is 0.2 mcg, riboflavin is 0.5 mg, niacin is 0.2 mg, folate is 12.2 mcg, vitamin B6 is 0.1 mg, vitamin B12 is 1.1 mcg, betadine is 1.5 mg, pantothenic acid is 0.9 mg and that of choline is 43.2 mg. Milk lacks vitamin C, E and B1.

Minerals: 250 gm of milk has 290 mg of calcium , 6.3 mcg of fluoride, 0.1 mg of iron, 8.1 mcg of selenium, 26.8 mg of magnesium, 1.0 mg of zinc, 232 mg of phosphorus, 107 mg of sodium and 366 mg of potassium. Copper is absent in milk. You will get all these minerals by drinking a single glass of milk.

Others: 250 gm of milk has some other essential components of your diet as well. It has 12.2 mg of cholesterol and 220 gm of water.

You can make out from the milk nutrition facts that the fat content of milk is low. By knowing the milk nutrition facts, you must have understood the significance of drinking milk everyday. It is almost equal to a balanced diet. Make sure that you are drinking at least a glass of milk daily. This will not only fulfill your nutritional requirements but also make your body strong and more resistant to diseases. Milk gives you a healthy life.

That the bull is by nature a hard working creature and is happiest in the working environment, tilling the fields, and pulling carts. As a useful member of society he is honoured and respected and given all facility for a healthy and happy long life.

Thus the Cow and the Bull are like the Mother and Father of Vedic society nourishing and providing for those who are dependent upon them.

When the Cow and Bull are shown affection, and given love and protection, they also interact with humans in a friendly manner.

Misconception: 
That if the Cow and the Bull are allowed to increase in population, and are allowed freedom to not be slaughtered, that they will over-run society.

The fact is that so many of these poor creatures are brought into the world by artificial means and then misused, abused, etc. In a natural environment where animals are cared for such High Production techniques in farming DO NOT occur. Therefore there is no threat to land or food. In fact if crops that are presently being grown as animal feed were fed to humans, instead of to fatten up animals for slaughter there would be no so-called food shortages.

Misconception: 
The unfortunate way that we see Cows and bulls in the world today, where these poor animals arefattened and artificially impregnated to produce calves for the slaughter, and to keep them milking for longer is not what we regard as Cow Protection, and is certainly not adhered to in the Vedik - Krishna conscious culture - this is total exploitation of animals' rights.

The idea that humans have dominion over these animals with the intention to exploit or harm them, is as wrong as it be in the case of a king who has dominion over his people to exploit or harm them.

Misconception:

That animals have some kind of "different soul" to that of humans, and thus can be exploited, abused, made the brunt of vicious sports, and even eaten.

Animals and humans, as well as other creatures of the land, sea, and air are ALL spirit souls; we are ALL sons and daughters of the same Father. Those who are a little soft-hearted and less exploitive, the innocent, and children can see that the human eats, the animal eats; the human sleeps, the animals sleeps; the human mates, the animal mates; the human defends, the animal defends - the same things are there, the similar bodies are there, neither want pain and suffering, both want to be happy with their families and friends. Neither WANT to die.

We are supposed to worship cows and feed them by "Go-grasa" everyday. If not atleast on this special day we are supposed to worship cows and feed them. But in this age, if we can think of poor cows and try to help them to have a peaceful life, that would be more than a worship. Let us all pray for the poor and disabled cows and try to help those who are trying to protect them.

It wouldbe  more meaningful if we can support and help those "go-samrakshana Kendras" trying to protect the cows from the butchers' hand.

According to information compiled by the United States Department of Agriculture, over ninety percent of all grain produced in America is used for feeding live stock - cows, pigs, lambs and chickens - that wind up on dinner tables. Yet the process of using grain to produce meat is incredibly wasteful. For example, information from the USDA's Economic Research Service shows that we get back only one pound of beef for every sixteen pounds of grain.

In his book Proteins: Their Chemistry and Politics, Dr. Aaron Altshul notes that in terms of calorie units per acre, a diet of grains, vegetables, and beans will support twenty times more people than a diet of meat. As it stands now, about half the harvested acreage in America is used to feed animals. If the earth's arable land were used primarily for the production of vegetarian foods, the planet could easily support a human population of twenty billion and more.

Living Cows Are an Economic Asset

It is quite clear that a living cow yields society more food than a dead one - in the form of a continuing supply of milk, cheese, butter, yogurt and other high-protein foods. In 1971, Stewart Odend'hal of the University of Missouri conducted a detailed study of cows in Bengal and found that far from depriving humans of food, they ate only inedible remains of harvested crops (rice hulls, tops of sugarcane, etc.) and grass. "Basically," he said, "the cattle convert items of little direct human value into products of immediate utility."

This should put to rest the myth that people are starving in India because they will not kill their cows. Interestingly enough, India recently seems to have surmounted its food problems, which have always had more to do with occasional severe drought or political upheaval than with sacred cows. A panel of experts at the Agency for International Development, in a statement cited in the Congressional Record for December 2, 1980, concluded, "India produces enough to feed all its people."

If allowed to live, cows produce high quality, protein rich foods in amounts that stagger the imagination. In America, there is a deliberate attempt to limit dairy production; nevertheless, Representative Sam Gibbons of Florida recently reported to Congress that the U.S. government was being forced to stockpile "mountains of butter, cheese, and nonfat dried milk." He told his colleagues, "We currently own about 440 million pounds of butter, 545 million pounds of cheese, and about 765 million pounds of nonfat dried milk." The supply grows by about 45 million pounds each week. In fact, the 10 million cows in American provide so much milk that the government periodically releases millions of pounds of dairy products for free distribution to the poor and hungry. It's abundantly clear that cows (living ones) are one of mankind's most valuable food resources.

Movements to save seals, dolphins, and whales from slaughter are flourishing - so why shouldn't there be a movement to save the cow? From the economic standpoint alone, it would seem to be a sound idea - unless you happen to be a part of the meat industry, which is increasingly worried about the growth of vegetarianism. In June 1977, a major trade magazine, Farm Journal, printed and editorial entitled, "Who Will Defend the Good Name of Beef?" The magazine urged the nation's beef-cattle raisers to chip in $40 million to finance publicity to keep beef consumption and prices sky high.
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You're Paying More than You Think for Meat

The meat industry is a powerful economic and political force, and besides spending millions of its own dollars to promote meat-eating, it has also managed to grab an unfair share of tax dollars. Practically speaking, the meat production process is so wasteful and costly that the industry needs subsidies in order to survive. Most people are unaware of how heavily national governments support the meat industry by outright grants, favorable loan guarantees, and so forth. In 1977, for example, the USDA bought an extra $100 million of surplus beef for school lunch programs. That same year, the governments of Western Europe spent almost a half-billion dollars purchasing the farmers' overproduction of meat and spent additional millions for the cost of storing it.

More tax dollars go down the drain in the form of the millions of dollars the U.S. government spends each year to maintain a nationwide network of inspectors to monitor the little-publicized problem of animal diseases. When diseased animals are destroyed, the government pays the owners an indemnity, For instance, in 1978 the American government paid out $50 million of its citizens' tax money in indemnities for the control of burcellosis, a flulike disease that afflicts cattle and other animals. Under another program, the U.S. government guarantees loans up to $350,000 for meat producers. Other farmers receive guarantees only up to $20,000. A New York Times editorial called this subsidy bill "outrageous," characterizing it as "a scandalous steal out of the public treasury." Also, despite much evidence from government health agencies showing the link between meat-eating and cancer and heart disease, the USDA continues to spend millions promoting meat consumption through its publications and school lunch programs.
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Environmental Damage

Another price we pay for meat-eating is degradation of the environment. The United States Agricultural Research Service calls the heavily contaminated runoff and sewage from America's thousands of slaughterhouses and feedlots a major source of pollution of the nation's rivers and streams. It is fast becoming apparent that the fresh water resources of this planet are not only becoming polluted but also depleted, and the meat industry is particularly wasteful. In their book Population, Resources, and Environment, Paul and Anne Ehrlich found that to grow one pound of wheat requires only 60 pounds of water, whereas production of a pound of meat requires anywhere from 2,500 to 6,000 pounds of water. And in 1973 the New York Post uncovered this shocking misuse of a valuable national resource - one large chicken slaughtering plant in America was found to be using 100 million gallons of water daily! This same volume would supply a city of 25,000 people.

Social Conflict

The wasteful process of meat production, which requires far larger acreages of land than vegetable agriculture, has been a source of economic conflict in human society for thousands of years. A study published in Plant Foods for Human Nutrition reveals that an acre of grains produces five times more protein than an acre of pasture set aside for meat production. An acre of beans or peas produces ten times more, and an acre of spinach twenty-eight times more protein. Economic facts like these were known to the ancient Greeks. In Pato's Republic the great Greek philosopher Socrates recommended a vegetarian diet because it would allow a country to make the most intelligent use of its agricultural resources. He warned that if people began eating animals, there would be need for more pasturing land. "And the country which was enough to support the original inhabitants will be too small now, and not enough?" He asked Glaucon, who replied that this was indeed true. "An so we shall go to war, Glaucon, shall we not?" To which Glaucon replied, "Most certainly."

It is interesting to note that meat-eating played a role in many of the wars during the age of European colonial expansion. The spice trade with India and other countries of the East was an object of great contention. Europeans subsisted on a diet of meat preserved with salt. In order to disguise and vary the monotonous and unpleasant taste of their food, they eagerly purchased vast quantities of spices. So huge were the fortunes to be made in the spice trade that governments and merchants did not hesitate to use arms to secure sources.

In the present era there is still the possibility of mass conflict based on food. Back in August 1974, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) published a report warning that in the near future their may not be enough food for the world's population "unless the affluent nations make a quick and drastic cut in their consumption of grain-fed animals."

Saving Money with a Vegetarian Diet

But now let's turn from the world geopolitical situation, and get right down to our own pocketbooks. Although not widely known, grains, beans, and milk products are an excellent source of high-quality protein.

Pound for pound many vegetarian foods are better sources of this essential nutrient than meat. A 100-gram portion of meat contains only 20 grams of protein.(Another fact to consider: meat is more than 50% water by weight.) In comparison, a 100-gram portion of cheese or lentils yields 25 grams of protein, while 100 grams of soybeans yields 34 grams of protein. But although meat provides less protein, it costs much more. A spot check of supermarkets in Los Angeles in August 1983 showed sirloin steak costing $3.89 a pound, while staple ingredients for delicious vegetarian meals averaged less than 50 cents a pound. An eight-ounce container of cottage cheese costing 59 cents provides 60% of the minimum daily requirement of protein. Becoming a vegetarian could potentially save an individual shopper at least several hundred dollars each year, thousands of dollars over the course of a lifetime. The savings to America's consumers as a whole would amount to billions of dollars annually. Considering all this, it's hard to see how anyone could afford not to become a vegetarian.

For any society Cows are the barometer of non-violence. One can tell by seeing how cows are treated in a particular society & can tell how peacefull is that society or nation. Unfortunately, in India, cows are being slaughtered. Even after its banned in almost all states of India, nobody cares to implement the law and save the mother cows. As a Yadav its prime duty of our community to do whatever they can do for saving cows. Love the cows, drink cow milk. Eat cow curd and cow milk products. This can be your first step towards loving the cows.

Read Also: The Srimad Bhagavad-Gita and the Sacredness of All Cows