13 Types Of Dairy Milk Worldwide Ranked | Best to Worst
Milk is the drink you will want if you’re stranded without food because it’s packed with many of the nutrients your body needs, making it almost like food.
The many types of dairy milk each come with its package of nutrients.
It might seem like they’re all the same, but we’re ranking 13 types based on their availability to most people and their nutritional content.
Some can be bought online, and others require travel, but we have links to where you can find most of them throughout the post and the infographic.
We will also tell you the best way to drink milk since our motto here at M2oo is that “how you eat is just as important as what you eat if you want the benefits’.
Let’s go.
13 Types Of Dairy Milk Worldwide Ranked | Best to Worst
Cow’s Milk
Goat Milk
Sheep Milk
Buffalo Milk
Camel Milk
Reindeer Milk
Horse Milk
Yak Milk
Llama Milk
Moose Milk
Elk Milk
Nut Milk
Lab Milk
Who Gets To Say What Milk Is?
Until today, according to humans, milk is the white liquid that comes from the bodies of mammals (in general, mammals are any creature living on earth that can have babies without laying eggs, and the females feed these babies with milk made from their bodies).
What about the nut milk that companies make from nuts?
You guessed it right, reader, that’s just white water with your extra gallon of side effects and some benefits.
Except for the fact that these nut waters can be drunk, there’s no difference between calling them milk and calling a glass of flour water with a small amount of paint milk.
Benefits of Drinking Animal Milk?
These are the vitamins and minerals all milk provides, generally, but the different ways milk is made affect how much of these nutrients you get.
Vitamins A, a lot of the Bs, D, E, and K
Calcium
Phosphorus
Potassium
Magnesium
Protein
Carbohydrates (Lactose)
Fats (Saturated, Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated)
Omega-3 Fatty Acids (depends on what the animal was fed)
Things to know about milk in general before we get into the ranking:
Raw Milk
Most milk you see is almost always heated to play it safe with the bacteria, but raw milk is milk straight from the animal without heating.
It is safe (when done correctly), so all you have to do to drink it is to find someone who makes it properly.
People have been and are still drinking it forever and today because it has so many more benefits than heated milk (a.k.a. pasteurized milk).
Pasteurized
This type of milk is the heated kind that plays it safe with the bacteria and keeps the milk longer on the shelf.
There are a lot of benefits with this one, but not at the level of raw milk.
Ultra-pasteurized
Ultra-pasteurized milk gets heated for a shorter time than pasteurized milk, except a higher temperature makes it last longer on store shelves.
That's why it might taste different from pasteurized milk and has fewer benefits.
A1 and A2 -
There are two types of protein in milk called A1 and A2.
Some people who have stomach discomfort when drinking milk with A1 protein are recommended to try milk with A2 protein to make it easier on their stomachs.
100% Grass-fed, 100% Grain-fed, Half Grass Half Grain
Remember, your body gets whatever the animal eats when you eat food from the animal (meat or milk).
The animal that eats 100% plain grass all the time (grass without any chemicals, just natural grass) gets most of the vitamins, nutrients, and minerals it needs.
The grain-fed guy is usually loaded with chemicals from the grains to make them bigger quickly for more milk and meat so the farmer can load up his pockets.
Half-grass/half-grain is where you take a bet.
RBST
Just like us, you've seen this plastered on milk bottles at your grocery store.
RBST (if you love long words, here's the full name, Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin) is a chemical that some farmers give to their cows to make the cow have more milk, which means more money for the farmer.
We're sure you know by now that our bodies are not made for and don't have the tools to deal with "foods" made in labs; instead, we just get damaged.
It's like using half oil and half gas to run your car.
Poll
1. Cow's Milk
Even though all types of milk usually have so much of what your body needs packaged all in one drink, we ranked cow’s milk as # 1 because you can get it almost anywhere in the world.
Here are the different types of cow's milk that you usually see:
The difference between these 3 is the amount of natural fat (saturated fat) that's in them.
The 2% means 2% milk fat, and the 1% represents 1% of milk fat.
Reader, saturated fat is not bad for you and doesn't make you fat.
The less fat you have in the milk, the less creamy it is and the more watery it tastes.
RELATED POST: How to lose weight with Real Food
That's why whole milk tastes a lot creamier and tastier than 2% milk, and 2% milk tastes much lighter but more creamy than 1% milk, which tastes like water with a splash of milk.
Fat is one of the three things that makes food taste good to us. Take out the fat; you can almost say you're eating cardboard.
The other two things are sugar and salt; milk has both naturally.
The benefits of cow’s milk are typical to the benefits you get generally in other milk.
When buying cow's milk, you can get it raw, pasteurized, ultra-pasteurized, A1, A2, RBST-FREE, grass-fed, grain-fed, or half-grass-fed and half-grain-fed.
The most essential two that you should never compromise to avoid loading your body with chemicals and sicknesses down the line (as we've explained above) are grass-fed completely and RBST-FREE.
The products made from cow's milk, like cheese, yogurt, butter, cream, ice cream, powdered milk, and condensed milk, usually have fewer vitamins and nutrients than straight-up cow's milk because every time you take food from the way it naturally is and turn it into something else by cooking it, processing it, or adding certain ingredients to it, it loses a lot of its natural benefits.
2. Goat's Milk
Goat's milk tastes more creamy than cow's milk, which is why some people prefer it.
If you've ever been around a goat and then drank goat milk, you might almost swear you smell a tiny hint of the goat in the milk.
Like cow's milk, you can get goat's milk as whole, 2%, and 1%.
As for the benefits, you get the vitamins and minerals you usually get from animal milk, which, as you know, depends on the type you choose (raw, pasteurized, ultra-pasteurized, RBST-FREE, 100% grass-fed, 100% grain-fed, half grass-fed, and half grain-fed).
With goat's milk, you should also never compromise getting 100% grass-fed and RBST-FREE.
Ranked #2 because it's a bit more difficult to find than cow's milk, but what goat milk has above cow's milk is that:
It's easier to digest for some people
It has higher amounts of some vitamins and minerals like vitamin A, calcium, and potassium
Some people who are allergic to cow's milk can tolerate goat's milk because of the way protein is in goat's milk
Your body can absorb the vitamins and minerals better because goat milk fat is tinier than cow's milk
Goat milk cheese, butter, kefir, yogurt, powder, evaporated milk, ice cream, and skin care products are what you can buy if you're looking for products made with goat's milk.
Again, the more you take food away from the way it is naturally, the less of its natural benefits you'll get.
3. Sheep Milk
Sheep’s milk is more creamy but comes close to goat’s milk.
People usually sell it as straight-up sheep’s milk, and you can get it raw, pasteurized, 100% grass-fed, 100% grain-fed, or half grass-fed and grain-fed.
Raw and 100% grass-fed is how you’ll get the maximum nutrients; if not possible, you want to always go for 100% grass-fed.
It has all the regular benefits you would get from drinking animal milk but with much more:
Nutrients
Flavor
Easier digestibility (which helps a lot of people who are sensitive to milk/lactose intolerance)
Proteins (about the same as goat’s milk)
Even though it’s a little harder to find, you can buy many types of dairy products made with sheep’s milk, such as sheep milk butter, sheep milk cheese, sheep milk yogurt, and sheep milk ice cream.
4. Buffalo Milk
People say you must be brave to milk a buffalo, which tells you buffalo milk isn’t easy to find.
The milk has a rich, creamy taste compared to all the other kinds of milk we’ve discussed, and it’s a bit sweeter.
When buying it, your options are raw, pasteurized, 100% grass-fed, 100% grain-fed, or half grass-fed.
Besides all the benefits you get from drinking animal milk, buffalo milk has more:
fat
protein
calcium
iron
Digestibility (easier to digest for people who are lactose intolerant or people who have a sensitivity to cow’s milk protein)
Buffalo milk has lower cholesterol, which is perfect for anyone who has to watch how much cholesterol they have.
Even though it may be hard to find, you can get buffalo milk butter, buffalo milk cheese, buffalo milk yogurt, buffalo milk ghee, and buffalo milk ice cream.
5. Camel Milk
The taste of camel's milk can be very sensitive to what the camel eats.
Camels fed foods like dates and honey can have much sweeter milk, and those fed grain and grass end up with slightly saltier milk.
The taste can even change depending on how long ago the camel gave birth.
The texture of the milk is refreshing and tastes like cow's milk but creamier. Even though it tastes creamier, it has less fat than cow's milk.
You can get it raw or pasteurized. It's not easy to find one that's 100% grass-fed, but you can protect your health by making sure that at least what the camel is fed is non-GMO.
The benefits are out of this world, reader, and they involve camel's urine!
First, the benefits of camel's milk are similar to those of human breast milk.
Not only does the milk have all the vitamins and minerals you get from drinking any animal milk, but it also has:
more protein
Anti-inflammatory properties (inflammation is how a lot of sicknesses start)
Probiotics (the bacteria that your gut needs to keep your gut and immune system working well)
Some people have had their autoimmune problems fixed with camel's milk.
Camel's urine is a well-known medicine from centuries that a lot of people drink to cure things like cancer and other diseases.
You'd like to check out two out of so many studies to learn more about this.
You can buy products made from camel's milk, like camel milk ghee, camel milk powder, camel milk cheese, and camel milk chocolate.
6. Reindeer Milk
You might have never tried it, but it's very creamy.
Only certain parts of the world have reindeer milk because only certain parts have reindeer.
The milk has much more fat than cow's, so it tastes very rich and creamy. To give you an idea, cow's milk has about 3-4% fat, and reindeer milk has about 22%.
It has the benefits that any milk has, plus:
More nutrients
More fat
More energy-dense because of the fat and all those nutrients in it
There are few products made with reindeer milk that you can buy because reindeer don't give a lot of milk, and reindeer don't live worldwide.
If you're lucky to find any, the price may be very high because they're rare.
7. Horse Milk
Horse milk is sweet and a bit more watery than cow’s milk.
It’s not widely sold, but if you were to buy it, you could buy it as pasteurized or fermented horse milk, also called airag or kumis, which might make you drunk if you drink a lot.
Besides the regular benefits any milk gives you, horse milk is:
Easier to digest for people with lactose intolerance
Other than cheese made from horse milk, there aren’t many dairy products you could buy made of horse milk.
8. Yak Milk
Yak milk is a bit sweet, very rich, and creamy.
If you leave fresh yak milk in the fridge, you may find a layer of cream on top of the jar or bottle.
It’s almost impossible to find, but if you manage to, you will most likely only have a choice between raw, pasteurized, and possibly grass—or grain-fed.
It has all the benefits of any milk with a lot more fat and nutrients, and the more fat the milk has, the more certain types of vitamins (like vitamin A, D, E, and K) it has, and yak milk has a lot of fat.
Besides yak ghee and yak butter, buying anything made from yak milk is almost out of the question unless you know a farmer who makes yak dairy products and is willing to sell you some.
9. Llama Milk
Llama milk is rare, and few people drink it. Some claim it can cure many diseases, but that has not been proven yet.
It’s hard to say how it tastes because few people have documented themselves trying it.
There isn’t anything known explicitly with evidence that llama milk has over other types of milk.
It’s hard enough to find the milk. It will be even harder to find anything else made using llama milk.
10. Moose Milk
You can only get this type of milk in some parts of Sweden, Russia, Canada, and other places worldwide.
Trying to buy the milk will set you back $100s of dollars, if not $1000s.
When buying, you have two options: raw or pasteurized milk.
Someone who tried it describes the taste as salty, bitter, and just a little acidulous, with a light scent like spruce needles.
Moose milk costs this much not just because it’s rare but also because it is used in different treatments, such as peptic ulcer therapy and radiation lesions treatment.
The only dairy product widely known to be made of moose milk is moose cheese, and if the milk costs $100s, the cheese costs $500s.
11. Elk Milk
Elks are a lot like moose, but they’re a bit different.
Elk milk is creamy and rich and is also very rare.
One of the few places you can get elk milk is in some villages in Russia and a farm or so in the US.
When buying it, your options will be either raw or pasteurized.
Milk from elks and mosses is used for treatments and healing because they are wild animals that eat hundreds of different types of plants in the forests.
Humans don’t know all the benefits of these plants, so drinking this milk is an easy way to get them.
There are no known dairy products made with elk milk because elk are challenging to milk, and elk milk is so rare.
12. Nut Milk
They're not milk.
If you make them yourself, they're just nut water.
If you get one pre-made nut or grain "milk," you'll drink nut water with a couple of cups of vegetable oil (check the ingredients list).
Why vegetable oil?
Many nut/grain water companies use this method to thicken their drinks because it's cheaper than adding more nuts, oats, etc.…
Drinking things like this is like a gamble; you drink it now and find out the results in your later years when your body can't fight things off as much as it used to, and we don't have any examples in history to have any results to fall back on because chemicalizing foods has never been done by anyone before in human history, just like when cigarettes used to be good and cool until people found out they're not after many cases of heart disease later.
So, reader, it's up to you and everyone else to decide whether they want to use their one life on this earth to be part of a giant experiment.
13. Lab Milk
You may not believe it, but yes, lab-made milk is being made, sold, and put into some of the food you buy at restaurants, cafes, and stores, just like lab-made chicken, which we won’t get into.
Companies are manufacturing them for many reasons, and as we said, it’s up to every person to decide whether or not they want to use the one body they have on this earth to be part of a giant experiment.
Best Way To Drink Milk
Milk naturally comes with everything your body needs to help you absorb all its nutrients.
Still, you want to make sure you aren’t drinking it with anything that would make your body have difficulty absorbing it.
Here are some tips you want to follow:
Don’t combine milk with foods or drinks that make it difficult for your body to process quickly (ex, sour fruits like citruses)
Try not to drink milk when eating because it’s almost like food, so you may give your stomach too much work to do because you’ll have too much to digest (try waiting 2 hours or so before you drink the milk)
Besides these two, milk contains everything you need to enjoy its benefits.
If you still don’t get all the benefits, it’s almost always because something is missing in your system, or there might be a problem somewhere in your system that prevents you from digesting the nutrients well.
FAQ
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Yes, you can generally substitute these types of milk for each other in recipes, but consider what adjustments you'll need to make because each type has different flavors, fat content, and consistency.
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1. Cow’s Milk: Versatile for baking, sauces, soups, and beverages.
2. Goat Milk: Good for cheeses, yogurts, and creamy dishes with a tangy flavor.
3. Sheep Milk: Ideal for rich cheeses, yogurts, and creamy desserts.
4. Buffalo Milk: Excellent for mozzarella cheese and creamy desserts.
5. Camel Milk: Works well in beverages and desserts with a slightly salty taste.
6. Reindeer Milk: Best for high-fat, creamy dishes and traditional Arctic recipes.
7. Horse Milk: Suitable for fermented products and sweet dishes.
8. Yak Milk: Great for butter, cheeses, and rich, creamy dishes.
9. Llama Milk: You can use this in traditional South American and creamy recipes.
10. Moose Milk: Perfect for high-fat, protein-rich dishes and specialty cheeses.
11. Elk Milk: Like moose milk, it is best for decadent, creamy recipes.
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Most animal milk lasts around 7-10 days refrigerated, while some, like camel milk, may last up to 14 days.
Infographic
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Conclusion
Knowing the health benefits of what you eat helps you be more cautious about what you put into your body, which is good for your overall health. Things like camel’s urine and the different types of dairy milk we mentioned have significant benefits.
Take the Next Step: The benefits of what you’re eating is just the beginning. Check out these 5 Bad Eating Habits You Should Stop This Year to not damage your gut.
Tell Us: What’s the best tasting milk you’ve ever had?
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