Got Breast Milk?
Thus far a breast milk craze has not hit, but I am a little surprised. After all, it's the perfect organic, raw, and local food wrapped into one, neat, biodegradable package. And if you are going to drink milk, it's said to be better for you.
Why is breast milk on my mind? Well, Vice magazine recently concocted a cupcake challenge [NSFW] using cow's milk and breast milk:
After quietly chewing for a few minutes, he whispered, “I ... I can’t tell any difference at all." But we said, “No, you have to choose one.” So he held up the cupcake in his right hand and said, “This one is vaguely tastier.” And guess what, it was the boobcake! Breast milk officially wins!
Could this be the wave of the future? You tell me. Until then, I'll stick with soy milk for my tea.
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34 Comments:
Back when the PETA/Ben & Jerry's kerfuffle went through I had a big discussion with my Play Group mom's about this issue, and the general consensus was that it is ludicrous. I can see no feasible way that this would work.
There are many, many arguments but I believe the best one is that I doubt the women that would be the "producers" would consent to being treated as livestock. And what I mean by that is they would be willing to have all of their input (food, medicine and drinks) completely controlled and recorded. In this day and age of allergies, organic demand and what have you, the "producers" would have to be on incredibly restricted and managed diets.
Anything that a woman consumes ends up in her breast milk. Anything that is considered an allergen would have to be removed from their diets. So I am guessing no nuts, shellfish, alcohol, strawberries, citrus ... etc ...
unless you know exactly what the "producer" has been eating (and drinking and taking as medicine) you cannot evaluate the product for safety.
vox8ight at 2:13PM on 03/04/09
i can see this leading to many creepy incidents
do we get to farm breast milk now?
is that what your illuding?
zenazure at 2:22PM on 03/04/09
How about throwing up a NSFW tag on that Vice link? I mean, kind of self-evident, but I wasn't expecting an actual titty...
Lilly at 2:25PM on 03/04/09
Look, I'm as liberated as the next chick (haha) and I do think breastfeeding is a wonderful thing if it works and it is right for the individual mom and baby (I know I'll get in trouble with someone for that one!), but I only have one thing to say about this idea: ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
reason143 at 2:27PM on 03/04/09
Human breast milk like cow milk is meant for babies. BABIES!!! Stop taking food from the babies! lol....
Pointy at 2:29PM on 03/04/09
I second that ewwww. (No offense)
kimbodian at 2:32PM on 03/04/09
i agree with commenter above... breast milk is only ok if you're less than one years old... or you're the husband/boyfriend/special friend of the lactating woman and are just a little curious...
roisin at 2:33PM on 03/04/09
Man, I didn't even think of that! Poor little babies! Why are people trying to take their food? Mean, mean breast milk thieves.
And I just want to reiterate my previous point: ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
reason143 at 2:35PM on 03/04/09
My ideas for breast milk yogurt and cheeses got shot down when my wife had our baby girl. For shame...
lagomorph at 2:37PM on 03/04/09
@Lilly: Apologies for the lack of NSFW warning. I should have caught that and inserted it into this post.
Adam Kuban at 2:46PM on 03/04/09
oh man. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
foodinmouth at 2:46PM on 03/04/09
I find it hilarious that people find human breast milk gross but not cow milk. One is made for us and one is made for cows.
xutopia at 2:52PM on 03/04/09
I am simultaneously intrigued and disgusted! Why should something we thrived on at infancy now seem so vile? Revulsion aside, I still doubt we'll ever see it sold by the bottle from the grocery. All my information about producing human milk comes from my sister, who has been breast-feeding for less than a year. But from my non-expert viewpoint, it is too much work without enough output to ever make it a viable market. My niece gobbles up every drop my sister can get out, and both feeding and pumping sound exhausting.
marylaura at 2:56PM on 03/04/09
If you really think about it--isn't cow milk "breast milk" too? Actually, if I think about the concept of breast milk vs. teat milk, breast milk does kind of win.
cakespy at 2:59PM on 03/04/09
Reading this and the cannibalism thread is just cracking me up. It does not much appeal to me, but mostly because I just don't see it being produced in large quantities. The mothers I know who nursed sure had a hard time of it, and I can't see wanting to go through that unnecessarily.
This post reminds me of this:
http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/cat_steve_dont_eat_it.php
Sorry I can't get it to be just the breast milk post...the site is having issues. Just scroll down to it, 5th one down. (Vol 5)
sadiepix at 3:27PM on 03/04/09
Some people will do anything for money. I'm sure there's a gaggle of women out there that would do it if they were paid.
Cassaendra at 3:52PM on 03/04/09
Wow...yeah, until you find a group of women willing to be (literally) treated like cattle...and it has to be a LARGE group of women, simply because of the volume discrepancy between humans and cows...but I'll save what I've got for my baby, thanks!
myrnie_twin at 4:17PM on 03/04/09
There's a reason women only lactate while they have children who are actually breastfeeding. It's because the milk is meant as food for their children. Not for the general public or to make frosting for cupcakes. I just find this so ludicrous.
juliebugsmama at 4:23PM on 03/04/09
When I was breastfeeding my baby last year, I had too much milk so I signed up to donate to the local milk bank. To be accepted, I had to fill out a ton of paperwork and my pediatrician and gynecologist had to be interviewed. It is a lot more work than giving blood so I doubt that it can be a viable and lucrative industry.
The milk bank gives the milk to premature babies and elderly patients with severe illnesses because it's easier to digest and has a lot of helpful antibodies. I think people who think breastmilk is gross are sexualizing breasts. They were there for nutrition not just use as "funbags."
supastupa at 4:48PM on 03/04/09
leave it to the idiots at vice to put together a non-story about a non-starter that doesn't actually tell us anything (they baked cupcakes to do a taste test? why not make bacon milk out of them if you want to use a hipster cliche that will reveal nothing about how the stuff tastes?).
sloppy at 4:55PM on 03/04/09
I really don't think I could handle making or eating cupcakes made out of breast milk. I know it's an irrational line of thinking but something about consuming breast milk gives me the shudders. And I can't say I was breast fed as a baby either!
Chew on That at 4:58PM on 03/04/09
Billions of babies can't be wrong. I've never tasted it, but my baby can't get enough of it. Boobcakes sound pretty good.
soyviz at 5:02PM on 03/04/09
Breast milk wouldn't necessarily be Organic, or Natural. Breast milk changes based on diet... Hence some drugs not being ok for breast feeding mothers. If the Mother had an organic, or natural diet then, yes, it too would most likely be organic. Much like cows however the majority of milk that would be available on market would not be organic.
There is nothing gross about breast milk, you drank it to become an adult. Or you drank a synthetic version in formula. Either way, you really shouldn't be drinking milk anyway.
Monkey4Sale at 5:07PM on 03/04/09
is this a serious thing? sounds absolutely disgusting and slightly cannibalistic to me. gross.
downhillguru at 5:18PM on 03/04/09
Um, cows have to be lactating in order to be milked also, hence inseminating them as necessary so they give birth and then give milk for a period of time. They don't just always give milk. Same for all mammals.
The period of time they lactate can be lengthened, but it still takes a birth every so often to keep it going. It would be the same for humans if this was actually a commercial thing.
sadiepix at 5:43PM on 03/04/09
Ok, so I think this post is hilarious! What is even more hilarious is how people are taking it so seriously. I mean, come on, its funny. Plus, the original taste test the writer was talking about was done in Vice...if you have ever read Vice, you know not to take it seriously. That being said, I would try it! How is it cannibalistic or disgusting? Its what babies drink, what you drank before you realized it would be weird to do that as an adult. It would only be cannibalistic if you were actually eating a breast. Which leads me to another point...chicken breast! Hahaha. So anyways, I drink milk, and I love it. But lets be real people, it is from a cow. Meant for baby COWS. You are indirectly drinking from a cows breast. And if you are worried about what would be in a woman's milk, think about what cows eat. They probably eat shit sometimes, when it is mixed in with all that grass or hay. Which, if you are buying non-organic, mass produced milk you really don't want to know what those cows are eating. Or all the hormones/drugs they are injected with.
veginbk at 5:53PM on 03/04/09
OMG veginbk! Eating cow shit via cows milk! You totally made my day! Thank you!
And for all those of you who think it would be okay with you to eat boob-cake, I salute you! I, however, stand by my previous ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
reason143 at 8:00PM on 03/04/09
@juliebugsmama & sadiepix, any woman can lactate. mamas that adopt babies, female partners of pregnant mamas,even grandmas! i work with a woman whose past menopause and still has a milk let-down reflex around newborn babies.
@downhillguru: cannibalistic??? does that mean babies are cannibals?
my milk tastes great! it's super sweet, rich and creamy. i could see why people would want it...i can see why my baby refuses to drink anything else. i don't think this is nearly as disturbing as the local artist that made beer and bread from vaginal yeast cultures. went to the party, didn't try the beer.
dmarina at 8:42PM on 03/04/09
@dmarina-yeah, but that is a mental and hormonal thing, and not every woman is capable of lactating without a pregnancy by any means. Unless drugs are involved to induce it, which would be like the cows given hormones etc. and the whole subject of them transferring to the milk.
I don't want to drink hormone-filled breast milk any more than I do hormone-filled cows milk.
sadiepix at 9:25PM on 03/04/09
@sadie, agreed & by no means am i pro-breast milk farm! i just think the ewwwww comments are hysterical.
dmarina at 12:03AM on 03/05/09
WTF? This is repulsive and bizarre and beyond the lines of good taste. Drinking breast milk beyond your time as an infant has a very real and accepted socially inappropriate notion about it. "Well we drink cows milk why not human" Well us humans also eat lamb blood and tiger penis and cobra heart, and perhaps more of a western favorite like beef! Perhaps we should eat the muscles, genitals, blood, and organs of humans just like we do animals! Listen I know you could argue my point full of more holes than swiss cheese all day but I simply do not agree with this. This is the perverse indulgence of a group of people who are evidently deviants.
Timothyrows at 11:40AM on 03/05/09
Vaginal yeast cultures??? Really???
Kerosena at 2:03PM on 03/05/09
@dmarina-yep! The ew comments are cracking me up too!
@Timothy--I love folks who come on here just to SAY ew! Go read the two threads we have on cannibalism (one from just 2 days ago!)
Realize this forum has unbiased discussions about all kinds of topics, some that folks consider taboo in many different ways....we still try to be polite and respectful! Join us more often and see!
sadiepix at 2:15PM on 03/05/09
Oh, man, I can't believe I missed a post on cannibalism! For the record: yes I would.
Really though, I don't understand this repulsion people have for beast milk. Only in America is it a hard and fast rule that you stop breast-feeding less than a year into your life. It seems like once a child is old enough to know what sex is, people freak out if they're exposed to breasts. What? How are breasts more connected with sex now than they are with children?
Anyways, I can't really say anything here that hasn't been said already, but I will say this: drinking breast milk after you're an infant does not make you a deviant, Timothy. It just makes you a gastronomically curious person. Passing judgment on what other people voluntarily consume, however, DOES make you a tool.
P.S. Yes, I have and it was fucking delicious.
malice88alice at 5:27PM on 03/05/09