I don't want to, but unless someone can find something that I haven't been able to, I'm going to call BS on the Guatemalan breast milk thing. I won't say that individual incident didn't happen (though I have doubts, what exactly is their business model if four people want milkshakes at the same time) but if adult consumption of breast milk were at all common in Guatemala I'm pretty sure I'd be able to find something about it.

I would have never thought about that. Kind of cool! Certainly better than a lot of immune-boosting drugs.

I like it!

Not to mention that it would take 15-20 minutes to pump enough milk to make a milkshake. If they were going to use breastmilk for milkshakes you'd think they would be pumping consistently and freezing the milk. Unless they don't have the resources to properly refrigerate food, in which case there's not much I want to be eating/drinking there anyways.

All I can say about that Alex is what my friend told me. Anecdotal, I realize, but unless he was just telling a funny made up story I have on reason to doubt what he said.

Especially if it is an ice cream shop that doesn't have access to refrigeration.

scaeagles, I see three possibilities that strike me as more likely than the story being absolutely true:

1. It is just a funny story your friend made up.
2. It is a funny story that a friend of your friend told and your friend has adopted it because it is funnier in the first person.
3. It actually happened and they lied about it not being unusual and were pranking on him to see what they could get the tourist to eat.

But regardless, even if one doesn't have a problem with drinking breast milk (and I don't really), consuming it fresh from an unknown person is not a good idea since there are diseases that can be passed through breast milk. For the same reason I wouldn't drink unpasteurized bovine milk unless I was extremely familiar with the source, I would require pasteurization of milk from unfamiliar human sources.

I would think that the risk of passing on disease would be too great to allow it to be sold commercially. I mean, coming from a known source (like one's parent) would be one thing, but some random woman in the back room of an ice cream parlor with god only knows what hygiene habits... I wonder how the health dept would handle that.

Traci: there's something to that. I was reading in this one book, a lady was saying her son was on a feeding tube and she started adding breast milk to the tube and her kid started doing a lot better.

How are they sure that the milk is sanitary?

This topic is making me

Steph, there are several milk banks around the country that collect breast milk; the donors are heavily screened and the milk is pasturized just like cow's milk.


SM, further ickiness just for you (you're welcome):

This lady says it is impossible to make breast milk cheese. (EWWW)

But this French cheese company apparently does. (double EWWW) But my French sucks so I may be misreading.

And I think someone has a little too much time (and milk) on their hands. I mean honestly, who thinks, "gosh, my contact is dirty...I think I'll squirt some breast milk on it."?