The Sweetest Chill

Imagine yourself licking a sweet scoop of ice-cream on a lovely spring day. What would you do if I told you that same ice cream had been made from milk recently collected from a lovely young mother pushing a stroller at the edge of the park? Her cups ran over, and looking for a way to ease to ease the pressure and leakage caused by excess lactation, she began to express the excess breast milk and substitute it for regular milk in a variety of recipes. Recently, several young mothers have broken the news for their particular culinary activism. We know breast milk is the best nourishment there is for babies. But is this liquid gold good for us?

Stirring things up

In New York, elite chef Daniel Angerer´s wife Lori Mason, passed him some of her excess breast milk to make cheese. When he posted the recipe on his blog, the story hit big, and customers arrived at his restaurant in droves eager to try the new delicacy. Alas, health codes prevent him from being able to serve the product in the restaurant, which he reserves for intimate friends and family.

Some see breast milk as a healthy alternative to manufactured dairy products, often filled with hormones and antibiotics, and collected from animals that live in appalling conditions. They proclaim the health benefits of breast milk, saying it boosts immunity and contains valuable immune compounds and vitamins. Lori Mason defends her husband’s cottage industry, saying “I eat healthier than your average cow and I’m not pumped full of steroids!” while stay at home mother Abi Blake says her breast milk “tastes of goodness, whereas cow’s milk just tastes of chemicals.”

A Strange Taste

The consumption of breast milk by adults is not new, and there is literature and art about the topic which goes back to Roman times. In the middle ages the theme was popularized in a story called “Roman Charity” in which a daughter wins the eventual release of her father through her breast feeding of him, an act which so impresses his jailers that it inspires their mercy. In 16th century England, breast feeding was noted as a treatment for such conditions as tuberculosis.

Breast feeding practiced between consenting adults is known as “erotic lactation” or lactophilia. Nipples are one of the body’s principal erogenous zones, and the act of suckling produces a physiological response which releases the hormone oxytocin, sometimes known as the “love hormone.” If all this talk of curious dairy products whets your appetite, why not take a trip to Finland. Their dairy products are of extremely high quality, and if you rent apartments in Helsinki, you can try such delicacies as Piimä – a type of buttermilk beverage or Villi – a gelatinous and sour variant of yoghurt.