Human breast milk

Miracle molecule found in human breast milk shown to kill drug-resistant superbugs.

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Human breast milk is a wonderful thing – it gives new born babies the perfect mix of vitamins, proteins, fats and antibodies to help combat bacterial infections and viruses.(1)

For thousands of years, breastfed children have benefited from this additional protection against disease during their vital first months of life. However, in a breakthrough new report by U.K. scientists, breast milk is now considered vital to adults too.

Scientists have developed an antibiotic from human breast milk that will play a crucial part in the fight against superbugs, which currently kill around 700,000 people worldwide every year. This figure is predicted to rise up to 10 million by 2050 according to a panel set up by Prime Minister David Cameron to tackle the growing problem.

What is a superbug?

In short, a superbug is a pathogen that is resistant to the treatments that are commonly used against it. One widely known superbug is MRSA, which is resistant to many drugs that had been available to fight it. Medical experts warn that, as the global population continues to increase and fewer antibiotics are discovered, we will see an increase in extremely dangerous infections that are a threat to human life.(2)

David Cameron has warned that these superbugs could plunge modern medicine “back into the Dark Ages,” and according to the U.K.’s Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, ministers have not yet even begun to plan for a world without antibiotics, because it is hoped that powerful new drugs will be discovered in time.(3)

Superbugs commonly spread in hospitals, affecting people who are being treated for something completely different whilst their immune systems are weaker. At the moment, the only real way to help prevent the spreading of these bugs is to advise people to wash their hands regularly in an attempt to limit exposure.

So is breast milk the answer?

The antibiotic that has recently been developed from human breast milk may hold the key to our upcoming battle with superbugs. Unlike most antibiotics currently available, this new drug works by attacking the basic biology of bacteria, making it almost impossible for the infection to evolve defenses.

This is the type of breakthrough upon which ministers are relying to fight superbugs in coming years. Developed at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in southwest London, the antibiotic created from breast milk is able to literally tear apart bacteria within a fraction of a second.

The compound developed by the NPL was isolated from the active ingredient, lactoferrin, which has long been considered to have innate but weak antimicrobial properties. Lactoferrin is part of a protein that naturally occurs in breast milk and completely destroys bacteria, fungi and viruses as soon as it touches them.(4)

After isolating the breast milk compound, scientists injected it into an artificial virus that selectively targets bacteria. Researchers believe that this new antibiotic could also be used to treat currently terminal or “incurable” genetic diseases, such as sickle-cell anaemia, because of its ability to rewrite a cell’s DNA.

It may be a decade before it is clear whether or not this antibiotic works and becomes widely available. One of the biggest challenges is to make sure that enough of the virus gets into the infected areas without first being broken down in the bloodstream.

Meanwhile, medical experts have suggested that we need on average 10 new antibiotics every decade to combat those bacteria that have already built up resistance. This means that scientists need to find more prospective antibiotics – and fast – in order for the threat of superbugs to be alleviated.

10 Ways To Cleanse Your Body Of Monsanto Chemicals And Other Toxins

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Photo by Sabphoto.

10 Ways To Cleanse Your Body Of Monsanto Chemicals And Other Toxins

Last year senior Monsanto scientist Dan Goldstein attempted to quell fears over the mega company’s chemical pesticide RoundUp poisoning people’s bodies over time. He said, “It is a common misunderstanding that pesticides, in general, accumulate in body fat. While this phenomenon may occur with some older compounds…pesticides that bio-accumulate to any significant degree have been removed from use or are highly restricted.”

But after Reuters reported this week that tests found residues of the active RoundUp herbicide glyphosate in an astounding 41 of 69 honey samples, 10 of 28 samples of soy sauce, three of 18 breast milk samples and six of 40 infant formula samples, Monsanto is singing a different tune.

“According to physicians and other food safety experts, the mere presence of a chemical itself is not a human health hazard. It is the amount, or dose, that matters,” said Monsanto senior toxicologist Kimberly Hodge-Bell.

Dr. Don Huber, professor emeritus of plant pathology at Purdue University warns on the GM education web site that glyphosate in human breast milk, which may be 100 times the level thought safe, is far from the only environmental toxin accumulating in the human body.

“Bisphenol A (BPA, a plastic component), PBDEs (used in flame retardants), perchlorate (used in rocket fuel), perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs, used in floor cleaners and non-stick pans), phthalates (used in plastics), polyvinyl chloride (PVC, commonly known as vinyl) and the heavy metals cadmium, lead and mercury” are also found in the human body, especially breast milk, reports the New York Times.

Older chemicals, especially pesticides, also remain in the human body — like DDT, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxin, heptachlor, chlordane, Aldrin and Dieldrin. They impair the endocrine, reproductive, circulatory, immune, and central nervous systems.

The truth is Monsanto and its biotech/Big Ag cousins have not just hijacked the food supply and food economy; poisoned plants, animals and the environment; annihilated small and independent farmers, and created genetic drift, resistance and new diseases — they have created alarming new risks to human health too. In addition to their deadly chemicals, studies note Monsanto’s GMOs increase human allergy susceptibility, suppress the immune system and possibly cause autism and cancer. In 2009, a temporary ban on glyphosate was sought in Argentina after a high incidence of birth defects and cancers was reported in people living near crop-spraying areas, as Scientific American reported. And just last month, the World Health Organization’sInternational Agency for Research on Cancer published a report which concluded that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

Luckily scientists and clinicians have identified some ways in which these unwanted toxins can be removed or lessened in the body. Perhaps the most overarching way to prevent the build-up of toxins is to pursue a detoxified lifestyle — that is according to Dr. Robert Zieve, an integrative medicine expert and medical director of Partners in Integrative Cancer Therapies, in Prescott, AZ.

“How do we engage in this lifelong process of detoxification? As a foundation, this involves eating healthy food. This means organic, GMO-free food,” he said in an email interview. “Herbs such as cilantro help us to eliminate metals such as lead and mercury,” he said. “Herbs like turmeric and garlic help to lower the levels of inflammation that are often the underlying causes [of chronic diseases.]”

To guard against endocrine disruptors, which can cause hormonal imbalances, osteoporosis and increase cancer risk, Dr. Zieve told Reset he recommends “adaptogenic combination of herbs such as combinations of high quality forms of Siberian ginseng, ashwagandha, rhodiola, and others similar herbs,” as well herbs such as milk thistle and dandelion root, urtica/nettles and cruciferous vegetables.

Colon hydrotherapy, far infrared saunas when used correctly, clay baths and castor oil packs applied to the liver can also be useful, he said.

Philosophically, Dr. Zieve said, “Detoxification is a lifelong process. The body already knows how to do this. We just need to get out of the way and support it in doing what it already knows how to do.”

Reset also caught up with Dr. Cate Shanahan, author of Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Foods to ask her opinion of living toxin-free lifestyle. While Dr. Shanahan confirms that endocrine disrupters like PCBs and DDT can “stay in the body for a long time,” she is not a big fan of supplements or chelation. Even fasting has its limits, she said, and is mostly valuable “for brief periods and only in conjunction with other modalities that optimize metabolism.”

Dr. Shanahan says a healthy, balanced diet “rich in a variety of fresh, ideally organic/biodynamic vegetables with healthy fats, prepared by steaming or fermentation, is your best bet.”

An overall lifestyle change is a great baseline, but there are also some specific plants and natural therapies that can amp up your detoxifying capabilities. While some doctors, like gastroenterologist Nasir Moloo believe the kidneys, liver, lungs and skin of healthy people provide sufficient detoxification without the help of preparations and aids, as he told NBC News, medical literature contains studies that suggest there are indeed specific methods to help your body more efficiently remove toxic byproducts.

Here are 10 detoxifying techniques which have solid science behind them:

1. Indian Gooseberry (also called Phyllanthus emblica Linn and Indian amla)

In studies in the Journal of Basic and Clinical Physiology and Pharmacology and Food and Function, the  gooseberry/amla, an ingredient in some detox preparations, has been shown to be effective in preventing and lessening the toxic effects on the liver of alcohol, heavy metals (including “iron overload”), medications which can be toxic to the liver, and environmental pathogens or fungi. The “hepatoprotective” actions of gooseberry/amla appear to be “mediated by its free radical scavenging, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and modulation of the xenobiotic detoxification process and lipid metabolism,” says the Food and Function study.

2. Chlorella 

Chlorella, a single-cell green algae belonging to the phylum Chlorophyta plant, has long been thought to have beneficial effects in the human body — whether against inflammation or disease risks. A recent study in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology confirms chlorella’s ability to detoxify heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) — carcinogens that are created when dripping meat fat is burned — in the human body. The National Cancer Institute warns against cooking meat over open flames and barbecues because of the dangers of these compounds.

3. Milk Thistle (silymarin)

Milk thistle is a flowering herb in the ragweed family which some studies have shown is effective in helping the liver detoxify from dangerous elements. In the journal Acta medica Hungarica, workers exposed to the industrial toxins toluene and xylene “significantly improved” when given concentrated Milk Thistle (Legalon) compared to untreated workers. The journal, Investigational New Drugs, wrote that silymarin in mice “markedly protects against chemically induced renal cancer and acts plausibly by virtue of its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative activities.”

4. Pomegranate Bark (also called Punica granatum, producing Punicalagin/PC)

The bark of the pomegranate fruit exerts detoxification processes according to several scientific studies. “We have demonstrated antioxidant and antigenotoxic properties of Punica granatum,” wrote researchers in the open access journal BioMed Research International. Pomegranates contain ellagic acid which can inhibit the breast cancer-linked enzyme aromatase, an article on About.com about breast cancer says. “Pomegranate bioactives” inhibit the DNA damage done by Benzo[a]pyrene (BP), an extreme carcinogen found in coal tar, report the researchers. Pomegranates also have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic effects according tothe Journal of Medicinal Food.

5. Cilantro (also called Coriander)

Several studies have demonstrated that the well-known cooking herb cilantro, also called coriander, can be useful in reducing liver toxicity — called hepatotoxicity — by inhibiting undesirable oxidation processes. A study in the journal Toxicology and Industrial Health for example finds “treatment with coriander leaves and seeds helps in improving the adverse effect… [of] hepatotoxicity” in animals.  The Journal of Pharmacy And Bioallied Sciences says cilantro “possesses hepatoprotective activity which may be due to the antioxidant potential of phenolic compounds.”

 6. Sulphur-Containing Foods

Foods that contain sulfur, like broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and kale, are valuable for two reasons. Their sulfur releases a substance that activates potent antioxidant and detoxification enzymes according to the Needs.com website. Meanwhile, another substance in such cruciferous plants, indole-3-carbinol, helps deactivate potent estrogen metabolites, which may protect against cancers caused by the hormone-mimicking endocrine disrupters according to the journal, Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology. The sulfur-related compound MSM is also useful in detoxification according to some practitioners on the website Food Matters.

7. Chelation 

For decades, natural clinicians have recommended chelation, the administration of substances like porphine and EDTA, to trap and usher toxic metals like arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury out of the body, according to the web site Livestrong. But chelation’s acceptance in the scientific community has been slow in coming. Recently, a large federally-funded chelation trial, known as TACT, showed positive results and scientists are giving the metal reduction method a second look. A study in Scientific World Journal says in describing how it works that peptides “chelate both essential and toxic elements as they are sequestered, transported, and excreted…enhancing natural chelation detoxification pathways.” A related metal binding therapy uses zeolites, aluminosilicate minerals, that can absorb and catalyze toxins including lead says the journal Biological Trace Element Research.

8. Wolfberry (also called Lycium barbarum polysaccharide, LBP)

Ingredients found in the wolfberry plant called LBP has demonstrated antioxidative, antiaging properties and antitumor activities in scientific studies. A study in the Journal of Drug Design, Development and Therapy says “LBPs protect the liver from injuries due to exposure to toxic chemicals or other insults” and “reduce irradiation — or chemotherapy-induced organ toxicities.” The wolfberry agents are also thought to protect against “neuronal injury,” amyloid-related harm and factors thought to contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, says the article.

9. Intestinal Treatments

Colonic cleansing routines including coffee enemas have been the basis of many natural detoxification methods for years including the Gerson regimen. Though they no longer have medical standing, coffee enemas were found in the doctors’ Merck Manual until the mid 1970s. Suzy Cohen, a.k.a. “America’s Pharmacist™” says coffee enemas “jumpstart your liver and gallbladder” and cause bile to flow. To cleanse the gut, health practitioners also recommend cascara sagrada, burdock root, psyllium husks and other fiber containing plants. An article in Drug Metabolism and Dispositioncites the value of activated charcoal in gut cleansing and probiotics to replenish a “microdome“ compromised by toxins.

10. Clay

Clay treatments, taken internally or externally as baths or skin treatments, like the “living, swelling clays” calcium bentonite and montmorillonites, are used in detoxification regimes. An article in the journal Chemosphere speculates that “adsorption on the clay can reduce the extent of the DNA damage caused by heavy metals” such as cadium and mercury.

Dr. Miriam Jang, M.D., says: “I have put a huge number of patients on these clay baths and the levels of heavy metals — mercury, lead, arsenic, aluminum, and cadmium have come down dramatically.” Dr. Jang describes one patient with high levels of mercury whose levels came down after three months of bath treatment, supporting “the theory that mercury is sequestered in different areas of our body and it takes time to get it all out.” 

A Natural Protein in Breast Milk That Fights HIV.

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For decades, public health officials have puzzled over a surprising fact about HIV: Only about 10-20 percent of infants who are breastfed by infected mothers catch the virus. Tests show, though, that HIV is indeed present in breast milk, so these children are exposed to the virus multiple times daily for the first several months (or even years) of their lives.

Now, a group of scientists and doctors from Duke University has figured out why these babies don’t get infected. Human breast milk naturally contains a protein called Tenascin C that neutralizes HIV and, in most cases, prevents it from being passed from mother to child. Eventually, they say, the protein could potentially be valuable as an HIV-fighting tool for both infants and adults that are either HIV-positive or at risk of contracting the infection.

The research, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was inspired by previous work by other researchers showing that, both in tissue cultures and live mice, breast milk from HIV-negative mothers was naturally endowed with HIV-fighting properties. Scientists suggested that a few different proteins in the milk could potentially be responsible, but no one knew which one.

As part of the study, the researchers divided breast milk into smaller fractions made up of specific proteins via a number of filters—separating the proteins by size, electrical charge and other characteristics—and tested which of these fractions, when added to a tissue culture, prevented the cells from being infected by HIV. Eventually, using mass spectrometry, they found that one particular protein was present in all the HIV-resistant fractions but in none of the others: Tenascin C.


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“The protein works by binding to the HIV envelope, and one of the interesting things is that we were even able to narrow down exactly where on the envelope it binds,” says Sallie Permar, the study’s lead author. Her team found that the protein binds to a crucial region on the virus’ envelope that normally locks onto a receptor called CCR5 on the outside of human T cells,allowing it to fuse its membrane with the cell’s. With the region covered up by Tenascin C, HIV’s normal route of attack is blocked, and the virus’ effectiveness is greatly diminished.

Still, the researchers say that other natural elements in milk might play a role in fighting HIV as well. “It’s clearly not the whole story, because we do have samples that have low amounts of this protein but still have HIV-neutralizing activity,” Permar says. ”So it may be acting in concert with other antiviral and antimicrobial factors in the milk.”

Whatever those other factors are, though, the finding vindicates recent changes to UN guidelines that recommend even HIV-positive mothers in resource-poor countries should breastfeed, if they’re taking anti-retroviral drugs to combat their own infection. That’s because—as statistics bear out—the immense nutritional and immune system-boosting benefits of breast milk outweigh the relatively small chance of transmitting HIV through breastfeeding. Tenascin C, it seems, is a big part of why that transmission rate is surprisingly low, and sufficient access to anti-retroviral drugs can help drive it even lower—as low as 2 percent.

The next steps, Permar says, are determining which area of Tenascin C is active in binding to HIV and whether it can effectively prevent transmission in a live animal, as opposed to a tissue culture. If it works, it could potentially be incorporated into an HIV drug with broader applications. Possible uses include giving it in a concentrated form to infants who can’t breastfeed or even administering it to those who do to increase their level or resistance. It’s even conceivable that it could someday be adapted to reduce the risk of HIV transmission in adults as well.

One immediate advantage, says Permar, is that “it’s like to be inherently safe, because it’s already a component for breast milk. It’s something babies eat everyday.” Other potential treatments, on the other hand, must be screened for toxicity.

Tenascin C’s presence in breast milk, though, prompts a deeper question: Why would milk naturally include a protein that battles HIV, a virus that evolved extremely recently in our evolutionary history, sometime in the early 20th century?

“I don’t think it’s in breast milk to combat HIV specifically, but there have been other, related infections that have passed through breastfeeding,” Permar says. “Our work has shown that Tenascin C’s activity isn’t specific to HIV, so we think it’s more of a broad-spectrum anti-microbial protein.”

In other words, Tenascin C is effective at combating a large variety of infections (perhaps related to its role in adults, where it holds various types of tissue together, necessitating receptors that can bind to a wide array of different cells). The fact that it happens to bind at just the right spot on HIV’s outer envelope so that it combats the virus’ transmission, as Permar puts it, is “a gift from evolution.”

 

 

Human Breast Milk Inactivates Hepatitis C Virus Infectivity.

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 A new study shows why breastfeeding is generally safe even when mothers are infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

The reason is that human breast milk inactivates hepatitis C virus (HCV) infectivity by disrupting its envelope, researchers from Germany have found.

“This study provides a novel mechanism for the protective properties of human mother’s milk against HCV,” Dr. Eike Steinmann from the TWINCORE Center for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research in Hannover told Reuters Health by email. “A new finding is that lipases in human milk generate free fatty acids that damage the viral envelope and render them non-infectious.”

In an editorial published with the paper online September 24 in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Dr. Ravi Jhaveri from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill says “the results provide a plausible explanation for why breastfeeding is not a risk factor for HCV transmission. This is reassuring for us as practitioners when we counsel our HCV patients that it is safe for them to breastfeed.”

Using breast milk from healthy HCV-negative women, the research team found that even short preincubation periods of HCV in the milk brought consistent reductions of HCV infectivity by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude.

The breast milk inactivated HCV infectivity independent of the viral genotype, and antiviral activity was concentration dependent. Concentrations between 4% and 6% milk were sufficient to reduce HCV infectivity, whereas higher dilutions abolished the antiviral effect.

The antiviral activity was specific to human milk. It was not found in milk from horses, cows, or commercial infant formula.

The anti-viral activity was not destroyed by heat treatment, the authors reported.

In a series of experiments, the researchers showed that lipases in human milk generated fatty acids that disrupted the viral envelope, resulting in the loss of viral infectivity.

“Similar processes concerning the release of free fatty acids take place upon digestion of human breast milk by the infant,” the investigators note. “Therefore, milk digestion products, like free fatty acids, released in the stomach might be able to inactivate residual viral particles which otherwise could be transmitted upon breastfeeding.”

Human breast milk also had significant antiviral effects against other enveloped viruses (influenza, herpes simplex, and vesicular stomatitis virus) but no pronounced effect on non-enveloped viruses (murine norovirus, rotavirus).

“As there are far more enveloped viruses known than tested in this study, further investigations are necessary,” Dr. Steinmann said.

“Human breast milk efficiently inactivates HCV in vitro and neither the Centers for Disease Control nor the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases argues against breastfeeding from HCV infected women unless they have cracked or bleeding nipples,” Dr. Steinmann concluded.

Dr. Jhaveri’s editorial concludes, “After reading this article, when we clinicians next encounter an HCV infected patient that just delivered a healthy infant and wants to breastfeed, we have yet another reason to say ‘Breast is Best.'”

Chinese adults hire wet nurses to provide human breast milk on demand as ‘Mother Nature’s smoothie’.

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The South China Morning Post is now reporting that adults in China are paying good money to breastfeed on wet nurses who are well paid for providing their milk. The wet nurses are paid around US$2,700 per month, and clients are offered the ability to consume the beverage directly. As in mammary consumption.

Woman-Self-Exam-Breast-Cancer-Skin

(Pause to let this sink in for a minute…)

A lot of people think this is ultra-creepy. And that was my first reaction, too. After all, the image of a 35-year-old adult man or woman feeding on the breasts of another woman somehow doesn’t seem normal. Then again, in a culture where pop music celebrities parade around in slutty porn gear, nearly having sex on stage at music awards ceremonies as audiences applaud, I’m not sure anybody remembers what “normal” looks like anymore. Somehow, a 35-year-old business man feeding on the breasts of a well-paid wet nurse seems a lot less bizarre than the stage antics of Miley Cyrus, pop culture’s newest deviant whose disturbing public perversions have set a new low for vulgarity.

It turns out, though, that there’s more to this breastfeeding story than the mere shock factor. Some of these people who hire the wet nurses are chronically diseased and can’t find sufficient nourishment in all the processed, contaminated foods that now characterize China. The Chinese people are starving for real nutrition and living in a country of unequalled chemical contamination. When real food is hard to come by, it just so happens that human breast milk is Mother Nature‘s smoothie. No one can deny that breast milk contains a miraculous assortment of immune-boosting, health-enhancing substances, many of which modern science can’t even begin to understand but which every mom innately knows sustains and nourishes life.

When considered from this perspective — in light of a malnourishment victim seeking the world’s best source for human nutrition — it suddenly seems acceptable… possibly even therapeutic.

It all depends on the intention of the person hiring the wet nurse, of course. If it’s done for entertainment and novelty purposes, it’s weird. If it’s done as a desperate measure for lifesaving nutrition, it’s commendable.

Most people, however, can’t get past the shocking imagery of it. Dr. Tim Stanley of The Telegraph, for example, seems appalled at the idea that adult humans might drink human breast milk. “It’s revolting,” he says. “It’s every bit as wrong as prostitution.”

cows_milk_600

Yet I’m willing to bet Dr. Stanley drinks bovine breast milk (i.e. “milk”), a beverage that’s far more bizarre because it’s cross-species and nutritionally inferior to human breast milk. If you’re going to drink Mother Nature’s infant formula, it makes far more scientific sense to drink it from your own species and not get it from some hooved, furry creature that weighs four times as much as a human.

The only reason the consumption of human breast milk seems so bizarre to people like Dr. Stanley is because we’ve all gotten used to the far more revolting idea of sucking at the teat of an 800-pound cow. Of course, the dairy industry takes that milk and homogenizes it and pasteurizes it, turning the healthy beverage of raw cow’s milk into a monstrosity of autoimmune disease, digestive disorders, acne and constipation. Pasteurization, it turns out, destroys the fragile lactase enzymes that allow humans to digest lactose. This is why so many people are wildly allergic to pasteurized cow’s milk.


Capitalism gone wild? Or commonsense solution for a sick society?

“If China’s oligarchs treat their people like cattle, that’s exactly where capitalism without morality ends,” Dr. Stanley argues.

And I say whoa, hold on there, ‘pardner! Have you taken a look recently at GlaxoSmithKline and the criminality of the pharmaceutical empires that treat everybody on the planet like cattle? Or how about Merck and their HPV vaccines that sacrifice the lives of teenage girls for corporate profits?

Let’s get real about this: The USA is the home of “capitalism without morality!” How else do you get a fast food industry that serves toxic, chemically-altered, nutritionally-depleted foods that cause widespread chronic disease? How else do you get a soda industry whose products cause diabetes and whose refined sweeteners laced with mercury?

If there’s an encyclopedia entry for “capitalism without morality,” it should feature the pictures of all the Goldman Sachs insiders who always seem to end up running the Fed, or the Treasury, or other investment firms. Wall Street is the epitome of capitalism without morality.

By comparison, a woman who accepts honest money to deliver an honest product — human breast milk — is sitting atop a mountain of morality compared to a typical Wall Street bankster who loses other people’s money for profit. What on Earth is immoral about selling Mother Nature’s nutrition to people who need it? Isn’t that actually a pure form of honest capitalism?

 

Breast milk can be toxic if the mom is exposed to heavy metals

You have to give Dr. Stanley some leeway on this issue, however. He’s an historian, not a nutritionist. He may not have considered this topic from the angle I’ve covered here, and I hope he reconsiders his view after seeing this article.

I agree with his view, however, if this breastfeeding is purchased as some weird, twisted form of entertainment. But my understanding is that these arrangements are being pursued by people who are simply seeking nutrition, not entertainment. They sure aren’t going to get that nutrition from Ensure or other canned dead protein vitamin drinks (made mostly from altered milk proteins, sugar and synthetic vitamins). Getting real nutrition directly from the source makes a lot more sense.

Of course, human breast milk is often heavily contaminated with heavy metals, PCBs, pesticides, BPA and a cocktail of other toxic substances due to the environmental exposure of the woman. So if the woman eats a poor diet herself, her breast milk is going to be more of a toxic brew than a nourishing smoothie.

Ideally, a truly capitalist system would recognize a higher value in women who follow cleaner diets and who allow their breast milk to be subjected to heavy metals tests. Those with the cleanest milk would command the highest premiums in a free market exchange with full transparency of the “product” quality. It’s much like paying a premium for certified organic strawberries versus conventional, pesticide-ridden strawberries.

In fact, I believe there should be a free market for human breast milk as long as it’s regulated for basic safety and honesty. But in the United States where nutrition is practically considered criminal, the FDA has outlawed the selling of human breast milk, even to those who really, really need it. That’s the real crime in all this — the denial of access to human nutrition… even for babies who are fed government-subsidized junk infant formula made with corn syrup and soy protein (both of which are GMO).

This is also the core reason behind the FDA’s armed raids on raw milk producers in California and elsewhere. Raw milk farmers have been subjected to armed raids, prison torture, outrageous prosecutions by insane district attorneys, and much more. It seems that people who provide unadulterated, nutritious food to customers are increasingly seen as criminals by the police state government. It is no coincidence that nearly all the government’s health policies promote ongoing chronic disease, pharmaceutical dependence and a lifetime of servitude to a system of “sick care” that doesn’t want people to have access to real nutrition.

 

I encourage more discussion on this issue

Ultimately, everyone who calls themselves “pro choice” must, by definition, support a woman’s right to voluntarily choose to sell her own breast milk in a free market exchange. It’s her choice, after all, right? And isn’t her milk her property to do with as she pleases?

Coincidentally, that’s also the libertarian angle in all this: since when did the state have any right to tell you what you can and can’t do with your own body fluids? Is not every man or woman free to sell his or her own regenerative body fluids, or hair, or even their own blood to someone else who values it? Don’t blood banks offer money for people who choose to sell their blood for payment? Don’t some women sell their hair to wig companies who make “real hair” wigs for chemotherapy victims?

After all, some women sell their voices as music stars. Other sell their bodies as models. Some sell their brains in exchange for a corporate salary. Why can’t moms who are particularly gifted with breast milk sell that milk to someone who needs it and values it? This sacred right to own and control your own body is fundamental to a free society. If you don’t believe you own your own body (and all its fluids), then you by definition believe in statist slavery.

Dr. Stanley probably agrees with the principle of what I’m explaining here, by the way. And I don’t have any beef with Dr. Tim Stanley. He’s actually a really bright and entertaining writer, and this topic of business men breastfeeding on wet nurses probably caught him off guard. I actually like Dr. Stanley’s writing style, and I laugh out loud at some of his hilarious headlines such as, “North Korea is running out of virgins for Kim Jong-un’s dance troupe. It’s every dictator’s nightmare.” As far as I’m concerned, we need more journalists with the flair of Dr. Stanley, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum.

I just hope he’ll rethink his position on human breast milk, even for sick adults who are desperately seeking nutritional support. It’s not as weird as it first seems once you consider the science…

For the record, if any of this milk is being taken by adults at the expense of infants and babies, I would be completely against it. In my view, infants and babies should get this nutrition first. Only if there’s excess should adults be next in line.

Source:
http://news.sina.com.cn/

 

Make breastfeeding easier for mothers, says UNICEF.

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On the 20th anniversary of World Breastfeeding Week, UNICEF says strong national policies supporting breastfeeding could prevent the deaths of around 1 million children under five in the developing world each year.

Despite compelling evidence that exclusive breastfeeding prevents diseases like diarrhoea and pneumonia that kill millions of children every year, global rates of breastfeeding have remained relatively stagnant in the developing world, growing from 32 per cent in 1995 to 39 per cent in 2010.

“If breastfeeding were promoted more effectively and women were protected from aggressive marketing of breast milk substitutes, we would see more children survive and thrive, with lower rates of disease and lower rates of malnutrition and stunting,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

Some of the roadblocks to improving breastfeeding rates are widespread and unethical marketing by makers of breast milk substitutes, poor national policies that do not support maternity leave, and a lack of understanding of the risks of not breastfeeding.

In June, world leaders meeting in Washington, D.C., pledged as part of the “Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed” movement to work toward ending preventable child deaths. World Breastfeeding Week provides an opportunity to restate the critical role of breastfeeding in reducing child mortality.

The 2008 Lancet Nutrition Series highlighted the remarkable fact that a non-breastfed child is 14 times more likely to die in the first six months than an exclusively breastfed child. Breast milk meets a baby’s complete nutritional requirements and is one of the best values among investments in child survival as the primary cost is the mother’s nutrition.

“Breastfeeding needs to be valued as a benefit which is not only good for babies, mothers, and families, but also as a saving for governments in the long run,” said Mr. Lake.

Source: UNICEF.