Benefits of breast milk not just for children

Breastfeeding: You have no doubt tried cappuccino, but a lactuccino - made with mother's milk - is a different thing entirely…

Breastfeeding: You have no doubt tried cappuccino, but a lactuccino - made with mother's milk - is a different thing entirely.

Nevertheless, during Ireland's National Breastfeeding Week some nutritionists, somewhat tongue in cheek, suggest there are merits in trying it in your coffee to make the serious point just how natural and good human milk is - and not just for baby.

Traditionally considered the preserve of infants, some activists and scientists now want adults to share the goodness too. But when Dia Michels American co-author of Milk, Money, and Madness published a recipe for her Lactuccino - 1/2 cup breast milk, 3/4 cup fresh-brewed coffee, 2 tablespoons sugar... garnish with cinnamon - she prompted hysteria and rage.

Our repulsion couldn't be more misplaced she says and many researchers back her up. Mother's milk, they declare, is not only good for infants but adults too should be enjoying its benefits.

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Cancer killer, anti-HIV, anti-asthma, infection retardant - the list of its potential applications is long and impressive. And although no one has suggested we start milking our lactating population just yet, there are serious attempts being made to bring the bountiness of human milk to all.

Unfortunately, again, the methods are far from uncontroversial. Instead of relying on human donors, researchers have come up with ways of genetically engineering the valuable components of breast milk, presenting a huge breakthrough under what food companies cal functional food heading - ingredients that promote human health over and beyond basic nutrition.

All marketeers have to do now is get past the adults-drinking-breast milk "yuck" factor that seems hard-wired in so many of us. But there is more. Acceptance faces an even more fearsome hurdle - fears over producing "Franken cows" or GM crops that will carry these human milk components. But overcome both and we could all be sprinkling supermilk on our cereal or chewing on rice with added breast milk nourishment in the near future.

What the food scientists are excited over is a substance abundant in human milk called lactoferrin. Because of its health effects, concentrated cow's lactoferrin is already used in producing dairy products and other food. The substance, however, tends to be broken down in the stomach, which prevents it from being absorbed by the intestines but one Japanese milk producer claims to have overcome this problem.

Champions of lactoferrin, both bovine-derived and human, say it is effective in reducing the pain caused by arthritis and that its pain-killing effect is comparable to that of morphine. Other tests show that lactoferrin helps prevent accumulation of cholesterol and fat in the liver, and is effective against cancer and viruses such as HIV.

So, fears over GE are the only rational barrier stopping adults from enjoying valuable heath protection via a super-charged cow's milk? According to researchers it is, and only in the EU.

Europe, they say, is too wary of such Franken milk while Japan has okayed the sale of GM meat and milk paving the way for sales of cow's milk fortified with human lactoferrin. The US is close to following Japan in allowing cloned animal products on the market and therefore the new supermilk, and maybe even a superior baby milk formula. An alternative perhaps for diehard Irish refusenik mothers - the developed world's highest number who are reluctant to breastfeed.

In the EU, the future of what might be called cow's milk-plus is certainly bleak. The Netherlands had been at the cutting edge of bringing human lactoferrin to market but faced with opposition from anti-GM consumers and even governments it has halted its programme.

"Prevailing public opinion is against us and therefore so are the laws. This simply isn't the climate for producing GM organisms especially where we are based," according to Margolein van Helmond of Dutch biotechnology company Pharming.

So, human lactoferrin champions must look to the Far East for the next move. With its largely apolitical population and gung ho R&D projects, Japan has been way ahead of Europe in this field, particularly as it leads the world in functional food know-how and commercialisation.

One company Snow Brand Milk patented the use of human milk components as far back as 1984. Another says it will start to add human lactoferrin produced by US company Agennix Inc. as soon the US Food and Drug Administration grants its approval, which could be later next year.

Until then breast will remain best for baby and for intrepid, health-conscious mother's milk gourmets.