I read an interesting article this morning regarding an ice cream store in the UK that is trying to sell Breast Milk Ice Cream interstingly called - 'Baby Gaga'
"The Icecreamists" an ice cream parlour in Covent Garden offered to pay women for their spare breast milk and apparently had a heap of offers. The breast milk was pasteurized and churned together with vanilla pods and lemon zest. A costumed Baby Gaga waitress serves the ice cream in a martini glass filled with the breast milk ice cream mix. Liquid nitrogen is then poured into the glass through a syringe and it is served with a rusk.
Now you will probably not be surprised to hear that some people are a little upset by this and have called on the local council to ban the ice cream. The reason for their unhappiness? Well, apparently Human Breast milk is dangerous. Viruses, including hepatitis, can be passed on through breast milk.
I'm calling bullshit on the dangerous call. Cow, sheep and goat milk all carry viruses as well, but people don't think twice about chugging down their milk. In fact governments actually encourage us to consume their milk with ridiculous scare stories regarding lack of calcium and broken bones.
Perhaps the real problem is that people are a little uncomfortable consuming the bodily fluids of another person. Well, I can think of a number of rather fun activities that may take place with a special somone that involve the swapping of bodily fluids (Kissing anyone???)
Human Breast milk is the only milk that nature intended us to eat. It is the ultimate human food and fuel. It is the food source that should have nourished us for the first few years of our life. From that point on we no longer need milk of any type. However, we think nothing of eating and drinking products made from the milk of another species be it cow, goat or sheep.
I decided to do a little Google search for ingreadients of popular ice creams that people may consume. Below is a list of ingredients for Streets Blue Ribbon Ice cream taken from their own website.
Ice Cream
Ingredients: reconstituted buttermilk (51%), cream, cane sugar, glucose syrup (from wheat) (contains preservative 220), milk solids, halal gelatine, emulsifier (471), vegetable gums (401, 410, 407), flavours, colours (160b)
Contains milk and wheat.
Now lets take a closer look at some of these ingredients. (All info from here)
Sodium Alginate (401) -
A major application for sodium alginate is in reactive dye printing, as as thickener for reactive dyestuffs (such as the Procion cotton-reactive dyes) in textile screen-printing and carpet jet-printing. Alginates do not react with these dyes and wash out easily, unlike starch-based thickeners.
Sodium alginate is a good chelator for pulling radioactive toxins from the body, such as iodine-131 and strontium-90 that have taken the place of their non-radioactive counterparts.[5][6] It is also used in immobilizing enzymes by inclusion.
Locust Bean Gum (410) -
The bean, when made into powder, is sweet—with a flavor similar to chocolate—and is used to sweeten foods and as a chocolate substitute. It is also used in non-edible products such as pet foods, mining products, paper making, and to thicken textiles. It is used in cosmetics and to enhance the flavor of cigarettes. Shoe polish and insecticides also have locust bean gum powder as an additive.
Sulfur Dioxide -
Inhaling sulfur dioxide is associated with increased respiratory symptoms and disease, difficulty in breathing, and premature death.
Annatto (160b)
Annatto has been linked to many cases of food-related allergies, and is the only natural food coloring believed to cause as many allergic-type reactions as artificial food coloring.[17] Because it is a natural colorant, companies using annatto may label their products "all natural" or "no artificial colors" on the principal display panel (PDP).
It is well known that synthetic food colours, especially some azo dyes, can provoke hypersensitivity reactions such as urticaria, angioneurotic oedema, and asthma (Michaelsson and Juhlin, 1973, Granholt and Thune, 1975). Natural food colours are scarcely investigated with respect to potential allergic properties. Annatto extract, a commonly used food colour in edible fats, e.g. butter, has been tested in patients. Among 61 consecutive patients suffering from chronic urticaria and/or angioneurotic oedema, 56 patients were orally provoked by annatto extract during elimination diet. A challenge was performed with a dose equivalent to the amount used in 25 grams of butter. Twenty six per cent of the patients reacted to this colour four hours (SD: 2,6) after intake. Similar challenges with synthetic dyes showed the following results: Tartrazine 11%, Sunset Yellow FCF 17%, Food Red 17 16%, Amaranth 9%, Ponceau 4 R 15%, Erythrosine 12% and Brillant Blue FCF 14%.[18]
These early studies indicated some natural food colours may induce hypersensitivity reactions as frequently as synthetic dyes.
So there we have it. Breast milk or some chemically derived, possibly dangerous alternative.
