# Why is human milk ick, but no cows' milk **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 27, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855 "2011-02-27T23:15:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/21 "2011-02-28T21:05:30Z")
> [@fifty-six](#): > > I loved drinking breast milk. My wife would get really engorged and sore. She seemed to produce more than our little daughter could handle. I helped out gleefully. At fist it seemed thin and sweet but I got a taste for it. Did the same with the second child. But not as much. Her body seemed to sproduce a more proper amount. Just some massaging would ease the lumps. She had a pump too. If the pumped milk did not get used I would drink or cook with it. Not bad and seemed nourishing, helpful, free and only a little sexy if at all. But I would take what I could get during those times. No offense to you, **fifty-six** , but I think I’m going to be sick. I’ve never, ever wanted to drink human breastmilk (the thought makes me queasy), but I happily drink cow’s milk all the time. I wasn’t breastfed as a kid. Maybe that has something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/22 "2011-02-28T21:42:23Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > No offense to you, **fifty-six** , but I think I’m going to be sick. I’ve never, ever wanted to drink human breastmilk (the thought makes me queasy), but I happily drink cow’s milk all the time. > > I wasn’t breastfed as a kid. Maybe that has something to do with it. Well, I’m currently breastfeeding (and pumping for) my baby, and both my husband and I have tasted it (repeatedly, in fact, since it develops a bad taste if refrigerated too long, possibly due to excess lipase, so I have to check it if it’s borderline)… and I \*still \*found **fifty-six’s** comments and the OP article a little hork-inducing. Dunno why. Obviously, I have no problem feeding it to my kid, but the idea of anyone else (including me) drinking it - not just a taste to make sure it’s palatable, but a significant quantity - gives me the willies. I can imagine it would make good ice cream, though. It’s already sweet, so you’d just have to chill it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/23 "2011-02-28T22:16:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In his taboo-breaking short story _In the Barn_\*, Piers Anthony posits an alternate Earth in which varieties of humans are bred for milk production, and people in that reality cringe at the thought of consuming milk from ---- _animals_. Which would seem to me a more natural reaction. As Harris says of lactose-intolerant cultures in _this_ world, “drinking a glass of milk seems to them as grotesque as drinking a glass of cow saliva”\*\* I think that, for the reason Dio stated, it really does seem to make less sense to prefer human milk. We get all our other food from animals and plants (and a few fungi), so why would milk be any different?] As for saliva: we don’t drink human saliva either. Apparently saliva in and of itself is revolting. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/24 "2011-02-28T23:03:07Z")
I am not offended. I do many odd things. As far as human milk goes I honestly never thought twice about it or had to get past some barrier and just assumed everyone did it. Obviously not. There no sexual perversity going on. Just thought of it as a rare treat. ---
**Author:** ![Montgomery0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@Montgomery0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montgomery0)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/25 "2011-02-28T23:28:46Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Would you rather eat human flesh or animal flesh? Well, how about this hypothetical: Would you rather suck milk out of a woman’s teat or a cows teat? To be fair, let’s say that the cow’s teat is as clean as the woman’s. ---
**Author:** ![xoferew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/e9a140/32.png) [@xoferew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xoferew)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/26 "2011-02-28T23:51:43Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I think that, for the reason Dio stated, it really does seem to make less sense to prefer human milk. We get all our other food from animals and plants (and a few fungi), so why would milk be any different?] > > As for saliva: we don’t drink human saliva either. Apparently saliva in and of itself is revolting. Yes, how many people would spit in a glass, let it cool, and then drink it? And that’s just their own! ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/27 "2011-03-01T00:14:21Z")
We do kiss each other that entails some spit consumption although small. We go down on each other and that often includes the consumption of bodily fluids. And some lick their own wounds consuming bit of blood. Human milk is the only bodily fluid that the sole reason for its existance is consumption. Seems many are more icked out by drinking human mlk than swallowing a load or licking a cooter or even ass. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/28 "2011-03-01T00:36:13Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I think that, for the reason Dio stated, it really does seem to make less sense to prefer human milk. We get all our other food from animals and plants (and a few fungi), so why would milk be any different?] > > As for saliva: we don’t drink human saliva either. Apparently saliva in and of itself is revolting. Dude, I don’t know about you, but I don’t drink ANY saliva. :eek: (Well, unless you’re counting backwash. But that’s inevitable.) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/29 "2011-03-01T01:30:01Z")
> [@Montgomery0](#): > > Well, how about this hypothetical: > > Would you rather suck milk out of a woman’s teat or a cows teat? > > To be fair, let’s say that the cow’s teat is as clean as the woman’s. Depends on who the woman is, I guess, but I don’t really find either choice appealing. For the record, I have tasted my wife’s breast milk out of a bottle (just out of curiosity), but a small taste was enough. I wouldn’t want to drink a glass of it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/30 "2011-03-01T01:30:44Z")
> [@](#): > > We get all our other food from animals and plants (and a few fungi), so why would milk be any different?] Actually, milk is _very_ different. It’s not meat or part of a plant. It’s an animal _secretion_. How many secretions do you drink? The only other common one is honey (I don’t count eggs as a secretion). It’s notable that the Promised Land in the Bible was described as "flowing with milk and honey: – they’re two foods you can obtain without killing the animal producing them, since they’re secretions. Now, people on this Board 9and elsewhere) have expressed some disgust at the thgought of honey, since it’s _bee vomit_. It arguably isn’t, of course, but you could make the case. I can easily see people being similarly grossed out by consuming something that leaks out of an animal. And if you’re going to consum animal secretions, ones from humans are arguably better – we do, many of us, drink human breastmilk when younger. Many people have been arguing afainst consumption of cow milk in recent years. Clearly aspects of it are unacceptable to them. > **[Parenting, Baby Names, Celebrities, and Royal News | CafeMom.com](https://cafemom.com)** > > Parenting, Baby Names, Celebrities, and Royal News > **[The Dangers of Cow's Milk - The Natural Child Project](https://www.naturalchild.org/articles/guest/linda_folden_palmer.html)** > **[Some websites against drinking cow milk](http://hl123.blogspot.com/2010/11/some-websites-against-drinking-cow-milk.html)** > > Some websites against drinking cow milk: www.milksucks.com www.milkmyths.org.uk www.notmilk.com www.pcrm.org as for pig milk, it’s even more difficult to collect than horse milk, which is the reason it’s not commercialized: > [@](#): > > The biggest challenge facing the porcine dairy industry is collecting the product. Pigs on average have fourteen teats as opposed to cows that have four teats. Pigs also differ from cows in their milk ejection time, a cows milk ejection is stimulated by the hoimone oxytocin and can last ten minutes, where as a pig’s milk ejection time only last fifleen seconds as the suckling pigs stimulate the release of oxytocin. The technology of a 14 cupped mechanized milking machine that can milk a pig in 15 seconds is not available to pork producers.’ > **[A Collection of Letters - Industry](http://blarthox.com/letters/pages%20and%20menus/industry.html)** (second letter from top) ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/31 "2011-03-01T02:51:03Z")
My thinking is that it’s just too intimate and personal to be considered a food product. There’s nothing really wrong with consuming breast milk; the point about an innate aversion to cannibalism is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/32 "2011-03-01T02:56:28Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Dude, I don’t know about you, but I don’t drink ANY saliva. :eek: (Well, unless you’re counting backwash. But that’s inevitable.) Note: I’m don’t think kissing counts as “drinking saliva”. I’m thinking more in the case of spitting in someone’s glass. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/33 "2011-03-01T15:39:01Z")
For me, I have an immediate eww reaction, but as I analyze it, it’s mostly due to consumption of breast milk being a rather intimate interaction. I wouldn’t want to drink some random stranger’s milk. Babies drinking their moms’ milk, and even husbands drinking their wives’ milk, if they’re into that, doesn’t seem shocking to me, but serving some woman’s milk in a restaurant seems downright weird. ( **Heart of Dorkness** , you probably know this, but if you want to avoid your milk going soapy in the freezer, you can scald it to denature the lipase.) ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/34 "2011-03-01T16:55:24Z")
But cow’s milk comes in a carton with a cute picture of a cartoon cow on it! How could _that_ be gross? ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/35 "2011-03-01T16:57:43Z")
Also, cow’s milk has an expiration date. I mean, how are we to be assured freshness? ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855/36 "2011-03-01T17:16:06Z")
> [@fifty-six](#): > > I am not offended. I do many odd things. As far as human milk goes I honestly never thought twice about it or had to get past some barrier and just assumed everyone did it. Obviously not. There no sexual perversity going on. Just thought of it as a rare treat. I don’t think anyone’s claiming it’s sexually perverse, nor is anyone saying there’s something wrong with you for liking it. I like beer; some people don’t. It’s just not for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-human-milk-ick-but-no-cows-milk/572855.md?page=1)