I was in Whole Foods last week and did a complete double take. There, in the supplements section were several brands of colostrum for sale. And to make it even stranger, next to the colostrum was a bottle of lactoferrin (another component of breastmilk) for sale.
I checked out the bottles and of course found it was bovine colostrum and lactoferrin on the shelf. But this experience really got me thinking about the complete acceptance we have of cow's milk and the at best uneasy relationship we have with human milk.
As I'm sure you know, we're the only species that drinks another mammal's milk. I consume it daily in many forms. But it wasn't until a friend pointed out to me that the milk I drink was made to meet the exact nutritional and immunological needs of a baby cow, that I started to look at my morning cereal differently. What messages was this milk sending my body about the way to develop, say, a baby cow's brain, or fend off a disease that a baby cow might be subject to in a pasture in another state?
I'm not arguing that we shouldn't drink cow's milk, or that we shouldn't make formula. But I do object to the squeamishness we have about human milk when cow's milk is treated as normal. Your thoughts?
Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Blog? Subscribe here. Want an RSS feed? Click here.
