The “live” breastmilk hoax

hoax

The lactivist blogosphere is buzzing with news of micro photographs and videos that purported demonstrate that breastmilk is alive.

They were originally posted by Jansen Howard on her Facebook page.

img_1702

[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Under the microscope breastmilk looks just like salad dressing.[/pullquote]

You guys… this is SO COOL!!!!!!!! this is the living liquid gold we call breast milk in motion!!!! My dad is a blood microscopist and this is a single drop off my breast milk under his microscope!!!! It’s miraculous and it’s ALIVE tailored to my babies needs at this moment!!!!

What’s blood microscopy also known as live blood analysis? It’s quackery. Even alternative health guru Dr. Andrew Weil acknowledges that:

… This procedure is used by practitioners who claim that a darkfield analysis of a blood sample reveals much about a person’s health. Usually, the magnified blood cells are projected onto a large screen, so that patients can watch as practitioners point out “abnormalities.” Most of the abnormalities are artifacts of the technique of darkfield microscopy, but LBA proponents claim they represent early indications of cancer and other serious diseases…

None of this is actually possible by LBA…

But that’s not what makes the breastmilk images a hoax. This is:

img_1704

The images look very similar to the breastmilk image above, but they’re not breastmilk; they’re salad dressing.

Why do they look so similar? Because in both cases we are looking at fat globules in an emulsion. Breastmilk, like salad dressing, is an emulsion.

According to Wikipedia:

An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable)… In an emulsion, one liquid (the dispersed phase) is dispersed in the other (the continuous phase). Examples of emulsions include vinaigrettes, homogenized milk, mayonnaise …

Breastmilk, like all milk, is an emulsion of fat and casein in water as depicted below.

img_1705

It is true that breastmilk is a living fluid in that it contains immune cells, but Howard’s microscopic images of breastmilk don’t show that. They merely show that breastmilk looks a lot like salad dressing under the microscope … and salad dressing is not alive.

113 Responses to “The “live” breastmilk hoax”

  1. carovee
    January 13, 2017 at 11:59 am #

    I thought maybe they were talking about microbes, which are in everything that comes out of your body.

  2. corblimeybot
    January 11, 2017 at 10:43 am #

    Well this is a relief to me. I saw this image floating around my Facebook timeline, and thought, “I’m no microscope enthusiast, but that kind of looks like fat blobs?”

    Of course, no lactivist who is sharing this image has any idea how to interpret it, either. They’re just off to the races with their favorite self-serving explanation. Anything to prop up an ego entirely built upon glandular function.

  3. MayonnaiseJane
    January 11, 2017 at 9:21 am #

    It also kind of looks like an agar dish of e.coli from (college) freshman bio lab… not magnified. Just… white haloey spots…

  4. Tlittle1982
    January 10, 2017 at 11:27 pm #

    This is pure lies.

  5. Tlittle1982
    January 10, 2017 at 11:18 pm #

    How the fuck do you sleep at night? This is complete SLANDER you ignorant woman. This is my best friend your awful for writing this bullshit article just because you have a problem with breastfeeding. Dude. You are seriously a horrible person. Just awful. you should be ashamed.

    • Nick Sanders
      January 10, 2017 at 11:30 pm #

      Are you aware of the definition of slander? Because “You’re wrong” is not slander.

    • Sarah
      January 11, 2017 at 4:51 am #

      Are you a lay lawyer?

    • momofone
      January 11, 2017 at 7:26 am #

      So should you, of your reading comprehension, though I doubt you’ve taken the time to read through this blog. Dr. Tuteur does not “have a problem with breastfeeding.” She “(has) a problem” with the ignorance that leads people to push it as a magical way of feeding babies.

    • fiftyfifty1
      January 11, 2017 at 9:25 am #

      “This is my best friend ”

      Wait, what? You are best friends with both Jansen Howard (the live milk hoax person) AND the poor mother with the starved baby that Dr. Tuteur links to below?!

    • corblimeybot
      January 11, 2017 at 10:38 am #

      She breastfed four children. Explain in detail how that means she has a problem with breastfeeding.

    • Roadstergal
      January 11, 2017 at 1:51 pm #

      “This is my best friend”

      You should encourage her to take Bio 101.

    • January 11, 2017 at 5:57 pm #

      Where’s the slander part? If I say something completely false in public, it’s not slander to show that I’m wrong.

    • Steph858
      January 14, 2017 at 12:54 pm #

      Pointing out that someone is wrong is not defamatory – even if they’re right, it’s not defamatory to say that they’re wrong; depending on the circumstances, it MIGHT be defamatory to call them a liar, but Dr. Amy didn’t call anyone a liar in this article.

      Setting that aside for the moment, you need to learn some basic law. Right, class:

      What do we call SPOKEN defamatory statements? That’s right, slander.

      And what do we call WRITTEN defamatory statements? Those would be libel.

      Now, in what form is Dr. Amy’s article presented? Is it spoken or written? So, everybody, what offence would she have committed IF her statements were defamatory?

      Libel. Not slander, LIBEL!

      PS: I am not a lawyer, and so cannot answer questions along the lines of “Does a spoken defamatory statement become libellous if it’s recorded? Or would it still be merely slanderous, regardless of the increased potential to be distributed it will receive by the act of being recorded?” I was wondering the same thing myself.

  6. Dinolindor
    January 10, 2017 at 9:58 pm #

    OT: I know many of you here are in MA – if you follow Orac’s blog, then maybe you saw that a bill to create a board of registration for naturopaths was passed in an informal senate session earlier this month (I believe the same one where a handful of state senators changed some of the timeline for the higher profile marijuana law). The naturopath law is on Charlie Baker’s desk for 1/13/17, so I’d like to encourage anyone willing to send an email or call his office to ask him not to sign S2335 into law. I don’t know if calls would make a difference, but I figure it can’t hurt. (If anyone out there knows a better way to address this issue, or if it’s too late, please post.) Here is the link to contact Baker: http://www.mass.gov/governor/constituent-services/contact-governor-office/

  7. fiftyfifty1
    January 10, 2017 at 8:38 pm #

    This “live fluid” nonsense about breastmilk is similar to the nonsense from the Raw Food advocates. It’s true that the plant cells from most raw fresh fruits, veggies and nuts do show signs of “life”, as anyone who remembers the Sprouting Carrot experiment from kindergarten can attest. But there is no evidence that eating a raw “living” diet is better for you than a cooked one.

  8. Amy Tuteur, MD
    January 10, 2017 at 7:01 pm #

    Absolutely horrifying! I dare any lactivist to read this and tell me there is no such thing as insufficient breastmilk.

    https://fedisbest.org/2017/01/accidentally-starving-my-baby-broke-my-heart-but-made-me-want-to-help-other-moms/

    • fiftyfifty1
      January 10, 2017 at 8:05 pm #

      Wow, that 1 month picture is painful to look at! The baby is 1/2 oz above birthweight and is obviously starving with sunken eyes and visible skull bones. And yet it was just back in November that we had a wholoe slew of articles like this one in the press arguing that it was common and normal to still be below birthweight at 3 weeks (and then comments from lactation consultants claiming that even up to 1 month is fine). Sick.

      http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/some-babies-take-longer-to-regain-birth-weight/

      • Tlittle1982
        January 10, 2017 at 11:17 pm #

        Are you fucking kidding me!? Shut your ignorant mouth. This is my best friend child and this article is SLANDER BULLSHIT! How dare you!? I watched this babies TINY mother deliver her TINY baby because TINY people sometimes have TINY babies. This baby is incredibly healthy and insanely advanced!

        GO FUCK YOURSELF!

        • Dr Kitty
          January 11, 2017 at 6:06 am #

          I had babies that weighed about 6lbs at birth, because I’m “TINY”- 5′ tall, 45kgs. Like all babies they lost a little bit of weight in the first few days.

          I Breastfed both of them.
          By two weeks they were 7lbs, at four weeks over 8lbs- just like the WHO growth chart for breastfed babies says they should be.

          If the baby is falling off the growth chart and failing to thrive (I.e put on weight the way babies of the same birthweight and fed the same way usually do) then there is a problem.

          Small babies stay small compared to their peers, but they get bigger in a predictable way, which is why we have growth charts.

          It is not ok for babies not to grow in their first few weeks.
          This isn’t rocket science.

          Maybe there is something wrong with the baby (allergy, metabolic disease, reflux, undiagnosed heart problem) that means it can’t process the milk properly or requires more energy than average.

          Maybe there is a problem with the amount or quality of the milk.

          Maybe there is a feeding issue- poor suck-swallow-breath co-ordination, tongue tie, poor latch.

          Regardless, it cannot be ignored. Breastfeeding problems are the most common issue, sometimes amenable to simple measures to resolve, sometimes not. Sometimes there are very serious medical problems underlying a failure to thrive.

          But Tittle, sticking your head in the sand and pretending that there is no problem at all, in the name of “supporting breastfeeding” doesn’t help these babies or their mothers, does it?

        • Heidi
          January 11, 2017 at 8:32 am #

          Who is your best friend? The one who took videos of breast milk under the microscope or the woman whose baby didn’t thrive on breast milk? They are two different people, both who you are falsely claiming is your best friend that was slandered against. Dr. Amy just posted an online story that was already ONLINE and I didn’t see her say one negative nor unsupportive thing towards the woman and her baby.

          • corblimeybot
            January 11, 2017 at 10:37 am #

            COLD BUSTED

          • Roadstergal
            January 11, 2017 at 1:56 pm #

            I think she’s saying that her best friend wrote that dangerous article Fiftyfifty linked to, and also put out that ‘fat globules are immune cells’ picture?

            Or maybe not. I’m confused.

          • Heidi
            January 11, 2017 at 2:00 pm #

            Those aren’t the same people either. Who knows? I have my doubts tittle1982 will ever give me an answer. I might get a “STFU THAT’S MY BEST FRIEND YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOU”RESELF” response, though.

          • January 11, 2017 at 6:08 pm #

            Maybe she’s you’re best friend, too?

          • Roadstergal
            January 11, 2017 at 6:17 pm #

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaZpZQG2z10

          • Heidi
            January 11, 2017 at 6:46 pm #

            Nah, we are worst enemies I’m sure.

        • fiftyfifty1
          January 11, 2017 at 9:00 am #

          It’s OK to be a tiny mother delivering a tiny baby. What’s not OK is for that baby to still be the same weight 1 month later. That’s starvation. This poor mother was told that everything was “normal” when the whole time her baby was starving. She posted this story to warn other mothers, so that what happened to her baby won’t happen to others. Luckily someone told her the truth and she was able to put the baby on formula before it was too late.

        • fiftyfifty1
          January 11, 2017 at 9:01 am #

          It’s OK to be a tiny mother delivering a tiny baby. What’s not OK is for that baby to still be the same weight 1 month later. That’s starvation. This poor mother was told that everything was “normal” when the whole time her baby was starving. She posted this story to warn other mothers, so that what happened to her baby won’t happen to others. Luckily someone told her the truth and she was able to put the baby on formula before it was too late.

        • Empress of the Iguana People
          January 11, 2017 at 1:34 pm #

          I was a tiny baby. So small Mom had to make my clothes because she couldn’t find any that fit. I still grew that first month in exactly the same kind of arc as the giants I gave birth to, only a much lower percentile. I got all the way back up to 5 pounds even by week 2.

          • sdsures
            January 12, 2017 at 12:57 pm #

            Didn’t Cabbage Patch doll clothes fit you? That’s what I was dressed in as a micropreemie.

          • Empress of the Iguana People
            January 12, 2017 at 2:40 pm #

            I’m older than Cabbage Patch dolls

        • January 11, 2017 at 6:07 pm #

          And you’re a liar who prefers dead babies to fed babies. You’re scum.

        • Daleth
          January 11, 2017 at 6:24 pm #

          That article (https://fedisbest.org/2017/01/accidentally-starving-my-baby-broke-my-heart-but-made-me-want-to-help-other-moms/) is written by the baby’s mom. She’s the one saying that she was misled by lactivists into accidentally starving her own baby for his first month of life, and switching to formula made him fat, happy and healthy.

          SHE is the one saying that.

          Think about that for a minute.

      • Roadstergal
        January 11, 2017 at 1:55 pm #

        What the hell is up with this idea that maternal IV hydration during C-sections inflate babies like balloons?
        If the baby has a higher weight because mom wasn’t dehydrated, that means to me that the baby wasn’t dehydrated. So why not make sure to keep it that way?

        • Chant de la Mer
          January 11, 2017 at 7:13 pm #

          my friend honestly believes she had to have a c-section because her IV fluids caused her baby to swell and become too big to be born. Never mind that he was 10lbs and continued to be huge, 50 lbs at age 3 (and not obese, just a very big and tall boy), it wasn’t that he was too big for her it was the IV fluids.

          • sdsures
            January 12, 2017 at 12:56 pm #

            Oh for heaven’s sake.

        • fiftyfifty1
          January 11, 2017 at 7:31 pm #

          “What the hell is up with this idea that maternal IV hydration during C-sections inflate babies like balloons”

          Yeah, it’s ridiculous. This idea that maternal IV fluids inflate a baby’s weight has zero good evidence behind it. It has long been known that certain babies are at higher risk for excessive (>10%) weight loss. The 2 main risk factors are babies born to first time mothers and babies born after long, difficult labors. This should come as no surprise: breastmilk comes in ~1 day later in first time mothers, and babies who endure long, difficult deliveries are often too tired to suck milk effectively and very difficult labors can also result in poor milk production. These same risk factors (first time mothers and complicated labors) are also associated nowadays with more IV fluids given during labor. A mother who labors for 32 hours is going to get more bags of fluid than one who labors for 2 hours, no? And first labors tend to be both longer and more painful. The vast majority of first time mothers end up needing an epidural (which involves getting fluids).

          But instead of realizing that the true risk factor for excessive weight loss is delayed milk or a a baby too exhausted to feed well, lactivists have insisted without evidence that babies must be getting “artificially bloated up by IV fluids”. They STILL insist it could be true, even when well-designed studies show zero evidence that it happens. But with lactivists, any excuse not to supplement a starving and dehydrated newborn is good enough for them.

          • Dr Kitty
            January 12, 2017 at 5:20 am #

            Correct me if I am wrong, but blood flows through the kidneys very,very rapidly, and there are effective mechanisms for maintaining homeostasis and fluid balance for both mother and foetus.

            IV fluids are isotonic, so it isn’t like it’s all moving into the interstitial spaces by osmosis either…

            I never really understood the idea that giving 3L of normal saline or dextrose IV over 24hrs would lead to a foetus being 0.5-1kg heavier. That isn’t how it works.

            Anyone who has looked at fluid balance charts for labouring women with IV fluids and catheters knows that what goes in must come out. It’s not hanging around in there.

          • sdsures
            January 12, 2017 at 12:55 pm #

            I thought I’d heard everything from the woo brigade, and they come up with this!

        • sdsures
          January 12, 2017 at 12:55 pm #

          They obviously don’t understand the difference between IV hydration vs an air embolus.

    • yentavegan
      January 10, 2017 at 10:25 pm #

      Ok Fellow lactavists/LLLeaders/LC’s ( I know you lurk here) Now hear this: It is a major red flag for breastmilk/breastfeeding in sufficiency if the baby has not regained the birth weight by week two. Enough of this crap ,” maybe mother had too much IV fluids and baby weight’s was artificially high”. Pay attention this is important ..if baby has not regained birth weight by day 14 ( and really baby ought to weigh more than that at day 14) Breastfeeding is not going well and rule number one is FEED THE BABY

      • T.
        January 12, 2017 at 3:50 am #

        I think it is telling how some of them absolutely refuse to even acknowledge that a breastfeed baby may have problems… because as somebody else mentioned, it could also not be a breastfeeding problem. It could be a sign of something more serious like a metabolic problem, or an undiagnosed heart problem or other things like these. And I think we can all agree that you would want to know this ASAP.

        But no. Breastfeeding MUST be magical and protect the baby from ALL THINGS.

        It is almost like a talisman. As long as you breastfeed things will be well.

    • Roadstergal
      January 11, 2017 at 1:56 pm #

      That picture is horrifying and sad.

  9. Miss Mae
    January 10, 2017 at 5:17 pm #

    Sort of OT: Just a little bit of quackery from a professor of music deciding he’s an oncologist for your viewing enjoyment. It only took hundreds and hundreds of tries to get this video. “Shockingly” it doesn’t seem to be of interest to the medical community.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oep6Ae5AF0A

    I’ve been trying to gently steer a friend with stage IV cancer away from this mess, but since this guy has a TEDx youtube video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w0_kazbb_U ) she thinks this stuff is legit. The reality is, is that it is just one more iteration of the whole RIFE machine scam. This use of microscope video clips just sickens me! It is harmful and deceptive.

    • sciencejaney
      January 10, 2017 at 7:05 pm #

      I remember ‘This American Life’ radio program documenting this from the real scientist who collaborated with the music guy with his first study. He soon distanced himself, before the guy ruined his scientific reputation with his badly designed experimenting.

      • Petticoat Philosopher
        January 10, 2017 at 10:22 pm #

        Ah, I remember hearing about this on TAL, but I hadn’t realized there was a dramatic sequel.

        • sciencejaney
          January 11, 2017 at 2:02 am #

          It’s the classic example of non-scientific laypeople having woefully inadequate critical thinking skills and being far too thin skinned to actually research properly. If you cant handle those more experienced than yourself pointing out the flaws in your methodology, you have no business calling yourself a researcher.
          Someone who is not interested in the truth says, “Here’s my proof. Don’t pick it apart.” Someone who is interested in the truth says, “Here’s my proof. Please pick it apart and tell me if there’s something I missed or was wrong about.”

          Science is all about picking things apart.

          • Roadstergal
            January 11, 2017 at 1:58 pm #

            Because often picking it apart brings you to something even more illuminating than the original hypothesis. Picking it apart isn’t tearing it down, it’s building it up.

          • Empress of the Iguana People
            January 11, 2017 at 6:14 pm #

            Sometmies you have to rip back to set the seam straight

          • The Bofa on the Sofa
            January 11, 2017 at 2:51 pm #

            Someone who is interested in the truth says, “Here’s my proof. Please pick it apart and tell me if there’s something I missed or was wrong about.”

            I was reviewing a paper this morning and was highly critical, and said, “Here are my criticisms. Explain to me why I am wrong and what I am misunderstanding.”

            So even when we pick things apart, we ask to have our criticisms picked apart!

            #RealTimeScience

  10. Gæst
    January 10, 2017 at 3:24 pm #

    I *hope* my salad dressing isn’t alive…

    Brilliant takedown, Dr. Amy.

  11. Gene
    January 10, 2017 at 2:55 pm #

    I remember back in elementary school my teacher put something in a Petri dish filled with a clear fluid. It bounced around the liquid and appeared to eat other things in the fluid. We had to debate if it were alive or not. I was adamant it was alive: it moved on its own, it reacted to the environment, it ate things. I was wrong. It was actually Mercury. Oops.

  12. Roadstergal
    January 10, 2017 at 2:38 pm #

    Pro tip – if one drop of your breastmilk is really that chock-full of immune cells, see a doctor. You’re not doing well.

    • Roadstergal
      January 10, 2017 at 2:41 pm #

      I’m trying to figure out what kind of crappy ‘blood microscopist” tells his daughter those blobs are cells. I agree with DrT, it must be some sort of ‘live cell’ quack.

      • Paula
        January 10, 2017 at 3:32 pm #

        Agreed, if I were him I would be very embarrassed to be associated with this. The level of ignorance is laughably high.

    • Heidi
      January 10, 2017 at 2:51 pm #

      I’m pretty sure my boob is chockful of immune cells. The other day I had my dutch oven cooking some shit food according to who you ask (beans), I leaned over to turn the oven on to make some more shitty grain based food (cornbread) and my clothed bewb brushed the very hot dutch oven. It hurt a little but it was a short-lived owwie so I totally forgot about it. Then the other night, we were going to sleep and my husband noticed a red place on me, and I’m like, “I have no idea what that is,” I touch the spot and my skin just came off at the red spot. I quickly start googling shingles worried I was in for a horrible few weeks. It wasn’t until the next day or two I remembered burning myself! Now I’ve got a lovely green scab there. I’m saving it for the baby to make up for all the horrible DEAD high fiber, grain-based food and formula I fed him.

      • Roadstergal
        January 10, 2017 at 3:05 pm #

        I’m pretty sure my husband made a little ‘breastmilk’ that was ‘full of immune cells’ for a few days when his pierced nipples were healing (I’m incredibly anal-retentive about washing my piercings and never got that infection time). He should have sold it on Craigslist!

        • Empress of the Iguana People
          January 10, 2017 at 3:44 pm #

          eeeewwww

          • Roadstergal
            January 10, 2017 at 3:45 pm #

            It was a living fluid! :p

          • Empress of the Iguana People
            January 10, 2017 at 3:52 pm #

            respirating, even

      • Sean Jungian
        January 10, 2017 at 3:33 pm #

        My favorite meal, that I eat a couple times a week at LEAST, is brown rice & beans.

        AH LUV ME SOME BEANS!!!!

        • Heidi
          January 10, 2017 at 3:46 pm #

          This was ham and beans. Not to brag, but it was one of the most delicious things I have eaten. I grew up with “soup beans” which I am not a big fan of. This is similar, except that instead of fatback, which I find way too salty but otherwise bland, you use smoked ham hocks and it really makes a huuuuge difference. Well, it probably helps that I added chicken broth instead of water and aromatic veggies like garlic and celery. The soup beans I grew up with were pintos, a chunk of fatback and water and you added raw onions when you ate them to try to overcome the blandness. I never understood how that was comfort food. Of course, I’m sure there are good versions of soup beans but I never had them.

          • BeatriceC
            January 10, 2017 at 3:51 pm #

            I make mine with whatever pig bone I have handy and then add onion, celery, garlic and jalapeño peppers. The jalapeño makes a huge difference. Just one pepper, diced, per pound of beans. The difference is amazing.

          • Heidi
            January 10, 2017 at 3:57 pm #

            I forgot, I added some pulled pork I had in the freezer from Christmas Eve leftovers, plus I substituted a couple of the carrots for butternut+acorn squash soup cubes I had made for the baby. For whatever reason, he didn’t like my fancy soup, although he liked the beans a lot. I didn’t add any jalapenos but the pulled pork was flavored with cumin, cayenne, brown sugar, and paprika. I’ll probably never be able to experience that soup again exactly like it was. 🙁

          • Sean Jungian
            January 10, 2017 at 4:35 pm #

            But that’s kind of what I like about soup/stews/chili. I make it similarly each time but it’s never exactly the same.

            And pulled pork is my son’s favorite dish!

          • Sean Jungian
            January 10, 2017 at 4:32 pm #

            I use jalepeno in mine most of the time, too, along with some cumin. And pork makes everything good.

          • Sean Jungian
            January 10, 2017 at 3:57 pm #

            It sounds delicious! I’m not a fan of bland.

            I take a lot of cooking shortcuts, including liberal use of garlic and onion powder. But when I do have time to chop up fresh garlic & onion I’m always blown away by the orders of magnitude better it is!

          • Heidi
            January 10, 2017 at 4:04 pm #

            I was unintentionally gifted a Bass Pro Shop gift card for Christmas. BPS is totally not my thing but I actually found a smoker on sale for $50 and I’ve been wanting one for years. I took it as a sign to gift it to myself. I can’t wait until the weather is a bit nicer to play with my new toy! I smoked some bologna on it because it’s really easy to do and relatively quick and bologna becomes like a whole new food when it’s smoked.

          • Heidi
            January 10, 2017 at 4:13 pm #

            I used to be big on chopping my own garlic, but the last year with baby and all, I’ve turned to those jars of minced garlic packed in oil (I figure the oil carries flavor better than water). Maybe not quite as flavorful as fresh garlic, but I just add a little more and haven’t been disappointed.

          • Sean Jungian
            January 10, 2017 at 4:31 pm #

            I use those, too! Mostly I only use fresh when I can just smash it.

          • StephanieJR
            January 12, 2017 at 9:37 am #

            I don’t really like beans, but that sounds delicious. I want to have dinner at your house.

  13. Sarah
    January 10, 2017 at 2:04 pm #

    You clearly haven’t seen the salad dressing that’s been at the back of my fridge for several decades.

    • BeatriceC
      January 10, 2017 at 3:47 pm #

      MrC threw out my science experiments a few days ago. He claims they were just rotting black beans and rotting cauliflower. I told him he was a bad scientist for getting rid of them.

  14. momofone
    January 10, 2017 at 1:58 pm #

    It may just be me, but I don’t get the appeal of the “living fluid” thing. I don’t eat live things. Feeding living things to my baby does not sound appealing.

    • MI Dawn
      January 10, 2017 at 2:35 pm #

      Yeah, that “eating live things” always squicked ME out…like the (IIRC) live octopus served in Korea as a treat (see Sannakji). Nope. I personally don’t believe in giving my food the chance to fight back about being eaten.

      • momofone
        January 10, 2017 at 2:56 pm #

        Amen. I want it dead, dead, dead!

        • Sean Jungian
          January 10, 2017 at 3:35 pm #

          Dead AND processed – butchered, tenderized, flavored, sliced, and cooked, thank you.

    • Roadstergal
      January 10, 2017 at 2:39 pm #

      Like the ‘cousin to human blood’ thing we got earlier. I’m not that vampiric.

  15. January 10, 2017 at 1:44 pm #

    Just to get this out there before someone starts this argument:

    Yes, there are cells in breast milk just like there are cells in all mammalian milks. It’s mostly somatic epithelial cells shed from the breast internally and from the external nipples, but you do have some immune cells.

    Do they do anything for the baby? Nope. They are shredded into tiny bits and pieces by enzymes in the mouth and the acid of the stomach.

    Proof: How many bovine cells do you think transferred into your body from milk products? Hint: Don’t talk about pasteurization – it doesn’t destroy cells….

    (If I suddenly disappear, you’ll know Big Dairy finally decided to get rid of me to stop freaking people out about bovine cells in milk 😛 )

  16. January 10, 2017 at 1:40 pm #

    Oh, good heavens. Motion is one of the traits of living things – but it’s about the worst way to determine if something is actually living.

    Do the globules:
    -Grow or repair damage to themselves? No
    – Reproduce? No
    -Undergo metabolism? No
    -Are they cells? No
    – Show levels of organization? No
    -Respond to the environment? No

    That video proves breast milk is alive as much as shaking a bunch of sand in water proves sand is alive.

    • N
      January 10, 2017 at 3:03 pm #

      “Motion is one of the traits of living things”
      A couple of days ago, for my big son’s 9th birthday, we organised a mad scientist party for him. We tried an experiment called frankenworms. It involves gummy worms, backing soda and vinegar. Our worms did not come to live. They just swam on the vinegar surface and lay there motionless. If the experiment had worked, they would have moved in the vinegar and therefore been truly alive!

    • The Bofa on the Sofa
      January 10, 2017 at 3:25 pm #

      Motion is one of the traits of living things

      Coral is alive and never moves. And when sea sponges move, it’s considered a paranormal event.

      https://youtu.be/KryNGmx56ao

    • Cody
      January 11, 2017 at 12:36 pm #

      Grade 11 bio class!

  17. Empress of the Iguana People
    January 10, 2017 at 1:38 pm #

    Soo…a mildewy towel is also “live”? KILL IT, KILL IT NOW!!!
    *Snort*

  18. yentavegan
    January 10, 2017 at 1:32 pm #

    So the hoax is the photographic evidence because even you, Dr. Amy conclude that breastmilk is a living fluid. And that is the salient point.

    • Nick Sanders
      January 10, 2017 at 1:43 pm #

      “In that it contains immune cells”

      Having living cells as a component isn’t the same thing as the sum totality being “alive”.

    • fiftyfifty1
      January 10, 2017 at 8:26 pm #

      What exactly is salient about it? Salient means “important” and “stands out from the crowd”. But all bodily fluids with the exception of perhaps eccrine sweat and urine contain living cells and thus qualify as so-called “living fluids”. Shall we feed our babies arm-pit sweat, or nasal mucous, or smegma,or saliva, or pus, or vaginal secretions or semen? They are all “living fluids”.

      Breastmilk is an excellent, nourishing food for babies. But this “living fluid” nonsense is just an attempt at marketing by lactivists. They made it up to make breastmilk sound magical, and formula to seem morbid and “dead” by comparison.

      • Roadstergal
        January 11, 2017 at 7:10 pm #

        Urine contains living cells. They don’t stay alive for long in that medium, but they’re there, and you can nab them if you’re expeditious. Immune cells, even. #SomeoneWhoHasIsolatedImmuneCellsFromUrine #MyMomWouldBeSoProud

      • AnnaPDE
        January 12, 2017 at 1:17 am #

        By the definition used in that post, formula totally becomes a living fluid if you let it stand at room temperature for a few hours….
        Just like the slimy juice that comes off chicken meat. Totally teeming with wonderful livingness.

  19. Sean Jungian
    January 10, 2017 at 11:40 am #

    What are they claiming is the “alive” part? Are the particles moving in her little video?

  20. sdsures
    January 10, 2017 at 11:35 am #

    Next thing you know, people will claim that yogurt is alive because it has bacteria in it.

    • Brooke
      January 10, 2017 at 11:40 am #

      Well yeah its a bacteria colony. Particularly if its raw yogurt.

      • sdsures
        January 10, 2017 at 11:57 am #

        You’re so predictable.

        • Brooke
          January 10, 2017 at 12:04 pm #

          Ditto.

        • Sean Jungian
          January 10, 2017 at 12:33 pm #

          She must have been waiting all morning, refreshing constantly, so she could get in on the bashing early. She’s missed out the last couple days.

        • MaineJen
          January 10, 2017 at 1:46 pm #

          #thatsourbrooke

          • Heidi
            January 10, 2017 at 1:47 pm #

            That works two ways: That Sour Brooke or That’s Our Brooke!

      • Azuran
        January 10, 2017 at 2:16 pm #

        The bacteria are alive, that doesn’t make the yogurt any more alive than a moldy bread.

    • MI Dawn
      January 10, 2017 at 12:49 pm #

      I prefer my yogurt to be dead. The day my yogurt grabs my spoon and walks off is the day I quit eating it!

      • Sean Jungian
        January 10, 2017 at 3:10 pm #

        I prefer all my food to be dead, actually. I have no desire to try those squirmy baby octopi on sticks, thank you (though if you like them, go for it!).

        • MI Dawn
          January 10, 2017 at 7:48 pm #

          Nope. As I said, I prefer my food to be DEAD. 🙂

    • Nick Sanders
      January 10, 2017 at 1:32 pm #

      I recently left some sour cream in the fridge too long, and came back to find it not only alive, but well on it’s way to being classified as a mammal. Tender soul that I am, I couldn’t bear to eat the poor thing, but instead set it free to find a new home in the city dump.

      • Heidi
        January 10, 2017 at 1:46 pm #

        I hope you told sour cream buddy the importance of breastfeeding and the risks of formula feeding! If it does become pure mammal, that will surely be the most important thing it could ever do for its furry green offspring!

      • FallsAngel
        January 10, 2017 at 1:48 pm #

        I found something the other day that fit your description, but I don’t even know what it originally was. It’s going to the local compost factory!

        • Sarah
          January 10, 2017 at 2:05 pm #

          Nooo, that’s my pumped breastmilk!

      • January 10, 2017 at 1:51 pm #

        I always decide to clean my car when the new organisms in there have reached “tribal or clan-based government” but before they reach a “confederation government”

        I don’t think I’d be able to outsmart them once they’ve mastered diplomacy.

      • Heidi
        January 10, 2017 at 1:58 pm #

        I had some Thai peanut sauce I made months ago that I found the other day. Maybe ol’ Sour Cream and Peanut Sauce will find each other in the landfill and have beautiful babies the good ol’ natural way without epidurals and such!

        • Sean Jungian
          January 10, 2017 at 3:12 pm #

          I wish I could just “forget” when I have spicy peanut sauce made – so does my waistline.

          I feel the same way about peanut sauce and hummus as I do about wine – I don’t know how fast they go bad once you open ’em, but I’m NEVER gonna risk it, consider that entire container GONE.

          • Roadstergal
            January 10, 2017 at 3:25 pm #

            I am unable to tell you what spoiled rice pudding looks like.

      • The Bofa on the Sofa
        January 10, 2017 at 2:10 pm #

        I find that said bacteria are a good contribution to our functioning septic system.

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