Ben and Jerry’s Breast Milk Ice Cream?

Ice cream made from breast milk would benefit both cows and humans, according to a letter sent from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream:

If Ben and Jerry’s replaced the cow’s milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers-and cows-would reap the benefits.

Using cow’s milk for your ice cream is a hazard to your customer’s health. Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer. The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America’s leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow’s milk to children, saying it may play a role in anemia, allergies, and juvenile diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease-America’s number one cause of death.

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Hans Locher, owner of Storchen restaurant in Switzerland, made a big stir after announcing that he will be including dishes containing at least 75% percent mother’s milk to his menu. This spurred PETA on with the controversial idea of breast milk ice cream. Update on the letter from PETA.

This intrigued me. As a vegan, I don’t use any cows milk or dairy products, but I wondered if there were some people out there that did use breast milk in recipes. Here’s what I found:

Breast Milk Recipes:

• Breast Milk Butter - Add several ounces of fresh breast milk to a clean jar with a lid and shake until you get butter.
• Boobsicles - Freeze the milk in popsicle molds.
• Mother’s Milk Smoothie - Add breast milk to fruit and blend.
• Breast Milk Soap
  
• Cheese - Follow your favorite cheese recipe, substituting breast milk for cow’s milk.
• Sweet Potato and Breast Milk - Bake a sweet potato and mash with milk.
• Sourdough Bread Starter - Use milk instead of water in your starter.

As a father of breastfed children, I believe that mother’s milk is best for kids, straight from the tap, as it were, and I’m not advocating for breast milk recipes.

By the way, Ben and Jerry’s answer was:

“We applaud PETA’s novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother’s milk is best used for her child.”

So I guess we won’t be seeing the Mother’s Milk and Honey flavor after all…

Image: Ben and Jerry’s Flavor Generator

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