The Internet has grown to be a place for everyone to meet people, express their feelings and make purchases of just about anything we can think of. The strangest items we normally cannot find at a regular store are now readily-available for purchase online. One of these purchase items is human breast milk.
An online purchase costs approximately four times the store price of regular adult milk.
People from all walks of life are made to believe in the miraculous effects of human breast milk to the adult consumer. Mothers are selling their breast milk online, with the idea that breast milk will have positive effects to the immune system and the body's recovery process. Adult consumers are also hopeful to experience the benefits that breast milk has on nutrition and muscle-building. Some believe that it also helps with erectile dysfunction. Breast milk is tagged as a 'super food' to its adult consumers.
Experts, however, warn the public against buying breast milk online, perceiving these 'benefits' to be not true.
"Nutritionally, there is less protein in breast milk than other milks like cow's milk. Potential buyers should be made aware that there is no scientific evidence that adult consumption of human milk for medicinal properties offers anything more than a placebo effect," says Dr. Sarah Steele, a specialist at the global health and policy unit at the Queen Mary University of London.
Steele and her colleagues Jens Foell, Jeanine Martyn and Andreas Freitag further elaborated that the believed effects of human milk is not clinically proven, in an editorial in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. They also explained how the consumption of breast milk can be hazardous to adults.
The editorial piece stresses that unpasteurized milk exposes the consumer more highly to bacteria and infectious diseases. Some of these diseases include cytomegalovirus, hepatitis B and C, HIV-1/2, HTLV-I&II and syphilis.
Steele and her colleagues also highlight the risk of improper storage of milk being sold online. Since the milk could come from just about anyone, the sterility of milk containers is not properly checked. A seller could have used any other old plastic container, or used one also bought online. The hazardous synthetic chemical Bisphenol A could be present in these containers.
Her team adds that buyers are not completely aware what substances they could get from online express milk, like caffeine, tobacco, prescription and illicit drugs or alcohol.
While sellers say they have been tested for viruses, serological screening could be much more reliable.
Even when human breast milk has been made readily available online, Steele emphasizes the consumer's responsibility in knowing the source of the product.
