breast milk | Health Topics | NutritionFacts.org

45 videos

Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Paul

Human breast milk is one of the few animal products that is high in antioxidants, and is a good source of omega 3’s for infants. The best formula for most infants is their mother’s breast milk, and at least babies three months and under should ideally be fed only breast milk.

Pollutants such as PCBs and flame retardant chemicals can be passed from mother to baby through breast milk. The xenoestrogens found in human breast milk (due mostly to fish consumption) may possibly explain the rise in allergic diseases. The breast milk of those eating more plant-based appears to be the least polluted. Vegans in general have lower levels of pollutants circulating in their blood stream, but vegans who have been breastfed as infants may have been exposed to organochlorines accumulated by their mothers.

Milk proteins in breast milk break down into peptides that can opiate-like drug effects; this helps bond child to mother, but may cause problems if people continue to drink milk into adulthood. Sudden infant death syndrome (CID) may be related to a mother’s consumption of cow’s milk.

Testing for Vitamin B12 deficiency is appropriate for certain people. Vegans who do not supplement or fortify their diets with Vitamin B12 will have deficient breast milk and may place their child in danger. Vegan mothers must also be careful about getting enough iodine. If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding and eating fenugreek, make sure to tell your OB.

The information on this page has been compiled from the research presented in the videos listed. Sources for each video can be found by going to the video’s page and clicking on the Sources Cited tab.

Image Credit: Wikipedia. This image has been modified.

All Videos for Breast Milk

Soy beans alongside milk in a glass

Is Soy Milk the Most Nutritious Non-Dairy Milk?

Soy milk is compared to dairy milk and other plant-based milks.

Assortment of whole food plant-based foods

Fasting to Detox

How might we help flush the pollutants stored in our fat that come spilling out into our bloodstream during weight loss?

Pregnant person holding a white bowl of whole food

Plant-Based Pregnancy Outcomes and Breast Milk

The composition of breast milk is compared between vegetarian and nonvegetarian women.

Woman considering vitamins or a juice

Potential Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency Risks on a Vegan Diet

What is the best way to get the nutrients of concern on a plant-based diet?

fenugreek seeds and powder over wood surface

Fenugreek Benefits for Sexual Function, Painful Periods, and Milk Production

The hormonal benefits of fenugreek extend beyond the muscle-bulking testosterone boost.

Cooking oil poured from a bottle into a steel pot

The Carcinogen Glycidol in Cooking Oils

Glycidol may help explain why people who eat fried foods get more cancer.

Translucent cooking oil in a glass ingredient bowl

3-MCPD in Refined Cooking Oils

There is another reason to avoid palm oil and question the authenticity of extra-virgin olive oil.

Avoiding Fish for 5 Years Before Pregnancy

Avoiding Fish for 5 Years Before Pregnancy

The problem with fish advisories that tell pregnant women to cut down on fish is that it may be too late for certain persistent pollutants.

How to Stop Tooth Decay

How to Stop Tooth Decay

If sugar consumption is considered the one and only cause of cavities, how much is too much?

How to Treat Reflux in Children with Diet

How to Treat Reflux in Children with Diet

Hypersensitivity reactions to dairy products even in those who test negative for cow’s milk allergy.

The Best Advice on Diet and Cancer

The Best Advice on Diet and Cancer

What does the best available balance of evidence say right now about what to eat and what to avoid to reduce your risk of cancer?

Benefits of Cabbage Leaves for Relief of Engorged Breasts

Benefits of Cabbage Leaves for Relief of Engorged Breasts

Cabbage is put to the test in a randomized controlled trial.

Exclusion Diets for Eczema

Exclusion Diets for Eczema

Infants of mothers randomized to cut out eggs, milk, and fish were significantly less likely to have eczema even years later.

Does A2 Milk Carry Less Autism Risk?

Does A2 Milk Carry Less Autism Risk?

The casomorphins—breakdown products of casein, a milk protein, with opiate-like activity—in bovine milk appear to have opposite effects than those from human breast milk on infant development, but what about A2 cow’s milk?

hand holding bottle of milk

Autism and Casein from Cow’s Milk

Casomorphins—breakdown products of casein, a milk protein, with opiate-like activity—may help explain why autism symptoms sometimes improve with a dairy-free diet.

Lead Contamination in Hot Sauces

Lead Contamination in Hot Sauces

Given the lead contamination found in candies containing chili imported from Mexico, 25 hot sauces were tested for heavy metals.

Meat Consumption and the Development of Type 1 Diabetes

Meat Consumption and the Development of Type 1 Diabetes

Eating meat during breastfeeding is associated with an increased risk of type 1 diabetes, perhaps a consequence of meat glycotoxins or paratuberculosis bacteria that may be passed though breast milk.

Does Bovine Insulin in Milk Trigger Type 1 Diabetes?

Is it the casein or the cow insulin that explains the link between milk consumption and the development of type I diabetes?

Does Casein in Milk Trigger Type 1 Diabetes

Does Casein in Milk Trigger Type 1 Diabetes?

Why might exposure to bovine proteins increase the risk of childhood-onset autoimmune type 1 diabetes?

The Great Protein Fiasco

The Great Protein Fiasco

The field of nutrition got human protein requirements spectacularly wrong, leading to a massive recalculation.

The Protein Combining Myth

The Protein-Combining Myth

The myth that plant proteins are incomplete, necessitating protein combining, was debunked by the scientific nutrition community decades ago.

Should Vegan Women Supplement with DHA During Pregnancy?

Should Vegan Women Supplement with DHA during Pregnancy?

I recommend all pregnant and breastfeeding women follow the consensus guidelines to get about 200mg of preformed DHA from a pollutant-free source.

Should Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women Take DHA?

Should Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women Take DHA?

Does maternal supplementation with the long-chain omega-3 fatty acid DHA improve psychomotor, mental, visual, or physical development of infants?

4. Treating Infant Colic by Changing Mom’s Diet

Treating Infant Colic by Changing Mom’s Diet

Cow’s milk proteins can pass through breast milk—which may explain why maternal dairy-free diets are so effective in treating infant colic.

The Healthy Food Movement: Strength in Unity

The Healthy Food Movement: Strength in Unity

The tobacco industry has focused more recently on divide-and-conquer strategies to create schisms within the tobacco control movement. We in the healthy food community can learn from this by staying united and not allowing minor disagreements to distract us from the bigger picture.

powdered chlorella

Preserving Athlete Immunity with Chlorella

The green algae, chlorella, may help attenuate the drop in immune function antibodies associated with over-strenuous exercise.

Flame Retardant Pollutants and Child Development

Flame-Retardant Pollutants and Child Development

PBDE fire-retardant chemicals in the food supply may contribute to attention and cognitive deficits in children.

PCBs in Children’s Fish Oil Supplements

PCBs in Children’s Fish Oil Supplements

A study of 13 over-the-counter children’s fish oil supplements found that all were contaminated with PCB pollutants.

How Much Hibiscus Tea is Too Much?

How Much Hibiscus Tea Is Too Much?

The impressive manganese content of hibiscus tea may be the limiting factor for safe daily levels of consumption.

Dietary Sources of Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors

Dietary Sources of Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors

Foods of animal origin (especially fish) appear to be the most important source of human exposure to industrial pollutants such as alkylphenol xenoestrogens.

Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors and Allergies

Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors and Allergies

The dramatic rise of allergic diseases such as eczema and seasonal allergies may be related to dietary exposure to endocrine-disruptor xenoestrogens, such as alkylphenol industrial pollutants.

Counteracting the Effects of Dioxins Through Diet

Counteracting the Effects of Dioxins Through Diet

Phytonutrients in certain plant foods may block the toxic effects of industrial pollutants, like dioxins, through the Ah receptor system.

Estrogenic Cooked-Meat Carcinogens

DNA-damaging chemicals, formed when meat is cooked, stimulate breast cancer cells almost as much as pure estrogen, and can infiltrate the ducts where most breast cancers arise.

Side Effect of Fenugreek Consumption

Fenugreek seeds may protect against cancer and improve muscle mass, but they can make your armpits smell like maple syrup.

pregnant woman with hands on belly

The Wrong Way to Detox

The reason birth order is a predictor of pollutant levels in the bodies of children is that women can pass along as much as half of their PCB burden to their fetus during pregnancy.

mother and baby breastfeeding

The Best Baby Formula

Exclusive breastfeeding for a full six months may, ironically, improve our children’s taste for vegetables—whereas children fed formula grow up with increased rates of inflammatory diseases such as asthma, cancer, and diabetes.

child and doctor

How Fast Can Children Detoxify from PCBs?

Based on the half-life of industrial pollutants children may be exposed to in the womb or at the breast, how many years does it take for them to detoxify their bodies (assuming they’re brought up on a healthy diet)?

Food Sources of Flame-Retardant Chemicals

Other than pet food and fish (which may be most contaminated), how do fire-retardant chemicals (PBDEs) and polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) concentrate in the American food supply?

baby bottles on counter

Cow’s Milk-Induced Infant Apnoea

The opiate-like effects of the casomorphin in cow’s milk may have a depressive effect on the respiratory center of infants, and lead to “milk apnea,” in which babies temporarily stop breathing, and are placed at risk for sudden infant death syndrome (crib death).

Asparagus Pee

Young infants, and perhaps those with recurrent oxalate kidney stones, should avoid beets. But most commonly, the chief side effect is beeturia, the harmless passage of pink urine, though not all are affected—akin to the malodorous urine (“stinky pee”) that sometimes results from asparagus consumption.

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