The Supporting Role of Breasts

FW: What can I say? True. People who care about protecting human health and the environment are very concerned about the anti-science messages swirling around DC right now. But there is some bipartisan support because these are ultimately bipartisan issues. We all want healthy babies.

I think it's about time we voted for senators with breasts. After all, we've been voting for boobs long enough.

~Claire Sargent, 1992 Arizona senatorial candidate

JB: Agreed. According to your book, despite this being the 21st century, scientists still have not determined all the different components of breast milk. How is that possible? Why is a complete analysis so difficult to accomplish? And does not knowing the whole story prevent us from making conclusions regarding the potential benefits of breast milk?

FW: The analysis required for understanding all the complex long-chain molecules is really complicated and expensive. Formula companies would love to know how to replicate some of these specialized sugars, and they can't do it yet. But we've come an amazingly long way in the last five to ten years. It wasn't long ago that people thought breast milk was essentially sterile. Now they know it's more like yogurt, with live bacteria and amazing proteins and sugars. In fact, breast milk is helping provide an understanding about how specialized bacteria is important for every life stage, and i think the future of medicine will really benefit from these lessons. It's an exciting time in the research.

JB: You consulted with experts all over the world in researching this book. Along the way, you gathered such a collection of interesting facts about breasts, human and otherwise. I'm thinking specifically about the research into (is it rhesus monkeys?) monkeys whose breasts differentiate the gender of the unborn baby and alter the composition of the milk accordingly. Can you talk about that for a moment?

FW: Sure, that research came out of UC Davis, so not too far away. I believe that was Katie Hinde and her colleagues who found that milk is generally richer that's given to males than females. Is it biological sexism? Not exactly. One theory is that in these monkeys, young males need to be encouraged to go off and explore, while young females may benefit more by sticking close to mom and learning from her. So the fatter milk enables the males to feed less frequently. Breasts also know when to put extra antibodies in the milk if the baby is sick. Pretty amazing that the breasts know so much about who is actually doing the feeding.

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