Sunday, May 18, 2003

  Ubiquitous Breast Enhancement

I unknowingly used it for years.

Milk. Yes, conventional (non-organic) cow's milk contains a cocktail of growth hormones to make milk production more "efficient." Are these hormones harmful to humans? Well, the debate rages on this issue right now. Are there any undesireable effects on our bodies? Well, I don't think many would call this undesireable, but have you noticed that these days, each generation seems to be getting taller? Short people are generating tall offspring. Why? How? Maybe within a single generation, our mating and survival patterns have naturally selected for a tall gene. Or maybe the consumption of extra growth hormone through meat, dairy, and eggs, especially during puberty, is helping us grow.

From my own experience, I suspect the particular growth hormones that enlarges cow mammaries (BGH and BST), allowing them to produce up to 15 galllons of milk a day, can have a similar enlarging effect on human breasts. I was a full cup size larger in my dairy days. I know one confounding factor may have been puberty, but even through my college years, when I stopped eating meat but continued to consume about a gallon of milk a day (not including other dairy products such as cheese and ice cream, two staples of the undergraduate diet), I maintained my cleavage. It wasn't until well after I discovered soy milk and tofutti that I found my bras didn't fit anymore, and I had to resort to bra shopping in the pre-teen department (boo-hoo). And the cuprit is not overall weight loss due to less fat in my diet; my belly and butt are just as "padded" as they were back then.

I understand this is only anectdotal evidence, but I don't know of any long-term studies of women who volunteer to stop consuming dairy to see if their breasts shrink.


Anyhow, check out the size of the infected mammaries (mastitis) on this hormone-treated cow:



Quite a side effect, huh?

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