Breast milk isn't dairy..

dairy is milk or food processed from mamal's milk. so technically breast milk is dairy... I wonder what would taste cheese or yogourt made out of human milk....

125- Dairy would be the product of COW'S milk. While we call it breast "milk", it is technically considered pareve (I think that's how you pronounce it.) Breast milk is clearer and thinner than milk. Also - just to point out - pigs, dogs, and goats are not dairy animals, therefore their milk is not considered dairy either.

I Googled "What is considered breast milk." And the first link was to the USDA and I couldn't get on the site but got this " All fluid milk products and many foods made from milk are considered part of this food group." It doesn't say specifically if it's cow milk or not. I would say if it comes out of a breast it's milk no matter what animal. Cows are the "dairy" animal because I'm sure part of it is, is that many people will not drink a gallon of milk that came from a goat or any animal but a cow. Just like with meat, people are happy to eat a cow but you give them a burger and tell them it's cat they wouldn't eat it.

So goat cheese and sheep cheese are not dairy ? People drink also yak, horse and camel milk (even wolf milk if you believe in remus and romulus myth)....

167 - so you are telling me I have been wasting the last two years of my life on writing a thesis about dairy goats, because goats aren't dairy animals? Would love you to tell my Prof that, as well as all those farmers who make their money off producing goat milk and goat milk cheese (google chevin). Goats were domesticated long, long before cattle, and they are they original dairy animals. Btw, you also get specialized dairy sheep, horses are also milked to produce kumis, as well as camels. Dairy cows cannot survive everywhere.

182 - your knowledge regarding goats show that you are American. You have only about 3million goats of the world's 980million goats, and quick research show that you also have no recording of your goat milk production. In other countries, such as India, China or France, goat milk is used frequently, and often drunk as is, or used to make high quality cheeses. Use Wikipedia or Google a bit better and learn something new. Cows aren't the only dairy animals out there, you know. Cows are just better commercialized.

196 - yay for the yak! I forgot about the yak :)

My apologies.. I may not realize that other animals qualify as dairy, but I still do not believe that human breast milk is dairy. I've seen several websites that have argued whether it is or not, but I don't feel that it is. I mean, if some babies are allergic to dairy then how are they still able to drink breast milk? Also, we aren't considered dairy animals, correct?

Indeed the debate "is human milk dairy " is a silly one.... never thought i would be discussing this point one day.... Let's say this : #51 should have said "In fact we're not meant to process that much milk as adult", because a lot of adults are lactose intolerant : Human milk, as cow milk, contains lactose, that is not easilly digested unless you produce an enzyme called lactase. Many adults, contrary to babies and small children, don't produce lactase anymore (or not enough) and are intolerant to milk (and i suppose this include human milk). However, they could be able to eat other dairy products, such as cheese and yogourts, because the fabrication process destroys a big part of lactose contained in it. Babies (and adults) that are allergic to cow milk, are in fact allergic to a protein contained in cow milk , and not in human milk.

I didn't say cows were the only one. I know goats are used as dairy. I only mean that there are people out there that wont touch certain parts from an animals and that's why the cow is thought of as "the dairy animal". For instance I know people that will eat the chicken but not the egg, will drink cow milk not goat or any other kind of milk, will eat cow and pig but not deer....ect. I only Googled it because I thought it would be nice to have Elizabeth read it from a USDA site not comments from strangers she wouldn't believe.

Thanks for the insight. Also, thanks for not ripping me apart like some on here tend to do.

I have a four month old, and I breast feed her, so i think my thoughts kind of stem from that. Like on a personal level.. "I am producing dairy?"

215 - you are, on a level, since milk falls into the dairy food group. But at the same time, you aren't doing it to sell, trade or market it, and you aren't processing it into cheese or yogurt to preserve it for later use. So relax, and enjoy your bonding time with your child. :)

Anything that has milk in it is considered "dairy". BreastMILK is dairy because it IS milk. Duh!