Katie Hinde explains what scientists don't know about mother's milk

Katie Hinde explains what scientists don't know about mother's milk

 

Scientists know more about tomatoes than breast milk, and that's a problem for Center for Evolution and Medicine faculty member Katie Hinde. In her recently released TED Talk from last October, Hinde covers everything from the important role mother's milk plays in infant development to the lack of diversity in baby formula for mothers who don't or can't breastfeed. She also highlights the discrepencies in research between the nearly one million articles on pregnancy and the ten thousand on breastfeeding. Meanwhile, scientists have spent twice as much time studying Erectile Disfunction.

"I'm not saying we shouldn't know about those things," Hind said. "I'm a scientist. I think we should know about everything. But that we know so much less about breast milk, the first fluid a young mammal is adapted to consume, should make us angry."

Hinde's talk also includes her footnotes and a reading list full of resources for those interested in learning more about the subject.