🍦 A Scoop of Solidarity: Frida’s Breast Milk Ice Cream and the Sweet Taste of Curiosity
Every August, National Breastfeeding Awareness Month sweeps through with a familiar mix of hashtags, heartwarming stories, and a few brave souls trying to make lactation a little less taboo.
But this year? Someone decided to freeze the moment—literally.
Parenting brand Frida joined forces with OddFellows Ice Cream Co. to create a "breast milk–inspired" flavor, and they launched it at their New York pop-up with all the fanfare of a newborn announcement.
Now before anyone panics: No, there's no actual human milk in the mix.
Instead, the recipe leans on Omega-3s, honey syrup, salted caramel, and colostrum-colored cream to capture the essence of "the sweet, creamy, nutrient-packed goodness we've all wanted to try but were afraid to ask for."
Their words—and, honestly, what a tagline.
The Color of Curiosity: Why Colostrum Yellow Matters
The color alone is a conversation starter: a rich yellow tint meant to evoke colostrum, that first miraculous milk packed with immune gold and evolutionary poetry.
What is colostrum?
Colostrum is the thick, yellowish first milk produced in late pregnancy and the first few days after birth. It's loaded with:
Antibodies (IgA, IgG, IgM)
White blood cells
Growth factors
Nutrients concentrated 2-3x higher than mature milk
It's not just food—it's liquid immunity. The first vaccine. The original probiotic.
And Frida chose to make their ice cream look like it specifically to normalize the sight of human milk as beautiful, not gross.
According to People magazine, the ice cream manages to be both "jarring and delightful"—a little mind-over-matter at first taste, followed by a surprisingly luxurious finish.
Translation: People expected to be grossed out. They weren't. That's the whole point.
Why Breast Milk Ice Cream Is Actually Brilliant Marketing
I can't help but admire the move.
It's part prank, part provocation, and part love letter to human adaptability.
When mainstream media gets squeamish and still admits they're pleasantly surprised, that's progress disguised as dessert.
What Frida Understood:
1. Disgust is learned, not innate
No one is born thinking human milk is gross. Babies literally survive on it. We teach children that breast milk is embarrassing, private, something to hide.
Frida's ice cream interrupts that script by making human milk playful instead of shameful.
2. Curiosity breaks taboos faster than lectures
You can write a thousand think-pieces about normalizing breastfeeding. Or you can make people laugh, get curious, try a scoop, and realize: "Huh. That's actually... kind of nice?"
Every curious scoop and awkward chuckle is a step toward normalization.
3. Human milk is the strangest drink on Earth—and also the most normal
We drink cow's milk without question. We put it in our coffee, our cereal, our ice cream.
But suggest adult humans might benefit from human milk—the only fluid literally designed for our species—and people lose their minds.
Frida's ice cream asks: "What if we just... got over that?"
The Bigger Picture: From Ice Cream to Adult Nursing
If folks can giggle their way through "breast milk ice cream" and still go back for seconds, they're loosening the cultural corset that keeps lactation—and especially adult nursing—buttoned up in embarrassment.
The Cultural Progression:
Step 1: People think breast milk is weird/gross
Step 2: Funny ice cream makes it curious instead of gross
Step 3: Curiosity opens: "Wait, what's actually in breast milk?"
Step 4: Learning about HMOs, antibodies, circadian composition
Step 5: Realizing: "This is... actually amazing?"
Step 6: Wondering: "Could adults benefit from this?"
Step 7: Discovering adult nursing relationships exist
This is exactly the gateway Frida created—whether they intended to or not.
What's Next for the Frozen Aisle? (A Playful Speculation)
And, of course, my mind wanders. If we're blending nurture and novelty, what's next for the frozen aisle?
Milk & Honeydew Sorbet
For the poet who overthinks dessert.
Letdown Latte
Served lukewarm and emotionally available.
Golden Hour Gelato
Colostrum-colored, influencer-approved.
Booby-Q Sauce
Bold, smoky, and slightly awkward at barbecues.
The Milky Whey Protein Bar
Post-gym enlightenment in a wrapper.
Late-Night Letdown Chocolate
High in tryptophan and melatonin, designed for evening nursing sessions.
It's all good fun, but there's a serious undercurrent worth celebrating:
This product isn't mocking motherhood—it's amplifying the miracle of nurture.
It dares people to confront their discomfort with something profoundly human.
Why Normalizing Human Milk Matters for Adult Nursing
Here's where Frida's ice cream connects to something deeper.
The stigma around human milk doesn't just affect breastfeeding parents.
It affects:
When breast milk becomes "just another interesting food ingredient" instead of a taboo substance, it opens cultural space for all milk-based intimacy.
The Real Taboo Isn't the Milk—It's the Intimacy
People aren't actually disgusted by breast milk. They're uncomfortable with:
Bodies touching without sex as the goal
Oxytocin bonding between adults
Vulnerability and tenderness in modern relationships
The idea that nurture can be chosen, not just biological
Frida's ice cream doesn't solve that. But it chips away at the foundation.
Every person who tries the ice cream and thinks "That was actually delicious" is one step closer to accepting that human milk is normal, beautiful, and potentially beneficial—even outside traditional infant feeding.
The Science They're Actually Promoting (Without Saying It)
Frida's marketing emphasizes the nutritional profile of breast milk:
Omega-3 fatty acids
Probiotics
Immune factors
Perfect macronutrient balance
But they're leaving out the most interesting part:
Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are the third-most abundant component of breast milk, and they:
Feed beneficial gut bacteria
Improve cognitive function in adults
Reduce inflammation
Support immune health across the lifespan
In other words: The ice cream is inspired by breast milk. But actual breast milk would be even better.
Which raises the obvious question their marketing can't ask:
"If we're celebrating the nutritional brilliance of human milk... why don't adults consume it?"
Adult nursing practitioners already know the answer.
A Cultural Milestone Worth Celebrating
So here's to Frida and OddFellows, who managed to make awareness taste like wonder.
May every spoonful melt a little of our collective prudishness away.
This isn't just about ice cream. It's about:
Making human milk visible in mainstream culture
Treating lactation as celebration, not shame
Opening conversations about what bodies can do
Creating permission for curiosity
And curiosity is always the gateway to acceptance.
My Order
I'll take mine double-scooped—one for the future, one for the curiosity that keeps it moving.
And maybe, just maybe, someone who tries the ice cream will Google "benefits of human milk for adults" and find themselves here, reading about dry nursing, oxytocin bonding, and the quiet revolution happening in bedrooms where partners have decided that nurture doesn't end at infancy.
That's the real sweet taste of curiosity.
Not just trying the ice cream.
But asking: "What else have we been told is weird that's actually... beautiful?"
Continue exploring:
📖 NURturing deSirE — The guide to milk-based intimacy
🎨 The Milky Way — Comics about milk spirits and desire
💧 Milk Drops — Essays on biology, culture, and connection
With warmth,
Frank Gray
