michelle auger

🇨🇦 Interior Design & Styling | Breeder of CKC reg’d English Bulldogs, ASHBURY BULLDOGS

[GP Q @argosaki]

BREASTMILK
She thought she was studying milk.
What she uncovered was a conversation.

In 2008, evolutionary anthropologist Katie Hinde was working in a primate research lab in California, analyzing breast milk from rhesus macaque mothers. She had hundreds of samples and thousands of data points. Everything looked ordinary—until one pattern refused to go away.

Mothers raising sons produced milk richer in fat and protein.
Mothers raising daughters produced a larger volume with different nutrient balances.

It was consistent. Repeatable. And deeply uncomfortable for the scientific consensus.

Colleagues suggested error. Noise. Statistical coincidence.
But Katie trusted the data.

And the data pointed to a radical idea.

Milk is not just nutrition.
It is information.

For decades, biology treated breast milk as simple fuel. Calories in. Growth out. But if milk were only calories, why would it change depending on the sex of the baby?

Katie kept digging.

Across more than 250 mothers and over 700 sampling events, the story grew more complex. Younger, first-time mothers produced milk with fewer calories but significantly higher levels of cortisol—the stress hormone.

The babies who drank it grew faster.
They were also more alert, more cautious, more anxious.

Milk wasn’t just building bodies.
It was shaping behavior.

Then came the discovery that changed everything.

When a baby nurses, microscopic amounts of saliva flow back into the breast. That saliva carries biological signals about the infant’s immune system. If the baby is getting sick, the mother’s body detects it.

Within hours, the milk changes.

White blood cells surge.
Macrophages multiply.
Targeted antibodies appear.

When the baby recovers, the milk returns to baseline.

This was not coincidence.
It was call and response.

A biological dialogue refined over millions of years. Invisible—until someone thought to listen.

As Katie reviewed existing research, she noticed something unsettling. There were twice as many scientific studies on erectile dysfunction as on breast milk composition.

The first food every human consumes.
The substance that shaped our species.
Largely ignored.

So she did something bold.

She launched a blog with a deliberately provocative name: Mammals Suck Milk.
It exploded. Over a million readers in its first year. Parents. Doctors. Scientists. People asking questions research had skipped.

The discoveries kept coming.

Milk changes by time of day.
Foremilk differs from hindmilk.
Human milk contains over 200 oligosaccharides babies can’t digest—because they exist to feed beneficial gut bacteria.
Every mother’s milk is biologically unique.

In 2017, Katie brought this work to a TED stage. In 2020, it reached a global audience through Netflix’s Babies. Today, at Arizona State University’s Comparative Lactation Lab, she continues reshaping how medicine understands infant development, neonatal care, formula design, and public health.

The implications are staggering.

Milk has been evolving for more than 200 million years—longer than dinosaurs walked the Earth. What we once dismissed as simple nourishment is one of the most sophisticated communication systems biology has ever produced.

Katie Hinde didn’t just study milk.
She revealed that nourishment is intelligence.
A living, responsive system shaping who we become before we ever speak.

All because one scientist refused to accept that half the story was “measurement error.”

Sometimes the biggest revolutions begin by listening to what everyone else ignores.

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@PintoDoctor This fellow is impersonating you on FB.

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@elonmusk Potential Gigafactory site in the heart of the automotive manufacturing belt in SW Ontario? 800 acres at play next to the 401 corridor. https://t.co/kTiblZrW9s

[David Fisman @DFisman]

I made a meme

[Michael Warner @drmwarner]

We are seeing patients admitted to ICU with #COVID well after shot 1 and before shot 2.

One isn't vaccinated until fully vaccinated.

Given the significant delay between shots 1 & 2, clear communication on how to conduct oneself b/w shots from public health leaders would help.

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@officialhydrax No.

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@wallace_sandra @FoodNetwork Mine does this too. Says they make great peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Glad I’m not the only one with a freak 😆

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@FoodNetwork The heel. Only eaten in extreme circumstances.

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@kathrynw5

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@officialhydrax Truth.

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@officialhydrax I’m not sure how you picked up that trait.

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@gtconway3d Disappointingly unsurprised.

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@gtconway3d @gtconway3d Did Castor just say the call was to Ben Roethlisberger, QB for the Steelers, instead of Brad Raffensperger? I just tuned in and can’t hold it together at the lunacy 😂 #chucklinginCanada

[Turd Ferguson @signithere]

@gtconway3d Osama Bin Laden never flew the planes...
But he was responsible.

Charles Manson never murdered anyone...
But he was responsible.

Hitler never operated the gas chambers...
But he was responsible.

Trump never stormed the Capitol...
BUT HE WAS RESPONSIBLE

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@SteveCr27796185 @SenDanSullivan ...and more importantly, the country is headed by a politician who actually cares for the health of its citizens 🤷🏻‍♀️ Keystone caught many off guard by how quickly it was revoked but it wasn’t a total surprise this would have been either

[michelle auger @_design_int]

@SenDanSullivan #KeystoneXL 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Ahmed Ali @DrAhmednurAli]

Funny how people can separate Tom Brady’s politics from his game, but struggle to do the same when it comes to Kaepernick.

[John Heilemann @jheil]

According to both @gtconway3d and @neal_katyal, the bottom line on Trump’s post-presidential legal peril: HIGH.

[Karine Jean-Pierre @K_JeanPierre]

Good Morning, America. Welcome back.