THERE’S taking your fitness regimen seriously, and then there’s this. As long as can be remembered, people have looked for a way to gain an advantage. Sometimes this leads to an incredibly weird situation. A woman in America has been approached by a man in a supermarket and asked if she would consider selling some of her breastmilk to supplement his CrossFit regimen.

“A gentleman walked up and asked if I was breastfeeding my daughter,” a woman known only as Rebecca told the KOMO News Network.

“He lingered for a minute and you could tell he was a little nervous to ask, and then he asked if I would be interested in selling him my breast milk.

“I just sort of looked at him strangely and said ‘I don’t think so, but if you need breast milk they have milk banks for that — to make sure babies get milk’ and he said ‘Oh, no it’s for me. I’m doing bodybuilding and CrossFit.’”

Surprised staff at KOMO then canvassed the local area, contacting CrossFit gyms and bodybuilders before finding advertisements in online forums such as Onlythebreast.com for “men buying breastmilk”.

Jennifer Rowse is one of the sellers they found. She has an 11-month-old baby, and pumps her milk twice a day to either sell or to donate to a local hospital. She has three male customers, but says they are very secretive about buying her milk.

“Even when they call me their numbers are blocked. They just don’t want to be seen or known,” said Ms Rowse, who so far has made $700 from selling breast milk.

“They usually first ask if there’s anymore milk available. My own personal opinion is breast milk from a human being is way more natural than drinking from another species’ milk.”

That’s a sentiment echoed in a story New York Magazine ran last year on the breast milk ‘trend’.

“It gives me incredible energy I don’t get from other food and drinks,” a man known as Anthony told the publication.

“I don’t believe in steroids or other energy supplements, none of that garbage … I want natural stuff that’s God-given.

While breast milk is not harmful for adults to consume, by adulthood, the foods we eat outweigh the nutritional benefits breast milk gives to babies. The idea that breast milk is good for immunity, carb loading and extra nourishment is unsubstantiated. Online ads show prices for breast milk varies from $2 to $5 an ounce.

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