Human breast milk
Milk bottles are pasteurized during the first day of donation of human milk at Medellín's General hospital on August 20, 2014 in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia. While human breast milk has nutritional value for newborns, experts have warned the milk can pose several health risks for adults. Getty Images

Doctors have warned adults against the consumption of human breast milk as online market for the product booms.

Buyers are flocking online under the assumption that human breast milk contains immune-building properties with some alleging it is more easily digested than cow's milk and can even cure cancer.

Human breast milk is not delivering the nutritional benefit it touts online. [For adults] nutritionally there is less protein in breast milk than other milks like cow's milk.
- Dr. Sarah Steele, Queen Mary University, London

Dr. Sarah Steele of Queen Mary University of London has set the record straight and said in an editorial for the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine that raw human breast milk poses several health risks, reported CBS News.

"Human breast milk is not delivering the nutritional benefit it touts online," Steele told CBS News.

"[For adults] nutritionally there is less protein in breast milk than other milks like cow's milk."

Steele notes that while human breast milk has exceptional nutritional value for newborns, it's a different case for adults since the milk is broken down differently in the gut of an adult.

Steele also warns the stated dietary habits of the human breast milk seller online might be false and contain dangerous impurities.

"Prescription drugs, illicit drugs, alcohol and food make it into milk," said Steele.

"While many online mums claim they have been tested for viruses during pregnancy...sexual and other activities in the postpartum period may expose the woman expressing to viruses that they may unwittingly pass on to consumers of the milk," said Steele.

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