Nikki Lee wrote on 11 Apr:
> Dear Friends:
>     Starving women can make milk.
>     Mothers in the siege of Leningrad during WWII made enough milk to
start a
> milk bank to feed the babies whose mothers had died.

I'd also add, "or had low milk yield".  While on a People's Ambassador
Program delegation in 1997, one of the people we met was working on the
medical staff at a paediatric hospital in St Petersburg (Leningrad).  She
told us that the building had started out as the home of a prominent family,
and then in the 20th century had become a milk bank.  In fact, it had been a
milk back even through World War II, including the Seige of Leningrad, with
also some other milk kitchens round the city for dispensing human milk.
Women who had enough milk to share would generously donate some for the
babies of those who didn't (and also, I assume, those whose mothers had
died).
     This is the bit that really chokes me up:  She paused, and then said,
"I was one of those babies."
      My comments don't really contribute to the discussion of individual
response to calorie deprivation, whether through low-carbohydrate diets or
through famine, on which some useful points have already been made by
others.  It seems to me to be an area for more research.  However, I just
couldn't resist sharing this very special story after Nikki mentioned the
Seige of Leningrad.
         Virginia
           in Brisbane

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