Malt as a Galactagogue - A Brief History

For many of us, the word malt leads us to think of Ovomaltine, Malt-O-Meal, beer, malt-beer, and malted milk and shakes, all of which benefit from malt's complex, sweet-bitter nuances. Malt's multi-textured flavor reflects its healthful contents: a range of natural sugars with subtle taste differences, along with the satisfying bitterness of its high mineral content, entice and delight the tongue.

The food industry uses the word malt to refer both to the malting process and to its result, the malt. But malting and malt could not exist without barley, whose particular malting enzymes transform the grain into the malt sugar we know and love.

 

The cultivation of barley was a major accomplishment in our early development. It provided some protection from hunger and starvation, enabling human folk to settle down and get on with the business of community and the start of civilization. Beginning over ten thousands years ago in isolated settlements, its cultivation would eventually spread across Europe and Asia, where it would be used to make malt, beer and bread, three forms of “food production” that would spur development of technology.

Fortunately for our ancient foremothers, barley is highly lactogenic, as it contains copious amounts of beta-glucan, a long-chained sugar molecule that studies show has the potential to increase prolactin, an important hormone for lactation.

The art of malting and brewing with malt apparently goes back to Sumeria -- the oldest civilization, predating even the Egyptian -- and it is described in the verses of this song, "The Hymn to Ninkasi", which was engraved on this statue of Ninkasi around 1800 BCE. The hymn contains detailed instructions for malting and brewing, and may have been chanted while malting and brewing the goddess's sacred foods. 

I do not believe it is a coincidence that a goddess was the deity of malt and beer. As I explain in "Mother Food", many widely used milk-enhancing herbs and foods are associated with mother goddesses from early cultures. In my opinion, this illustrates the extent to which our foremothers valued dietary galactagogues and the support they provided for breastfeeding. Consider Ninkasi's proud breasts. What is she carrying in the basket on her head? Could it be the gift of malt?

Greek Goddess and Barley

To make malt, the barley grain is first germinated, triggering the production of powerful malting enzymes. It is quickly dried, to prevent further sprouting, and then moistened and warmed. Now barley's malting enzymes "digest" the barley, resulting in malt that can be used to make beer or to produce malt syrup, other malt beverage or baked goods.

Today, mothers throughout the world eat or drink malt to support lactation. In Germany, birth professionals recommend that mothers after birth drink malt-beer, a non-alcoholic malt-based soft drink. Although there are no studies that directly link malt with increased milk supply, German researchers explain this popular usage based on malt’s beta-glucan content.

Colic Warning: Mothers of babies with colic will want to use malt cautiously, as its high sugar content could aggravate a baby's digestive struggles.

There is history behind non-alcoholic malt-beer. Internationally, it became popular as a beverage during the 19th and early 20th centuries when the Temperance Movement condemned consumption of alcoholic beverages, and in some countries exerted pressure to outlaw alcohol production.

The beer industry responded by producing beverages that used the same ingredients as beer -- hops, barley and sometimes yeast -- but contained little or no alcohol.

 

<= This poster implies that the beer she buys at the store is better than the beverage she makes  at home. Clearly, the galactagogue effect of both beer and malt-beer was a useful marketing strategy.

In the US, malt beer was called Near-Beer; in Germany, it was called Malzbier; and in France, bière de nourrice, or "wet-nurse beer." All were recommended by their producers as nourishing beverages for children, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.

There were loud claims in magazine advertisements that malt-beer was an excellent health tonic, good for children, invalids, and mothers, and of course, that it increased milk supply. This was not merely a marketing ploy, but was based on the experiential feedback of countless breastfeeding mothers who already used malt to increase their milk supply. The brewers had cleverly "tapped" into a traditional galactagogue.

"Take my advice: Take Biomalz"

When I gave birth to my first child in Switzerland, in 1985, I was surprised to receive a can of malt syrup from my husband's aunt. In response to my perplexity, she told me that malt is often given to mothers to speed their recovery and to support their milk supply. "Biomalz," the brand name, was also recommended for children. A Swiss health-food expert explained that, because the grain's nutrients are pre-digested (broken apart into small units) by the malting enzymes, mothers and children can easily absorb them.

It is intriguing to consider that in pre-refrigeration days, powdered malt might have served the same function as today's "super-foods" or "energy bars": easy to preserve, nutritious, and rich in calories and a full range of minerals such as calcium, magnesium and iron. A gift indeed. Any mother would have welcomed the benefits of malt, and the added nutrition alone may have helped with her supply.

Lactogenic Malt Contains Beta-Glucan

As mentioned above, barley malt contains a special substance, beta-glucan, which is a long-chained sugar that studies show increases prolactin. Although it has never been tested directly on breastfeeding women, its presence may well contribute to malt's effects on milk supply.

I myself relied on "Biomalz" syrup as a galactagogue. When my supply occasionally decreased to a trickle, I would take as much as 3-4 large soupspoons of the syrup before meals, and a few more between meals. On the fourth day, like clockwork, my supply fully returned.

In 19th century America, several cook-books mention malt-tea as a galactagogue. The tea was made by stirring 3/4 cups of malt powder into a quart of hot water, leaving it to stand and cool, filtering the tea, and drinking it throughout the day.

All this suggests that, independently of its use in beer, malt was already used as a galactagogue before malt-beer came into commercial production. Malt is surely a galactagogue, the gift, as it were, of a Sumerian goddess, appreciated by breastfeeding mothers today.

That said, in treatises on traditional Chinese medicine, one reads that a small dose of barley malt increases supply, while a large dose decreases supply. If this is true, then I could not possibly have had such success with extremely large doses of malt—and yet I did, as have many others. Is it possible that different galactagogues affect women differently depending on their culture, their usual diet, and their individual metabolism? I intend to write an article on this question. For now, let me simply suggest that mothers use high doses with caution. 

The Decline of Brewing Malt 

Beta-glucan, paradoxically for breastfeeding women, is undesirable in brewing. It acts as a thickening agent--problematic for filtering, adding cost to beer production.

One way to manage this is to add other grains to the malting process such as corn, wheat, rice and other grains. However, because these grains contain less beta-glucan, the product’s lactogenic properties are diminished.

In recent decades, industrial brewers have gone a step further. Strains of barley have been cultivated that contain less beta-glucan, and yeast has been genetically enhanced to digest more of it. Today, beta-glucan is absent from most beer by the end of the brewing process. It's too bad, really, as beta-glucan is healthful, immunity boosting, and good for the heart.

This stark alteration in the composition of malt underlines the thought presented in an earlier article: we truly cannot compare the beer that our foremothers drank to the beer that is drunk today. To do so would be to grossly misrepresent the history and significance of beer and malt as galactagogues.

Guinness Stout is maintaining its reputation as a galactagogue (see my last article). This may be explained by the flakes of raw barley grain that are purposefully added to the brew in order to increase its beta-glucan content. Here, its function as a thickening agent is desired. The same, healthful beta-glucan that makes stout delightfully silky also thickens barley soup. The identical principle applies when oat flakes are added to produce Oat Stout. Oats also contain beta-glucan, as evidenced by Oat Stout’s fuller body, and by oatmeal’s sliminess. Barley and oats are well-known galactagogues!

 

This youtube video demonstrates the ingredients used in stout. Note the addition of flaked raw barley to add extra body.

Unfortunately, not all thick, dark beers are made with extra barley or oats. Good "body" can be achieved by using maltodextrin, without containing beta-glucan.

On Your Market Shelf: Barley, Malt Syrup and Malt Sugar

The barley in the shops today is the same barley as that of yesteryear. We can use it in soup and other recipes, and count on its thickening properties. Barley water (a handful of barley cooked in a quart of water for at least a half-hour, longer is better, and the water drunk as tea) is a traditional galactagogue.

Pure organic barley malt syrup is available from several producers. Before buying, be sure to check the label to make sure that it is not diluted with corn syrup.

Powdered malt sugar is commonly combined with dextrose (corn sugar), which in the US is undoubtedly derived from GMO corn.

Malt powder used to make malted milk or malted milk shakes is also commonly combined with dextrose, in the US, from GMO corn.

Note: I inserted (above) a photo of a supplement for barley beta-glucan. To my knowledge, mothers have not yet experimented with beta-glucan concentrate as a galactagogue. If you try it, (not necessarily this product, I am endorsing no particular brand) please let me know your results.

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This article represents my original research, and is an excerpt from a book in progress. All rights reserved. Do not re-print or use without my permission ©hilaryjacobson 10.2011

 

Beer as a Galactagogue – A Brief History

Does beer increase milk supply, and if so, which kinds?

More than three thousand years ago, Sumerians and Egyptians brewed beer-like alcoholic beverages based on barley--the most lactogenic, milk-supply boosting grain. According to pictorial hieroglyphs, women and slaves were involved in the labor of large scale beer production. Later, in Greek and Roman times, barley was just one of many ingredients that were freely combined in a variety of alcoholic recipes. When these ingredients were strongly lactogenic, the effect would have been noticed by breastfeeding women. The Greek doctor Dioscorides (1st century C.E. in Rome) records an alcoholic recipe to increase milk supply that was made with dried black figs, freshly pressed grapes, fennel and thyme. The Greek surgeon Antyllus (2nd century C.E. in Rome), mentions a fermented grain beverage that was combined with the crushed unripe seeds of the sesame plant and crushed palm dates. In all likelihood, these recipes were just two of many. Lactogenic ingredients would have been mixed and matched in alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and enjoyed by breastfeeding mothers across the ancient world.
 

During the ensuing Dark Ages, when the skills and knowledge of the ancient world were largely forgotten, the art of brewing was kept alive in monasteries. Eventually, however, with the growth of farmsteads, brewing techniques again passed into the hands of women as domestic work. Each thriving family farm brewed its own beer, and the term “Brewster”  referred to a woman who brews in her home. 

Across Europe, beer-like beverages using barley and other grains were brewed with a range of herbs added in for their taste and medicinal properties.  Preferred herbs had a bitter taste to balance the sweetness of the grain, were antiseptic to  keep the drink free of pathogens, and were anti-parasitic (for instance, they killed intestinal worms). Lactogenic herbs such as pepper, cinnamon, coriander, caraway and anise were also used in brewing, and were probably added in when the brewster was breastfeeding. Less well known is that mind-altering, narcotic herbs might also be used; such drinks were later ascribed to the practice of witchcraft and forbidden.

Hops flowers, a bitter, relaxing herb that eventually became standard for brewing, is a potent, estrogenic galactagogue with a strong reputation for the milk-ejection reflex. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), an influential nun, author, herbalist, songwriter and philosopher of her day, is supposed to have strongly advocated for hops as a standard ingredient in beer. My guess is that Hildegard knew exactly what she was doing for breastfeeding women. Thank you, Hilde!

For several centuries in early European civilization, brewing remained domestic work, and eventually became a source of family income, with beer sold through local pubs or directly from the farm. As economies began to evolve, however, the upper classes were sensitized to the profit potential of brewing. They passed laws that successfully suppressed these small family businesses: recipes were strictly regulated, and fees and fines imposed. Brewing became impractical for small domestic breweries and pub houses, and the way was free for large industrial breweries that have prospered to the present day. 

Guinness, one of these breweries, produces stout that is made not only  with barley malt, but also the barley grain. The added grain makes the stout "silkier" and "thicker" due to  beta-glucan, the lactogenic substance in barley. It makes perfect sense that Guinness is the commercial beer most frequently recommended today by breastfeeding mothers, as it is one of the very few to still contain beta-glucan. (See my article Malt as a Galactagogue for more information on beta-glucan in brewing.)

Beginning in the early 1500s, German law limited the ingredients for  beer to barley, hops, yeast, and water. There were reasons for this that went beyond taste preferences. By limiting the grain used to barley, and prohibiting the use of wheat, more wheat was available for baking bread. But limiting production this way also forced various other types of beer into obscurity, and it formed a protective barrier to the importation of foreign beer. These restrictions would influence the international production of beer, as brewers in neighboring countries conformed to the restrictions of the large German market. 

Today, almost all major brewers incorporate ingredients such as corn, rice, wheat or oats into their brews. Luckily for breastfeeding mothers, the “pure” ingredients defined by German-type beer, barley, barley malt, hops and yeast, are intensely lactogenic.

Beer – A Historic Galactagogue

Alcohol is an anti-galactagogue. Studies on animals and humans show that alcohol impairs the milk ejection reflex, slows the flow of milk, and leads to a reduced intake of milk by the baby during approximately four hours after drinking. Because of the back-up of milk, the breast feels fuller, fooling the mother into believing she is  producing more. And because her baby drinks longer (milk flow is reduced, so it requires more time for baby to remove milk from the breast) the mother believes that her baby is drinking more. 

However, if, as in traditional beer, significant amounts of lactogenic ingredients are used in brewing, these  ingredients may prevail over the effect of the alcohol, and more milk be made.

I have ascertained that this is likely to be true by reading along in forums for exclusively pumping mothers. These pumping mothers will not be fooled by how their breasts feel or how long their baby drinks, and they report that by drinking one glass of beer in the evening (beer rich in barley or hops, such as Guinness Dark Stout or non-alcoholic, malty St. Pauli Girl), they pump measurably  more milk the next day. Some also say that they have more and stronger let-downs at the pump that same evening. Clearly, something in the beer is over-riding the let-down inhibition of alcohol. I would encourage mothers to try locally produced stout beer made with barley or oats, to support their local breweries. 

Historically, the beer used by mothers to increase their supply was nutritionally rich and low in alcohol. In home brewing, the so-called “mashing” (or boiling of malt, grains and herbs), was performed twice with the same grains and herbs. Whereas the first mashing returns a strong alcoholic beer, the second mashing returns a low-alcoholic beverage called “small beer” that was loosely filtered—a thin, porridge-like fluid that could practically be eaten! 

 

Up until 150 years ago, “small beer” was viewed as a healthy, nutritious beverage that could be given to children, servants, to men performing hard labor, and to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. In Germany, the second mash was called “Nährbier,” meaning, literally, “nutritional beer.” Into the mid-20th century, Nährbier was produced in Germany commercially and  recommended to breastfeeding mothers as nutrition and to enhance their milk production.

This then is the typical, historical beer used by breastfeeding mothers: stronger in nutrition, weaker in alcohol. It is quite a different brew from any commercial beer today. It is important to keep this in mind. Our typical, light-colored alcoholic beers do not contain enough lactogenic ingredients to counteract the anti-galactagogue effects of alcohol. These beers can lead to a decrease in supply! Non-alcoholic beer, however, especially if rich in barley or hops, can be a good galactogogue.


Malt Beer 


During the 19th century, "temperance movements" formed in many countries around the world to discourage the use of alcohol. As a response, beer industries produced  non-alcoholic beer-like beverages using hops, yeast and malt.

In the US, malt beer was called Near-Beer; in Germany, Malz-Bier, and in France, bière de nourrice, or "wet-nurse beer." All were recommended as nourishing beverages for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and were reported to support milk supply.

Today, many new brands of malt-beer are available commercially, the best known of which is Guinness Malta. Malt beers are very popular in South America, Africa and Israel. Many mothers swear that Malta helps support their supply.

For more information about malt-beer and malt as a galactagogue, and about how malt  has changed from yesteryear, and how that may affect the lactogenicity of beer, see my next article Malt as a Galactagogue .



Please comment here and share your own experiences with beer. Thank you for reading! 

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Disclaimer: History is amazingly complex and any "brief history" is a simplification. If you would like to enrich my knowledge base, please email me at hilary@mother-food.com (email not linked to avoid spam). Much appreciated!