“It gives me incredible energy I don’t get from other food and drinks,” he said. Typically, he buys it online for about $2.50 an ounce, which isn’t too bad for a magic elixir — but, considering this substance is typically available free of charge, that price represents a substantial markup. Anthony does not mind; he’s happy to pay. “I always compensate the women I buy from,” he told me. “And pretty nicely, too.”

Anthony’s energy drink of choice is breast milk…

Certain studies have suggested that a compound in breast milk could help fight cancer cells, and researchers are exploring other possibilities for medical use. Mainstream medicine, though, has typically been skeptical of adults drinking breast milk. “This is quite bizarre, completely anecdotal and probably complete bunkum,” said an Oxford pharmacology professor and cancer specialist whom The Telegraph asked about adult cancer patients drinking breast milk. “It probably won’t do any harm, but it’s unlikely to do any good either.” And fad or not, society in general is equally suspicious. Anthony prefers not to tell people about his beverage of choice, because being “a thirtysomething-year-old man drinking breast milk makes me sound weird.” (Likewise, most of the devotees I spoke to asked to be identified by first name only.) When Sarah Murphy, a 35-year-old Westchester mother, went on Only the Breast to donate unused breast milk, the responses she received startled her. “I was shocked men were asking for my ‘nutritious milk,’” Murphy said. “It creeped me out to the extent that it made me second-guess the responses from women … I wondered whether there were even women on this thing, or just men trolling for milk.”