How? Some of it has to do with mother’s milk, which contains something akin to Valium. The gut microbes in all infants are adapted to optimally metabolize the complex carbohydrates in breast milk. One of the microbes best suited for this is a certain strain of lactobacillus that makes a metabolite of GABA—a substance that acts on the same brain receptors as the anxiety-reducing drug Valium. By producing endogenous Valium, a microbe may help to calm down babies’ emotion-generating system in the brain, and make them feel good by relieving them of hunger pangs. Human breast milk also contains
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