Why eat a placenta?

[JPace]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4918290.stm
Last Updated: Tuesday, 18 April 2006, 12:52 GMT 13:52 UK

Why eat a placenta?
WHO, WHAT, WHY?
The Magazine answers...

Tom Cruise made the front pages by joking that he was going to eat the placenta when his fiancee gave birth. Are there really any medical benefits to eating a placenta?
Into the roasting pan, put one onion, red pepper, tomato sauce, bay leaves, pepper, salt and a clove of garlic... and 1 to 3lbs of placenta.

Is this recipe for cooking a placenta a wholesome idea, feeding the new mother in the way nature intended? Or is it something that seems very unnatural and more likely to inspire queasiness than post-birth nourishment?

The issue of eating the placenta - the afterbirth delivered from a mother following the birth of a baby - has been sparked again by front-page reports that Hollywood star Tom Cruise had been planning to eat the placenta when his fiancee gave birth.

Although in an interview with a US television news network, Cruise denied such a suggestion.

Young wives' tale

But there has been a longstanding belief among some new mothers that eating the placenta can yield benefits.
more..............http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4918290.stm

[YDogg]

1. My cat did when I was a kid ...

... after giving birth to her first litter of kittens. I thought it was fascinating.

[Warpy]

9. Meat eating animals often do

since it replenishes a lot of important nutrients that have gone to the kittens or puppies or whatever. Other animals get away from it ASAP, using it as a lure to predators so the newborn whatever will be safe.

That humans don't automatically find it edible says a lot about what we're really designed to eat.

Placentas are a source of cord blood and of temporary skin for burn victims. Many hospitals donate them for these purposes. Others destroy them as medical waste. There is nothing inherently harmful in slicing, cooking and eating a placenta. I'd think it would be prepared like any other vascular organ like liver or kidney. It's more a case that they can be used for other purposes much better.

If anyone is nuts enough to eat it, I'd suggest cooking it thoroughly just in case the mother had any blood borne disease.

Oh, and DON'T invite me to dinner that night. Thank you.

[Redstone]

2. Isn't that kind of like, uh, CANNIBALISM?

Yuck.

Redstone

[MADem]

3. I always thought it was the animal way of getting rid of the evidence

Nutrition aside, ya don't want any other animals finding it and figuring that whatever was attached to it must be even tastier.....

[izzie]

4. What is he a dog

--

[BOSSHOG]

5. I frequent the Restaurants of New Orleans

and I always wonder why people eat raw oysters? I love em baked, but can't handle the raw stuff. To each his placenta!

Recipe Note: If you are going to use 3 pounds of placenta you will need more than one clove of garlic.

[PublicWrath]

11. New Orleans........fried oyster po'boys......Oh my...Oh my.....n/t

[LA lady]

6. vegetarians

Supposedly vegetarians like to eat it because it is the only meat for which nothing has to die.

Ugh, I just grossed myself out.

[mzteris]

7. actually we like to

go around and lop off arms and legs and haunches and chow down.

:eyes:


After all, nothing would have to DIE.


:sarcasm:

Besides, if someone wants to eat their placenta, it should be their RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!


:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[FreakinDJ]

8. Fried or Baked ??

sorry couldn't resist

[Kailassa]

10. If the mother is undernourished and is going to breast feed the baby,

it's an excellent source of nourishment. But in the places where it was traditional to eat it, it was for the mother, not the father.

Tom Cruise wanting to ... well, that's just creepy.

I realize he's now saying he didn't say that, but he's creepy anyway, and I pity any girl having him for a partner.

[dave123williams]

12. Evidently, it's very good for your PQ, or publicity quotient.

[Yatar]

13. How about save the placenta

To stock up on stem cells? Oh right....that's prolly not something Elrond Hubbard would like...

[FM Arouet666]

14. Fuck! No wait, What the Fuck!

I am sorry, you want to eat WHAT! I just do not understand this obsession with eating the placenta. It is a nasty looking blob of bloody goo speckled with feces and mucus. Health benefits? Depression? Vitamins? Give me a break, take an anti-depressant, take a B complex, but don't eat the placenta.

Just my take on things. If it floats your nasty boat eat the thing if you must. Heck, why stop at the placenta, how about the dried up umbilical cord or baby meconium? Yummy in my tummy. Wish I had thought of this years ago, I could have celebrated my first appendectomy with a few fava beans and a nice Chianti. (Insert spooky noise here.) :evilgrin: