A Japanese company is marketing a line of health drinks and beauty products with a special secret ingredient: Placenta.Nobody embraces the mystery and power of childbirth like me, home-birthing mom of two. But a line must be drawn somewhere, and I believe I'm not alone when I say the line will be drawn at ingesting the afterbirth.
But that's just me. There's a lot of historical precedent for eating a placenta, I'm told. It's chock full of nutrients and minerals lost during childbirth. Women who ingest their placenta in some form after birth reportedly say they feel more upbeat and are less prone to post-partum depression. Lots of mammals do it. And hey, a placenta is vegan. Even though it's meat (I think...), no creature had to die to procure it. Still. I'll take a pass. No, really. I've seen a couple.
But you gotta credit the Japanese for their innovation as well as they're unsqueamishness. A company called Nihon Sofuken is taking the acknowledged health properties of the placenta and turning them into a line of health and beauty products, including drinks, jellies and face masks! How wonderful!
And to make sure you're not grossed out by the prospect of human afterbirth in your face mask product, Nihon Sofuken uses pig placenta instead. Oh Boy oh boy. And to make their products that much more appealing, the company has thoughtfully added a delicate peach flavoring.
Not sold yet? The marketing copy tells us that both Marie-Antoinette and Cleopatra used placenta in their beauty regimes.
Hmm. I'm gonna say this is a cultural thing and leave it at that.
How about you? Any readers have any experience with placenta products - your own or from another "manufacturer?"
4-07-2008 @1:11PM cybele said... Pig placenta is not vegan. It might be considered vegetarian (akin to dairy products which are not from slaughtered animals). Your own placenta is probably within the realm of vegan (just like breastfeeding your own child), but not other animals'.
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4-07-2008 @1:59PM Julie said... I saw a documentary once about this placenta club started by a group of women. They had men and women over to feast on a variety of appetizers they had made from placentas. They all ooohed and aaahed about how delicious it was...... I'll just take their word for it!
http://noshtalgia.blogspot.com/
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4-07-2008 @5:40PM BrainyInBrooklyn said... Not exactly unbiased reporting...regardless of your opinion, your judgement seems to be based purely on your personal aversion to this practice and by dismissing it as a "cultural thing" seems ignorant and narrow-minded at best.
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4-07-2008 @8:38PM jessica gensmer said... Just for starters, i am not offended by this post not being necessarily unbiased.
Placenta? Gross. There are parts of animals i won't eat, including feet and tails and ears and tongues. Placenta is a recycled organ that has fulfilled its purpose. Gross. Next someone will be bottling colostrum and singing its praises.
Cultural? Maybe. But that's the beauty of a big world: we're allowed to be squicked out about all sorts of stuff.
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4-07-2008 @11:25PM The Mommy Blawger said... "Next someone will be bottling colostrum and singing its praises."
Actually, you can buy colostrum supplements. I think they are bovine in origin.
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4-08-2008 @1:21AM doodoolemonque said... Barbra Hersey and the Carradine who played on Kung Fu announced they would eat the placenta of their soon to be born child. Time came and they couldn't. Just couldn't. So they planted a tree and fertilized it with the would be dinner. During the intervening 25 years, or so, I have not heard how the tree, or child fared. Hersey and Carradine of course, never managed to consume enough drugs to stay together.
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4-25-2008 @6:15PM susan said... Definitely not something I will be making "WOMB" for in my cabinets or refrigerator ~shuddering~. Andrew Zimmern, are you ready for this new taste treat???
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