Let’s Find Out More About Placenta Eating, Shall We? [VIDEOS]

On the Z Morning Show, you heard Kid, Todd and I chatting about a woman in England who was feeding her and her family placenta smoothies.

This lady is Jay Woodall and is a mother of four.  According to this article from the New York Post, not only does she do the placenta smoothie but she also dehydrated her placenta and made it into pill capsules.

During our conversation on air, Z Listener, Casey, contacted us on Facebook to enlighten us on why people eat placenta but also to weigh in on our conversation:

WHAT IS A PLACENTA?

According to MayoClinic.com, the placenta is an organ that grows in the uterus with the baby during a pregnancy to provide nutrients and oxygen to the growing fetus:

This structure provides oxygen and nutrients to your growing baby and removes waste products from your baby's blood. The placenta attaches to the wall of your uterus, and your baby's umbilical cord arises from it.

WHY WOULD ANYBODY EAT THEIR PLACENTA?

Hey, animals do it!  It is surmised that the placenta helps the postpartum mother by providing highly-concentrated nutrients and other things to help with various health needs for a new mother.  WhatToExpect.com says, "Fans of the practice say that eating the placenta can ward off anemia, help increase milk supply, balance hormones, and lower your chances of PPD..."

The article does advise for a new mother to never eat another woman's placenta due to risk of disease but also that there is little evidence behind benefits or risks of this practice:

But the truth is there’s not much evidence that the practice actually benefits humans. A few small studies have connected placenta-eating with increased breast milk supply and pain relief (the latter only in rats). But no studies have looked at the possible risks, if any, of ingesting human tissue.

Okay, now that we have that covered, let's get to the good stuff.

YOUTUBE TIME

Sam of Mom-On Aruba makes a smoothie with her placenta.  This is her second time trying a smoothie recipe to consume her placenta- I guess strawberries are the trick.

Here's Mofiya encapsulating her placenta.  For real placenta all up in here- you've been warned.  She washes it, cuts it up, throws it on the food dehydrator, chops it down into a fine powder in the food processor and then makes it into capsules to swallow with her morning tea.

This lady from Beans and Monkeys tells her story of eating her placenta raw.

Would you try placenta?  Have you tried your own or have gone to the lengths that these women have, creating smoothies or creating pills, to ingest it?  We want to know.