My gross moment of the weekend was reading this line over breakfast:
“What people don’t realize about placenta is it’s just like any other meat,” Jung-Hein said [Victoria Lusk, “Placenta Pills Business Offers New Option for Moms,” Aberdeen American News, 2017.06.02].
Saying that afterbirth is meat sounds like saying “pink slime” is just like any other hamburger. Hmm… so if I criticize the production and consumption of placenta, will our new local purveyor of this “just like any other meat” product be able to sue me under South Dakota’s agricultural product anti-disparagement law?
The process Aleece Jung-Hein of Luna Birth Services uses to prepare placenta for human consumption doesn’t sound like how any other meat is produced:
While there are two methods of placenta encapsulation, Jung-Hein practices a traditional Chinese method. It typically takes 30 hours.
First the placenta needs to be steamed. It then needs to dehydrate overnight before it can be ground into a powder and encapsulated.
Sanitation takes the longest, she said, as it’s done before, during and after.
“Once ground, placenta is a really fine powder, almost like flour,” Jung-Hein said.
She then places it in empty capsules. One placenta — about 1 pound, and 9 inches in size — usually manufactures 150 capsules, she said [Lusk, 2017.06.02].
I like my steak well-done. But dehydrating and pulverizing a substance into a pill is too “well-done” to qualify as meat even in my book.
And “traditional Chinese method”? That sounds like the old Calgon sales-joke about the “ancient Chinese secret.” A review of ethnographic studies of 179 cultures “failed to identify any unqualified examples of maternal placentophagy as a common cultural practice.” (Placentophagy—that’s our cool science word of the day, for eating placenta.)
But Lusk gives Jung-Hein free rein to make unscientific claims about her mom-meat pills:
Although it’s not scientifically proven, mothers who have chosen to consume their placenta have spoken to mood-stabilizing benefits.
“You can imagine all of those hormones leaving your body,” Jung-Hein said. “Placenta pills ease that postpartum transition” [Lusk, 2017.06.02].
Ah, nope. Ten studies on placentophagy offer “no data to support the common claims that eating the placenta either raw, cooked, or encapsulated offers protection against postpartum depression, reduces post-delivery pain, boosts energy, helps with lactation, promotes skin elasticity, enhances maternal bonding, or replenishes iron in the body.” Taking iron supplements may or may not help fight postpartum depression, but even if it does, UNLV scientists found no difference in the iron levels between moms taking placenta pills and moms taking placebo beef pills.
But the lack of evidence cuts both ways for placentrepreneurs:
“While there’s been no actual research regarding the benefits, there hasn’t been any risks noted either,” Jung-Hein said [Lusk, 2017.06.02].
If Jung-Hein’s claims stopped right there, I’d have no problem. No science pro, no science con, so it’s up to you if you want to spend time and money making snacks out of stuff that comes out of your body. But you don’t get to make that honest statement about a complete lack of evidence and then claim that your product does some good. Just be honest: eating your own placenta is trendy, but it’s not science.
And placenta is not just like any other meat.
As crazy as this sounds, there may be something to this. We have beef cows and notice that most of the cows will eat their placenta shortly after they give birth. One can only assume there is some kind of instinctual need for this to replenish their body.
“So what we understand about animals eating their placenta is partly that they are protecting themselves and their newborn from predators because the smell of afterbirth, so they eat their placenta for that reason.”
Have wingnuts risen en masse to write a law preventing this from happening? Gotta protect the little womenfolks, doncha know.
How would any eager/cautious consumer be assured of only 100% pure human placenta is used? (there was a row over human gall bladders being stolen and sent to China as bear gall bladders to be used as medicine)
Baby elephants learn to face plant in Mom’s dung heaps and munch down on necessary bacteria for the newborn’s digestive system. Hope we have evolved past this practice.
a placebo human gall bladder, is a precursor to cannibalism. Next time you see some one giving you a look, don’t flatter yourself, they only see a rib roast.
“Hope we have evolved past this practice.” Never heard of a Fecal Transfer? You can do it at home with a blender or now with capsules as a way to get other people’s healthy bacteria. Point being there are still many things we don’t understand, especially about digestion and the gut-brain connection, healthy bacteria, hormones, etc. It wasn’t that long ago Fecal Transfers were considered bunk, with only empirical evidence. They have improved the health for many people.
I’ve never heard of it and I doubt baby elephants have either which is why they do their face plants in poop and I am disgusted by the whole thing.
One thing I do not plan to read up on, either.
Caroline, I think Hap has identified a plausible explanation for cows’ placentophagy, the need to remove material and smell that could draw predators.
I often get hungry. I often make messes. I have numerous quicker and easier ways to take care of those problems than to pay someone money to process stuff that came out of my body to put it right back in.
Hap, if I’m planning to go on a long space mission, I’ll look into that fecal transfer… with lots of processing involved.
This is nothing new. I knew friends in college ( early 90s )who would collect the afterbirth from their cattle herd to sell it to immigrant Asians families for $20-$25 per item. They Bought cattle placenta is because they couldn’t find human.As long as I don’t have to eat it or slurp it in a soup, what do I care?
I think they were joshing you Thomas.
happy camper is correct by half. Cows eat their placenta to not only protect themselves and their new born from predators, but also to ingest some of the lost minerals. Cattle producers want to help get those minerals back into the cow so she can produce again. Not only does the placenta help in this, but also mineral supplements are a must as well if you want her to get in cycle. From Miles City http://www.naab-css.org/education/kickstart.html I remember, some years ago, going to the Bucking Horse Sale in Miles City, Montana. Good memories.
Jerry,
They weren’t joshing me, I helped collect the afterbirth and got cut in on the deal. It was decent beer money for not a lot of work. Btw, it’s insulting that you assume that I am the one in the wrong and that you are correct. Typical dem, always assuming your reality should be everyone’s reality.
So what is the story then Thomas? You have gone from “I knew friends in college” to then being the ringleader. Typical cult tribal republican always failing to keep the josh straight. Keep listening to the head liar to get some new points. Yeah, so there you were, out in their cattle herd on the range, gathering placenta. Did ya do some cow tipping while you were there? If I were your pals daddy, the rancher, I would have grabbed you youngsters by the nap of the neck and the seat of your trousers and tossed you off the place before you could wake up and your tall tale could ever be told. You are a funny feller there Thomas, real funny. Now might be a good time for you to take on of those reality checks you speak of.
Loved Miles City, Jerry. After I won SoDak state diving championship in Aberdeen in ’65, the regional Olympic qualifying meet was in Miles City. Saw a lot of Montana on the drive over there. Probably why I fell in love with the west.
To return to the topic … A first amendment trial in South Dakota? In Elk Point, for gosh sakes? Maybe while these Boston lawyers are in the state they can get a look under the Big Rug of Hidden Secrets, Lies and Republican Deception and get something of real interest besides lean,finely textured beef protein.
~ ABC lawyers argue they are protected under the US constitution’s first amendment, which ensures a free press. The network used the term but didn’t invent it.
The term “pink slime” was coined by Gerald Zirnstein, a former Agriculture Department scientist, who initially used it in an email to colleagues in 2002.
The television network, which is owned by Walt Disney Company, argues that BPI must prove ABC’s reporters acted with “actual malice” to harm the company.
“We believe in the principle that people deserve to know what’s in the food they eat and are confident that when all the facts are presented in court, ABC’s reporting will be fully vindicated,” said Kevin Baine, a lawyer representing ABC.
Thomas—they’d eat that stuff? Did they ever say why? I mean, jeepers, hamburger, even steak is cheaper, and probably tastes better.
Soup’s on-dig in fellas. http://www.alternet.org/story/146161/eating_placentas_as_healthy_cuisine