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Placenta Eating Offers No Benefit To Mom
Dave Knott writes: While some celebrity moms swear by it and have made it trendy, a new study says that consuming the placenta after birth offers women and their babies no benefit. In fact, the practice — known as placentophagy — may even pose unknown risks to mothers and infants, according to a team from Northwestern University in Chicago, who pored over the accumulated research on the issue. They found no data to support that eating the placenta — either raw, cooked or in pill form — protects against postpartum depression, reduces pain after childbirth, increases a woman's energy, helps with lactation, improves mother-child bonding, replenishes iron in the body, or improves skin elasticity. The researchers also said that there are no studies examining the risks associated with eating the placenta, which acts as a filter to absorb and protect fetuses from toxins and pollutants.
Not because animals does it that it means it's good.
Oddly, Penny Arcade has this covered.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Eat the baby too, and get *all* your nutrients back.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Actually it has some medical effects.
The question is whether the hormonal level modifications are beneficial or not. Obviously, *cooking* the placenta would denature the proteins involved, so the way it's typically practiced among modern humans (which involves cooking) is clearly not beneficial, other than as a source of nutrients and heavy metals.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu...
... they need to conceal their where about, to leave no trace of their young ones from being hunted down
As for humans ... they are simply stupid
...after thousands of years of getting out of the trees, getting away from the savanna, getting out of the caves, civlization, tool-making, science and culture ? Disappointing, to say the least.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
We could even infer that this is some sort of cannibalism.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Really? And this is surprising to who?
Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
Fava beans and a nice chianti, people!
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Don't slag it off. Think about the husbands. And the joy they feel when the nutcase they fell in love with performs this revolting rite.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
What more is there to say?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I was going to point out that pregnant women often have hemorrhoids, and why not make nutritional use of those as well, letting others deal with the ew factor...
The Article mentions Doulas, a new word to me. To put it kindly, a Doula is a paid Assistant during the Birthing Process, whose main job seems to be to offer emotional support, and recipes. They are not allowed to deal with _any_ medical issues, as they aren't required to have _any_ medical training. (Midwives are quite different. Not my cup of tea, but I see their worth.)
The word "Doula" goes back to the ancient Greeks, and means "Female Slave". The word has a long history in the Birthing Cultures, going as far back as... 2002. "Doula" has never had any association with Birthing in Greece, Ancient or Modern. So it is made-up.
Doulas are largely crackpots or frauds. Often both.
I mentioned Doula "Recipes" above. Only those with cast-iron stomachs should do a Google search on these. My least favorite has to be the "Strawberry Banana Placenta Smoothie".
Straight-out weasel wording, your sign that there is no information here, let alone "news for nerds". Or did placenta-eating become a nerd thing while I wasn't looking? /hands in nerd card
This is far too subjective. If the mother enjoys eating placenta with some fava and a nice chianti, then I argue that she benefitted from having nice meal.
"may even pose unknown risk"
Well that is a throw away statement. You can say that about any thing, any time, any place.
Livers, kidneys. People eat filters all the time.
Yeah, people started doing that back in the way back. Maybe it's time to stop now that we are releasing lots of bioaccumulatives.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This is why people do not trust scientist. It is because they honestly can go out, look for funding. Receive funding, then take their time and effort to conduct a scientififcally peer reviewed scientific study to determine scientifically that there is absolutely no scientific benfite to the health of the mother of eating her placenta. But scienfically speaking it MAY cause harm.
"May cause harm" is based on the fact that the placenta is a filter between mother and baby, and acts to remove toxins. And those toxins will be in the placental mass. It isn't a certain thing that it will cause harm. because the toxin load will not be the same between different people.
But some people need certainty. That's what religion is for. It's wrong, but you'll have those distinct yes/no answers you crave.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
May cause harm in a scientific paper should mean they found evidence of harm but not at a sufficient level to say it was certainly from eating placenta. It should mean that they believe that further study will show there is definite harm. Instead it appears that they just made it up - they should then say "we propose a hypothesis for later testing that placentaphagy causes measurable detriments to health".
Placentas. Is there nothing they can't do?
... is crunchy and goes good with ketchup.
Oh wait, that me the dragon was talking about right before I managed to get away. Forgive me for mis-remembering, it was a very busy and not-very-pleasant day.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
How about this benefit: you can say to your child: "If you don't settle down, I will eat you. I have done it before."
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
The crushing smugness as you preen around the other plebeian Moms who obviously don't care enough about their children is the benefit.
(This is a joke, yet not a joke).
Ok, so I just want to clarify here. I have no feeling one way or the other about this activity.
They are saying that there is no KNOWN benefit to this practice and there COULD BE bad consequences.
So how is that different than saying that there COULD BE benefits but there are no KNOWN bad consequences?
Aren't they really just reporting "We don't know one way or the other"? Except, as usual, the reporting has a slant injected into it.
We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
It should mean that they believe that further study will show there is definite harm.
Then the headlines would read "Scientists believe that eating afterbirth causes harm. No studies done yet."
That's no improvement at all
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
rooted in nonsense. it's new age junk science posing as biological imperative. These people are rancidly stupid with more money than sense.