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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Placenta-eating
2009-07-07
And I thought I'd never read an interesting article in Time again.
Afterbirth: It's What's For Dinner

There is so much you can't know about your spouse when you get married, like that one day she will want to eat her placenta. But there are two things you don't argue about with a pregnant woman: what she eats and that being full of life indeed looks sexy. So when Cassandra told me that for $275, a woman would come to our house, cook Cassandra's placenta, freeze-dry it and turn it into capsules to help ward off postpartum depression and increase milk supply, I said, "$275 is a bargain compared with the $20,000 I'll have to spend to tear out our kitchen immediately afterward."

Most mammals, Cassandra explained, eat their placentas, to which I countered that most dogs eat their poop.
Many insect females eat their husbands after -- or sometimes during -- mating. I agree with the writer that what other animals do is not necessarily an argument that humans should, too.
I stopped arguing there, figuring that like many of Cassandra's hippie ideas -- the compost bin, rubbing lemon on her underarms instead of deodorant -- she'd give up on this in a few weeks. Even as the due date approached and she was still set on eating her placenta, I couldn't imagine that she'd remember to request it from the doctor after the most physically draining experience of her life. This is a woman who, 9 times out of 10, forgets the bag of leftovers at the restaurant.
Go ahead, read the rest, you know you want to. h/t Hot Air
Ick. I thought that bunch had got past this kind of thing a couple of decades ago. But I guess the concept of recycling covers even old, bad ideas in certain circles.
Posted by:Glenmore

#18  Maybe they could get together with Erin Jacob and have a party.
Posted by: tipper   2009-07-07 18:57  

#17  Why am I not surprised that someone like Stein married a cannibalistic hippie chick? She's going to make a shake out of your ashes after she drives you into an early grave, Joel!

I swear I know people like these. They're usually pagan assholes of one stripe or another, but still think they ought to be able to have a Catholic Church wedding - without all the references to Christ.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2009-07-07 15:33  

#16  "All together now, Men, wid feeling, EEEEEWWWWWWW!"

Joe, as a woman, I'll say it too: Eeeeeeeewwwwwww!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-07-07 14:24  

#15  Ah yes, Placenta Pie, Hot Afterbirth Sammich's and let's not skip the Umby (umbilical cord) Hot Dogs!
Posted by: Injun Grinesing9686   2009-07-07 12:02  

#14  Play Video.
Eating Placenta

Ummmmmmm...don't think so.
Marry a hippie, live with the consequences.
Posted by: tu3031   2009-07-07 12:01  

#13  Steve Martin once delivered the line (at a fancy party):

"I've been to soo many pagan childbirths, now it seems wierd NOT to eat the placenta"

Gross and hilarious.
Posted by: flash91   2009-07-07 11:05  

#12  Procopius2k, it is the same Joel Stein, the shallow Time magazine writer about Los Angeles superficialities. However, what he actually wrote about not supporting the troops was

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken -- and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

This strikes me as reasonable, especially since he wrote, in the same essay but in a previous paragraph that he had to respect anyone who voluntarily signed up for eight years of danger in far away places, and that he was sure such people would be fun to hang out with -- the ultimate accolade in his circle.
Posted by: trailing wife   2009-07-07 10:43  

#11  I don't know Cornsilk - you have the likes of John Edwards roaming the halls of maternity wards everywhere. That's where he made his killings....
Posted by: CrazyFool   2009-07-07 10:40  

#10  Don't most placenta eating mammals do that as a protective measure (to get rid of the birth evidence so predators will have a harder time of finding the vulnerable newborns)?

I mean, unless there are a bunch of saber-toothed tigers prowling the L&D ward, why the hell would anyone want to do this?
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2009-07-07 10:16  

#9  Same Joel "I don't support the troops" Stein?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2009-07-07 09:35  

#8  when Cassandra's looks fade in her 50s, there's no way I'm putting up with this crap.
If you are now, you will then. The shit I put up with depresses the hell out of me.
Posted by: Spot   2009-07-07 08:32  

#7  Well, in the same vein, you never, ever, accept a glass of milk from a radical Le Leache League member.

Just sayin'. . .

Posted by: GORT   2009-07-07 07:43  

#6  I thought we had laws against eating human body parts. I wonder if fava beans would go well with it.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon   2009-07-07 07:39  

#5  Eat it?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-07-07 03:27  

#4  "DOES IT TASTE LIKE CHICKEN???"

Probably more like liver.
Posted by: crosspatch   2009-07-07 03:13  

#3  All together now, Men, wid feeling, EEEEEWWWWWWW!

* Yokay, I'll say it, DOES IT TASTE LIKE CHICKEN???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-07-07 03:12  

#2  I had an Italian buddy that used to joke about this. Never envisioned any truth to it. YJCMTSU.
Posted by: Broadhead6   2009-07-07 00:19  

#1  Joel Stein has led a sheltered life. In Chinese quack medical tradition, the placenta is a close cousin to the elixir of life. These things are sold for significant sums of money in China, which is why delivery costs are negligible there - the doctor simply recoups his costs by keeping and selling the placenta.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2009-07-07 00:15  

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