Cannibalism in America: The placenta recipes.

According to a simple Google search, to be liberal means to be broad-minded And I think most of my readers are broad-minded, and I don't think I'm very judgemental. Of course, no one thinks they're judgemental, even if they are, so perhaps I'm wrong. Bur I am all for breastfeeding, childbirth, natural things like that. And I do know that animals eat their placenta after birth. But people? I guess I'm not that broad-minded. But others are. There are books and web sites dedicated to--eating placenta. And they are seriously discussing eating the placenta, to prevent post-partum depression. I'm just a humble doctor, but, seriously folks. Isn't this one step away from cannibalism? You don't believe me? Check here. If you do a search on the internet for placenta recipes, you'll get close to 3,000 hits. Never in my wildest imagination did I envision something like the recipe below. It can be found on Mothers 35 plus. This recipe is from 'Mothering Magazine' - September 1983: Work on the basis that each placenta weighs approximately 1/6 of the baby's weight. To prepare a placenta, cut the meat away from the membranes with a sharp knife. Discard the membranes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roast Placenta 1-3lb fresh placenta (must be no more than 3 days old) 1 onion 1 green or red pepper (green will add colour) 1 cup tomato sauce 1 sleeve saltine crackers 1 tspn bay leaves 1 tspn black pepper 1 tspn white pepper 1 clove garlic (roasted and minced) Method (Preheat oven to 350 degrees) 1. Chop the onion and the pepper & crush the saltines into crumbs. 2. Combine the placenta, onion, pepper, saltines, bay leaves, white and black pepper, garlic and tomato sauce. 3. Place in a loaf pan, cover then bake for one and a half hours, occasionally pouring off excess liquid. 4. Serve and enjoy! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So what is it like to eat placenta? In the book Hygieia: A Woman's Herbal, page 115, Jeannine Parvati describes her experience: "The first time I ate placenta was after a very powerful birthing. The mother ate some raw first; and then let me take some into the kitchen for fixing. My experience of this slab of meat was amazing. I had never felt such life-force present in meat before.... This meat still felt very much alive to me as I began to slice it and saute it in garlic and oil.... By the time the placenta was tender, the birthday party members were very hungry, and exhausted.... When you first encounter the meat, remember to pause--placenta can be sacred food, if you let the meat tell you how to prepare it for the fire.... Chew slowly, till the placenta becomes a liquid, ambrosia. Placenta is a rare privilege for most of us." As for me, this is cannibalism. I guess I was less open-minded than I thought. Aren't we all?