'The Placenta Cookbook': Delectable Offal or Just Plain Awful?

September 1, 2011

Earlier this year, we covered a food club that served human placenta at a gathering, and a recent New York magazine piece called "The Placenta Cookbook" explores the growing legions of women who are cooking and eating their own placenta after child birth.

The quotes in the piece won't exactly win over the squeamish. "After I gave birth, I threw a chunk of placenta in the Vitamix with coconut water and a banana," explained Alexa Beckham. "It gave me the wildest rush."

Later in the piece, writer Atossa Araxia Abrahamian outlined Jennifer Mayer's process of turning women's placentas into supplements. "They're happy pills," Mayer said of her creations. "They're made by your body, for your body. Why wouldn't you want to try?"

Would you ever cook and eat human placenta like the women featured in "The Placenta Cookbook"?

Editor's note: For unusual offal offerings that don't involve human afterbirth, see this June roundup.

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