Hey, maybe if this placenta shake fad catches on maybe more people in Europe will actually have babies. With the birth dearth threatening to destroy Europe as we know it, maybe this could help. Probably not. But that would be the most interesting societal turning point ever.
A woman from Wiltshire who makes smoothies from human placenta – blended with berries and banana – is being investigated by public health officials.
Kathryn Beale produces the drinks for new mothers, who supply her with their own placenta.
She insists the smoothies are safe and argues that eating placentas has many health benefits.
Beale said she makes each smoothie by blending an 8cm-long piece of placenta with some sliced banana, a punnet of organic berries and 150ml of water.
The remaining placenta is dehydrated, ground into powder and turned into pills. Beale has been running her placenta business for two years and typically has two customers a month.
“I’d say about 40% of women who come to me to have their placenta made into pills also have a smoothie,” said Beale. “You honestly can’t taste the placenta – all the mums tell me it just tastes like fruit. There’s considerably more fruit in each smoothie than there is placenta.”
Beale said she only allows mothers to consume their own placenta and that she does not make placenta smoothies for anyone else.
She added that she sterilises all her equipment before use and follows strict hygiene rules to ensure the safety of her customers. “Somebody, I don’t know who, contacted the council and asked what my hygiene rating was, and I don’t have one yet. Hopefully it will be sorted soon and someone will come, inspect my equipment and give me a hygiene rating.”
Beale said some celebrities had championed the benefits of eating placenta. “The health benefits are great. After giving birth, most mums are anaemic to some extent, and placenta is full of iron, so it helps with that. It also helps with postnatal depression, baby blues and milk production,” she said.
“Most species of mammal eat their own placenta straight after birth, raw – it is normal in the animal kingdom.”
Well, there’s lots of things animals do that we probably don’t want to do.
I’ve also heard about placenta facials. Now if that caught on…
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