Placenta is shipped to specialized facilities that turn the placenta into a capsule form, is gaining in popularity. Truth is that placentaphogy (the act of consuming the human placenta) is something that has been used in Chinese medicine since the early 1500′s. And in many cultures, matriarchs actually prepare and cook the placenta in special ways to offer the mother after childbirth. Why, you ask? The placenta is filled with an amazing amount of minerals, vitamins and nutrients. Animals instinctively eat the placenta after because it helps to boost their immune systems after birth, and increases milk production for their young. It is also credited for helping to level surging hormone levels after childbirth which, in humans, often lead to the baby blues.
Questions from the FDA
The practice is raising eyebrows at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Spokeswoman Kris Mejia says the FDA considers that some statements on the website are making medical claims and will be looking more carefully into the matter. "Human placental capsules that make treatment claims … must be accompanied by well-designed and controlled clinical studies to support approval/licensure," Mejia wrote in an e-mail.
Yet Western researchers are highly dubious of whether taking placenta pills or, in the case of some more devoted placentophagists, cooking and eating it as a food is of any value to humans. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists declined to comment, but a spokeswoman for the British counterpart, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told the BBC last year: "Animals eat their placenta to get nutrition, but when people are already well-nourished, there is no benefit. There is no reason to do it."