This smoothie might be of dubious health benefit and culturally taboo, but at least it tastes metallic and bloody.
Nick Baines asked to keep the placenta after his wife gave birth. He then ate it cooked in taco form, and raw in smoothie form. Then he blogged about it. It's actually rather fascinating, if you're able to stomach the idea.
In Baines' experience, afterbirth taco tastes like brisket, while afterbirth smoothies taste "exactly like the delivery room had smelled."
Flavor profiles aside, he had some interesting observations. One of the bigger takeaways is that even though it's apparently a trendy food, people will think you are weird if you ask to keep your wife's afterbirth (but they'll probably think you're weirder if you ask to keep someone else's).
Another is that many health professionals are dubious of the benefits eating placenta:
"Though it is a rich source of protein, it is designed to feed the baby, not the mother," says Dr Rohan Lewis, a reader of physiology at the University of Southampton.
However, it doesn't look like most people are ingesting placenta quite the way Baines did.
Rather than blended into a revolting drink, or spiced and cooked to achieve a flavor "not dissimilar to Texas BBQ," it would appear most placenta eaters are dehydrating and processing their placenta into capsules.
But, consuming placenta in that form has lead to at least one notable instance of remorse, as noted in a 2012 New York Times parenting blog entitled, "I Regret Eating My Placenta."
"I’m kicking myself for being so gullible without a single shred of proof," writes Nancy Redd, of her experience consuming her placenta in processed, pill-form.
But if you're not the kind of gourmand that needs to tie your cannibalism to some unsubstantiated new-age fad, remember that human flesh tastes kind of like veal.
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