Page 14 - IAV Digital Magazine #446

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A New Mom Turned Her Placenta Into Chocolate Truffles. But Is That Safe?
By Kathleen Mulpeter
A new mom from Georgia recently turned her placenta into chocolate truf- fles, and unsurpris- ingly, the Internet has some thoughts about it.
Kiley Whitworth, 23, gave birth to son Samuel earlier this week, and she enlisted a doula soon after to help turn her placenta into a chocolate dessert, reported
the Daily
Mail. Whitworth shared a video of the process on her Facebook page, which is also docu- mented in
the DailyMail's video below (warning: it's graphic).
The process involves steaming and dehy- drating the organ, which is then turned into a fine powder that's mixed with crushed Oreos. Like we said, not for the faint of heart.
The final result? "Yummy!" Whitworth said while taking a bite of the truffle in her snap.
The new mom's pho- tos have polarized the Internet, with some commenters on her Facebook video writing that it's "gross," while others are saying it's a "nat- ural" tradition with benefits.
Whitworth certainly isn't the first to eat her placenta, although it's more
common for new moms who decide to make it a meal to consume it in pill form or blended in a smoothie. The prac- tice has celeb fans, too, including A-lis- ters like Kim Kardashian, January Jones, Alicia Silverstone,
and Transparent actr ess Gaby Hoffman.
Why does the pla- centa have such a healthy rep? The placenta develops during pregnancy to deliver nutrients to
the fetus through
the umbilical cord, and proponents believe the nutrient- and hormone-rich organ can help boost a new mother's milk supply, increase energy, and even ward off postpartum depression.
Anecdotally, many moms have said that eating the pla- centa aided their recovery post-child- birth. After son Saint was born, for exam- ple, Kardashian wrote in a post on her website that she had "great results" from taking pills made out of her pla- centa and "felt so energized and didn't have any signs of depression."
Many experts cau- tion against the prac- tice,
however. Health's contributing medical editor Dr. Raj previ- ously told us that the process of steaming and dehydrating the organ most likely
destroys any good- for-you hormones. And while scientific research on the sub- ject is minimal, a recent review in
the American Journal of Obstetrics and
Gynecology found no evidence that ingesting the placen- ta can lead to any body benefits.
There are risk to consider, too. Although it's unlikely, eating placenta could cause an infection, especially if it isn't handled cor- rectly after childbirth. Take this case
report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last summer: A baby developed
a Streptococcus infe ction after the moth- er took placenta pills that tested positive for the bacteria, then passed the infection to the child.
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