{"id":3307,"date":"2014-08-01T18:00:06","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T18:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=3307"},"modified":"2014-08-01T18:00:06","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T18:00:06","slug":"eating-placenta-an-age-old-practice-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=3307","title":{"rendered":"Eating placenta, an age-old practice in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/strong>Bill Savadove<\/strong><\/a> |Agence France-Presse<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shanghai<\/span><\/strong> \u2014 After Wang Lan delivered, she brought home a baby girl and her placenta, which she plans to eat in a soup \u2014 adopting an age-old practice in Chinese traditional medicine. <\/p>\n

The health-giving qualities of placenta are currently creating a buzz in Western countries, where some believe it can help ward off postnatal depression, improve breast milk supply and boost energy levels.<\/p>\n

But placentophagy \u2014 the practice of eating one\u2019s placenta after birth \u2014 is relatively common in China, where it is thought to have anti-ageing properties, and dates back more than 2,000 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is in the refrigerator now and I am waiting for my mother to come and cook it. After cleaning, it can be stewed for soup, without that fishy smell,\u201d Wang said, adding she believed it would help her recover from delivery.<\/p>\n

Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of a unified China, is said to have designated placenta as having health properties some 2,200 years ago, and during China\u2019s last dynasty, the dowager empress Cixi was said to have eaten it to stay young.<\/p>\n

A classic medical text from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) said placenta \u2014 which lines the uterus and is key to the survival of the foetus \u2014 was \u201cheavily nutritious\u201d and \u201cif taken for the longer term, longevity will be achieved\u201d.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s state media says the practice of eating placenta has re-emerged over the past decade. One maternity hospital in the eastern city of Nanjing reported that about 10 percent of new parents took their placenta after childbirth.<\/p>\n

Internet postings swap recipes on how to prepare placenta. One popular health website suggests soup, dumplings, meat balls or mixing it with other kinds of traditional Chinese medicine.<\/p>\n

While trade in the organs has been banned since 2005, pills containing placentas ground into powder are legally available in Chinese pharmacies \u2014 indicating unwanted placenta is somehow making its way to drug companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a tonic to fortify the \u2018qi\u2019 and enrich the blood,\u201d a traditional medicine doctor at Shanghai\u2019s Lei Yun Shang pharmacy said, referring to the \u201clife force\u201d that practitioners believe flows through the body.<\/p>\n

\u201cSales are very good. Basically, every time we have supplies, they sell out very quickly,\u201d a clerk at the shop told AFP.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just mothers who want to eat the placenta. <\/em><\/p>\n

One new father in Shanghai who did not want to be named said his relatives were eager to try the sought-after item.<\/p>\n

But strong demand has created a thriving black market with hospitals, medical workers and even mothers selling placentas in violation of the law.<\/p>\n

Last year, authorities investigated a hospital in the southern city of Guangzhou for selling placentas for 20 yuan ($2) apiece. \u201cThe nurses take the money and use it to buy breakfast,\u201d a source told a the local Xin Kuai newspaper.<\/p>\n

They fetch a higher price in other parts of China like the eastern city of Jinan, where dealers ask as much as 300 yuan per placenta, most sourced from hospitals, the Jinan Times said last year.<\/p>\n

By <\/strong>Bill Savadove<\/strong><\/a> |Agence France-Presse<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bill Savadove |Agence France-Presse Shanghai \u2014 After Wang Lan delivered, she brought home a baby girl and her placenta, which she plans to eat in a soup \u2014 adopting an age-old practice in Chinese traditional medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}