Placenta Hunger Grips Hollywood: We Reveal the 'Cannibal Celeb' Moms Risking Killer Diseases by Eating Their Afterbirth
Oct. 12 2024, Published 9:00 a.m. ET
The latest dizzy-sounding Hollywood craze has new mothers gobbling their baby’s placenta after giving birth.
And now RadarOnline.com can reveal the celebs who’ve done it include Kim Kardashian, Alicia Silverstone, and Chrissy Teigen, according to sources.
While star moms swear it helps prevent horrific postpartum depression and speed postnatal recovery, the medical community has delivered its diagnosis: it’s not necessarily a good idea — and can even be dangerous!
Actresses Nikki Reed, Mandy Moore, January Jones, and Silverstone, and sisters Kim and Kourtney Kardashian had their placentas dried and ground up to swallow as capsules.
Meanwhile, Hilary Duff and Kim Zolciak had theirs blended in fruit smoothies, and Teigen, Tia Mowry, and Mayim Bialik ate their placentas grilled!
Teigen downed her placenta after son Miles was born in 2018.
The 38-year-old model-entrepreneur and mom of four with hubby John Legend said she did it to combat the depression that clobbered her after giving birth to her first child, Luna, two years earlier.
The beauty laughed when it’s suggested that placenta gobbling “is not a normal thing” and snapped, “I’m in L.A. It’s very normal. They grill it here!”
A Tinseltown nanny told RadarOnline.com: “These Hollywood moms swear digesting your placenta shortly after birth helps keep postpartum depression at bay and they say it helps them get healthier faster."
"The most common method of placenta preparation is to dehydrate the placenta.
"Moms have been known to also eat it raw or cooked.
"Some moms chose to do as Hilary Duff did, and have theirs made into a ‘delicious’ smoothie. Hilary did this with her last two kids.
"But these methods may not destroy all the infectious bacteria and can make the mother, and baby that might be nursing, sick.”
According to Dr. Alyssa Larish of the Mayo Clinic: “Some people believe eating the placenta can prevent postpartum depression; ease bleeding after delivery; promote a healthy hormone balance in the body; improve mood and the milk supply. But it can also provide important nutrients, such as iron.”
The top doc added: “But there’s no evidence eating the placenta has health benefits. In fact, eating placenta can be harmful.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns mothers to be careful about consuming placentas.
The CDC points to an Oregon mom who unknowingly gave her newborn a group B strep infection during nursing after taking contaminated placenta capsules.
A study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology insists any benefit would be a psychological placebo effect and not medical.
“We found no scientific evidence of any clinical benefit of placentophagy among humans, and no placental nutrients and hormones are retained in sufficient amounts after placenta encapsulation to be potentially beneficial to the mother postpartum,” said the study.
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