The Real Deal On Placenta-Eating

The Truth About The Controversial Practice Of Placenta Eating

In addition to contouring, constant selfie-taking, and heartwarming resolutions of minor family drama, we may soon be able to add placentophagy to the list of things Kim Kardashian West has helped popularize. Kim announced today that she's ingesting the placenta from the birth of her son, Saint West, in pill form. "I heard so many stories when I was pregnant with North of moms who never ate their placenta with their first baby and then had postpartum depression," she enthused on her website, "but then when they took the pills with their second baby, they did not suffer from depression!"

As you may be aware, however, Kim K.'s health-recommendation record isn't spotless: Her Instagram endorsement of themorning-sickness drug Diclegis was met with a letter from the FDA that condemned Kardashian's omission of the risks associated with the drug — and her claims about placenta consumption deserve scrutiny, too.

Spoiler alert: The practice has no proven health benefits.

A meta-analysis of placentophagy studies published in the Archives of Women's Mental Health earlier this year found that although its proponents insist placenta consumption enhances lactation, encourages uterine contractions, eases pain, and replenishes hormones such as estrogen and oxytocin, no data supports these beliefs — let alone Kim's suggestion that placenta can treat postpartum depression. The review notes that while nearly every non-human placental mammal ingests its placenta after birth, the first recorded instances of women doing so were in North America in the 1970s, and any benefits that