8 Insane Things Celebrities Actually Believe Are Real Science

3. January Jones Consumes Her Son's Placenta

January Jones, best known for her role in Mad Men, claims that consuming her son's placenta in freeze-dried pill form helped her ward off postnatal depression. The actress claims, "I was never depressed or sad or down after the baby was born, so I'd highly suggest it to any pregnant woman."

Now, the scientific minded amongst you will have noticed a problem with that sentence. January Jones didn't have postnatal depression in the first place. It says it, right there.

Practitioners of placentophagy claim that the consumption of human placenta can do everything from increase milk production to speed baby-weight loss, but there is little scientific evidence to back these claims up. What's more, the process of either cooking or drying the placenta before consumption will destroy most of the active components anyway.

One of the most common arguments used by placental diners is that "humans are the only animal that doesn't do it" which is, frankly, not a good enough reason. Whilst it's true that most Eutherian mammals will consume their placenta in the wild, it's usually because leaving your placenta lying around is a really good way to get sniffed out by a predator.

Whilst there's nothing particularly wrong about eating your own placenta, the costly process of getting it put into pill form is likely just a waste of time and money. You should also never serve it up to someone else (looking at you, Tom Cruise), due the the risks associated with blood-borne disease.

Plus, you know, gross.