Joe Wicks is no stranger to a health hack. The fitness guru has shared his love of ice baths, cold showers and meditation, to name a few, which all help to keep him in tiptop condition.
But now, Joe has shared a more unusual habit with his 4.7m Instagram followers – drinking his wife’s breast milk. Allow us to explain.
Joe and his wife, Rosie, were on the way to watch Taylor Swift perform at Wembley for the last leg of her Eras tour, with their daughter, Indie. In an Instagram video, Joe asks Rosie what she is doing under her jacket, to which she replies, ‘pumping on the go.’ In response, Joe said ‘Save me a bit of milk.’
Joe then posted a poll to his Instagram story, asking his followers to vote on three options: 'drink' the milk, ‘dash’ it or a third answer which stated, ‘you’re gross.’ In a follow up video, Joe shared he would drink the ‘beautiful breast milk’, no matter what the outcome was.
‘Well I’m going with the vote, but on this one even if the vote said no I still would have drank it. I ain’t dashing that. Liquid gold, mama’s milk,’ he says taking a swig from the baby bottle of milk. And as for the taste review? ‘Believe it or not, it tastes really sweet. Like a natural sweet vanilla milk. No wonder babies love sugar and sweet stuff.’
He continued ‘The energy and nutrients in that is unbelievable,’ adding ‘So inoffensive honestly this. It’s actually nice. I wouldn’t have it with porridge or cereal, but it’s nice for a little shot now and again. Thanks Rose – thanks for your milk!’
Joeand Rosie are parents to four children, including Indie, six, Leni, two, and Marley, five. They announced the arrival of their fourth child back in June.
Wicks isn’t the first celebrity who is partial to a shot of breast milk. In April, Kourtney Kardashian shared an Instagram story that said ‘I just pounded a glass of breast milk because I feel sick. goodnight!’ Her admission sparked a mixed reaction at the time. Meanwhile in 2013, Kourtney applied her breast milk to her sister Kim Kardashian’s leg in an effort to heal a patch of psoriasis. Jennifer Aniston admitted on Jimmy Kimmel Live that she'd tried breast milk, and more recently, tennis star Serena Williams revealed she used her daughter’s breast milk to treat the sunburn on her face. Oh, and who can forget that Friends episode when Phoebe and Joey try breast milk?
Right, so what’s all the hype about? While we know that breastfeeding is a good nutrition source for babies, the jury’s out on whether it has any benefits for adults. Some claim that drinking breast milk can boost the immune system of adults (a thought process driving sales of breast milk online). But actually, there isn’t a whole lot of research into all of this, and some studies have warned against adults drinking breast milk altogether.
Breast milk might have some unsuspecting benefits, however, when applied topically to skin conditions, such as eczema and dermatitis. The researchers found that it might have some effect in easing these two dermatological conditions and was also comparable to an antimicrobial when applied to the eye of infants with conjunctivitis. That being said, the researchers stressed that ‘using it in adults of all ages and backgrounds needs substantially more research.’
So there you have it. Each to their own, of course, but as for us? We'll be sticking to our oat milk lattes for now.