US Magazine: Breastfeeding 'health hazard' for Angelina Jolie

[Jadzia]

Did anyone else see this? I was thumbing through US magazine when I was waiting at the airport and there was an article about all these celebrities who have gotten too thin lately. For each celebrity they did a recap of various factors and one of the headings was "health hazards". Under Angelina Jolie's listing for health hazards they said "stress and breastfeeding".

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[Claire and Boys]

Hm, I don't know. I have heard that for some people, BFing can make them lose too much weight. No idea if that is why she is so thin though.

[queenbean]

I lost a LOT of weight nursing, and was struggling to stay at a healthy weight (til I got pregnant and got hooked on cheesesteaks ). But I kind of doubt that breastfeeding was her problem. She's always been too thin, and now that she's getting older she undoubtedly is feeling the pressure to be "Hollywood perfect." It's probably more a stress and eating issue than breastfeeding.

[Sarah102383]

I'm assuming they said that because of this quote of Angelina's from June:

The funny thing is, when somebody says, you're thin, a person says, thank you. To me actually, when somebody says I'm thin, it is not a compliment. It's not something I want to be. I have always been lean.

This year, I lost my mom. I've gone through a lot. I have four kids. I just finished breast-feeding. It's been hard to get my nutrition back on track and learn about my body after birth. I am doing the best I can. The thing that's disturbing is that instead of somebody saying, oh, this looks like somebody who is dealing with something from emotions--it's, do they want to fit into skinny jeans? I don't encourage young girls to be too thin. I do want people to understand that I am just trying to work through a very difficult year.

[kittywitty]

Originally Posted by queenbean

I lost a LOT of weight nursing, and was struggling to stay at a healthy weight (til I got pregnant and got hooked on cheesesteaks ). But I kind of doubt that breastfeeding was her problem. She's always been too thin, and now that she's getting older she undoubtedly is feeling the pressure to be "Hollywood perfect." It's probably more a stress and eating issue than breastfeeding.

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I always have trouble staying at a healthy weight while bf, too.

[APmomto3boys]

The sad thing is that more people will probably bf because they said that. lol

[gottaknit]

Oh, that quote is sad. She has had a rough year. I don't think she implies at all that breastfeeding was a health hazard for her, and US took it completely out of context. Sounds like she's too thin because she has "good genes" that make her tall and thin, and she's had an incredibly stressful time dealing with career and her mother's death and all those kids... : Some women just can't eat when they're depressed/under extreme stress. :

[Jadzia]

Originally Posted by Claire and Boys

Hm, I don't know. I have heard that for some people, BFing can make them lose too much weight. No idea if that is why she is so thin though.

That may be true for some women, but what I objected to was them listing breastfeeding as a "health hazard". Breastfeeding protects women's health.

I found that wording to be exremely irresponsible.

[queenbean]

Originally Posted by APmomto3boys

The sad thing is that more people will probably bf because they said that. lol

Hey, whatever works!

[Silvercrest79]

Maybe US should be politely informed about the heatlh benefits of breastfeeding.

[AidansMommy1012]

That's terrible. All these magazines do is speculate on the lives of celebrities. I really doubt they know much more about what's truly going on in their lives than we do. I know there's someone who posts on these boards who works for Celebrity Baby Blog; if you're reading this, I'm so sorry, but I CANNOT remember your name. Anyway, I remember she once said something about US magazine calling their staff to try to get the scoop on celebrities that breastfed past six months. From what I recall, she said that they were particularly interested in "Is this healthy/normal?" and basically just looking for something scandalous to print. Fortunately, CBB is very pro-breastfeeding and set them straight (and disappointed them terribly, I'm sure).

[Sarah102383]

Yes, that was me. I think a lot of it was ignorance. Once we got back to them really asking them to portray it as normal and give correct information, they did a relatively good job for a tabloid.

Here's the article for those that missed it.

[Ruthla]

Let's face it, lactation IS a stress on a woman's body- lactating women require more nutrition and water than non-lactating women. It's not a "bad stress", but for somebody with underlying health issues, it can "push her over the edge" because of the physical resources used up in milk making. Women with extra fat stores have an easier time with breastfeeding- as they have "reserves" of energy if they don't eat enough one day.

If Angeline Jolie has a hard time keeping weight on to begin with, lactating is going to be an added stress on her body, more so than somebody of "normal weight". So, she did something (lactate) that was physically demanding for several months, along with caring for her children and dealing with her mother's death- and those stresses combined are making her overwhelmed/tired/stressed out/ less healthy than she could be.

[Margot Adler]

i can empathise.

i am struggling to keep weight on while breastfeeding, but i think it is rather a matter of my hectic lifestyle, not the breastfeeding per se. and i don't even have the stress of having my body scrutinized by a very anti-bf media.