Jessica Biel recently ate a blood orange in the shower at the recommendation of her TikTok followers as part of what she's calling her "movement" to get more people to eat in the shower.
The actor posted a TikTok of herself eating the orange in the bathroom over the weekend, after her previous TikToks, where she discussed her approach to shower eating, started quite the conversation.
"I've never tried an orange in the shower. It was recommended to me," she says in the clip before taking a bite and ducking her head under the water.
"Mmm. Keep your mouth closed," she added.
"It's good," she continued after another bite. "I'm into the citrus. The citrus is really good. Thank you for the recommendation. I would love more. Send them my way."
The mother of two's shower eating habits have had renewed interest since December, when she posted a TikTok listing her go-to shower snacks.
"I love to eat and drink in the shower," she said in a Dec. 27 video. "Shower appropriate items like cereal or yogurt, coffee, tea. Popsicles, I know, melt factor — but safe. (It's) down the drain (if) anything drops. You're good."
Many of the comments on Biel's post cheered on the habit.
"It's the only place you can probably eat without having to share with kids," one TikTok user quipped.
"I enjoy eating in the bath! Full dinners try it!" another said.
"Yes! Finally someone agrees with me!!!" a third person wrote.
But some fans had a lot of questions.
“...like do you just stand under a waterfall eating ceral..or how does it work? Do you dump your milk down? Genuinely curious, never heard of this before lol,” one person wrote.
“Girl...Cereal?? lol” another said.
Biel responded to the questions about how she eats in the shower in yet another a TikTok posted last week.
"I'm just so thrilled everyone's so interested," she said in it. "I really want to start a movement, a shower eating movement. I think for people who are multi-tasking, it's just going to be such a huge relief in so many ways."
She went on to share some tips for eating in the shower.
"A ledge is really helpful," she said, adding that she likes to "take a bite or a sip and sit it on the ledge."
"Keep the soap out" of the food, she added, and don't open your mouth while you're chewing if you're standing under the water.
"It's pretty simple guys. You can do this," she encouraged.
Is it safe to eat in the shower?
There doesn't appear to be much research out there on the health risks of eating in the shower, Keith Schneider, a professor of food safety at the University of Florida, tells TODAY.com via email.
But "the organisms in your shower are probably no worse or no better than the harmful organisms that can fill up in the kitchen," he explains. "The biggest concern would be the potential for fecal contamination (in the food), and I don’t know if there is any additional risk there either. I would say eating very hot food while naked could be problematic."
Martin Bucknavage, a food safety expert with Penn State University, tells TODAY.com via email about some other cons to snacking in the shower.
First off, if eating in the shower prolongs your shower time, it wastes water and energy from heating the water, he says.
Second, the water from your hair could drip into the food, he points out. "While this risk of microbial transfer is low, it is not a zero risk," Bucknavage adds.
What's more, the surfaces in and around the shower, like the curtain, walls and floor, are home to "potentially a lot of microorganisms," including those that can cause disease, he says. Eating in the shower could increase the risk of both your food and your body coming in contact with them. "Generally, the only part of our body that touches these surfaces are the bottoms of our feet. But if you are trying to negotiate handling food in the shower, you are likely to need to have more contact with these surfaces," Bucknavage says.
You should also clean your shower more often if you eat in it: "Food particulates and nutrients from food will be spread through splashing to the shower surfaces, including walls and floor, where it is more likely to these particulates will adhere," Bucknavage advises.
