Opinion
The actor and influencer has been called out for glorifying restricted eating. What is it with the rich and their weird ideas about wellness?
Tue 21 Mar 2023 10.50 EDT
This time there arent any vaginas involved. I say that because half the time Gwyneth Paltrow is in the news its vagina-related. On this occasion, however, its because a lot of people are seemingly annoyed that she a woman who has amassed a fortune doling out strange and often suspect health advice via her lifestyle brand Goop follows that advice herself.
The trouble started when Paltrow appeared on an episode of Dr Will Coles The Art of Being Well podcast and shared what she eats in a typical day. Which, no points for guessing, isnt much. She doesnt eat until about noon which, in normal-person-speak, means she skips breakfast. In wellness land it means shes doing a nice intermittent fast. Then she has something that wont spike her blood pressure, such as coffee. She often follows that up with bone broth. An hour of movement ensues, wrapped up with some vigorous dry brushing and the sauna. Finally: an early dinner. I try to eat according to paleo, she says. So lots of vegetables. Its really important for me to support my detox. Im sorry, detox? You cant detox if there was never any tox in the first place.
Paltrows routine quickly went viral and she was called out for glorifying unhealthily restrictive eating. She was also called an almond mom, which is slang for a mum who pushes toxic dieting habits on to their kid. (The term was originally inspired by model Gigi Hadids mother telling her to have two almonds to feel better.)
Reacting to the backlash, Paltrow said that her routine was due to the fact that she was suffering from high levels of inflammation after long Covid, and it wasnt meant to be taken as generalised health advice. This was a transparent look at a conversation between me and my doctor, she noted. Its not meant to be advice for anybody else. OK, sure, but the problem is that when youve built a brand that pushes wellness advice, everything you say tends to be taken as wellness advice. When you set out to be an influencer you dont get to profess surprise that some people might be influenced by you!
That said, I am a little bemused by the fact her comments received so much attention. Her routine is odd and sounds, to me at least, unhealthy, but its also precisely what you would expect from anyone living in LA. The only really notable thing about the episode was when Cole noted that Paltrow was hooked up to an IV while recording the podcast. Which is so on-brand for both of us, he gushed. We pod and IV at the same time! What does this even mean? It means that Paltrow is injecting herself with nutrients. Phosphatidylcholine thats my favourite IV when I can find them, she shared. On that occasion, though, she was on an IV drip of good old-fashioned vitamins. Eat the rich? No thanks, theyre all skin and bones and intravenously injected phosphatidylcholine.
But, again, while this is all bonkers, its predictably bonkers. Its a truth universally acknowledged that the rich and famous have weird ideas about wellness. Tennis star Novak Djokovic, for example, has suggested that he thinks you can purify water with positive thinking. Rightwing provocateur Jordan Peterson has extolled the health benefits of only eating beef. Tech bros, meanwhile, are obsessed with biohacking, or treating their bodies like machines. Bloomberg recently published a feature about a 45-year-old multimillionaire software entrepreneur called Bryan Johnson who has a team of 30 doctors devoted to monitoring his body and trying to reverse his ageing process. Hes reportedly on track to spend at least $2m on his body this year. He wants to have the brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, tendons, teeth, skin, hair, bladder, penis and rectum of an 18-year-old. This is all for the greater good, of course. What I do may sound extreme, but Im trying to prove that self-harm and decay are not inevitable, Johnson told Bloomberg.
Im afraid that nothing is more inevitable than decay. Studies show that 100% of people die. Should we try to stay as healthy as we can? Of course. But as the glitteratis routines demonstrate, at some point wellness can become a sickness.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist.
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The truth about Gwyneth Paltrows diet? It is as strange as youd expect - The Guardian