I Went Looking for Legitimate Health Advice at the Gwyneth’s Goop Summit

Posted on June 15, 2017 by resourcefulman

Gwyneth Paltrow used to be best known as an actress, but over the past decade she has earned an even greater reputation as a health guru. Her newsletter Goop promotes enviable lifestyles – travel, fashion, anything that looks great in photos – but with a central message to lead a clean and healthy life.

When she decided to bring Goop to life with the Los Angeles “Summit” , the focus was on what she is best known for and, as it turns out, gets the most shit: health. Goop welcomes novelties, including alternative therapies that range from useless to harmful. I went to the Goop Health Summit to see if any real health advice could be obtained, and if not, what advice could be found instead.

Before I got on the plane to Los Angeles, I spent several weeks diving in Goop. I’ve read (well, skimmed through) the Goop approved physician books. I’ve eaten Goop approved recipes . And I spoke to two non-Goop experts who were able to provide some point of view.

One of them was Tim Caulfield . He runs the Institute for Health Law at the University of Alberta and is passionate about pop culture ideas about health. He wrote a book about celebrity health advice called ” Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?” The book does not provide a direct answer to this question, so I asked him over the phone. He said, “Usually.”

So she has legitimate health advice? “She promotes exercise, real food, relaxation and a good night’s sleep,” Caulfield said. “These are all great and we need to make more of them. But every advice [Gupa] is shrouded in a veil of pseudoscience. “

He’s right. For example, beloved psychologists Gwyneth, Phil Stutz and Barry Michels , have written a book full of CBT -style advice and visualizations, but they claim their advice works because of godlike “higher powers” in the universe. At first, Tracey Anderson seemed like a run-of-the-mill training guru to me, but it turns out she promotes unhealthy diets and adheres to the strange rule of not lifting more than three pounds . (This may apply to a certain type of workout, but nonetheless. I usually lift more weights than Tracy Anderson. I could probably lift her and Gwyneth if they sat on the bar together.)

Caulfield says it doesn’t even matter if health advice makes sense. People will happily try beauty and wellness treatments that they don’t believe in. “We make choices in our lives based on our personal brand, on how we want people to see us. Although people understand that [Goop] things don’t work, we almost feel obligated to constantly improve. “

I also spoke with Britt Hermes, a retired naturopath who is now cataloging the harms of alternative medicine . “Consumers can’t tell the difference between marketing bullshit and what’s real,” she said. Alternative medicine, including the one that Goop is promoting, subtly undermines our confidence in traditional medicine and convinces us that the system is broken. She notes that pseudo-scientific approaches to health are marketed primarily to women and are blurred by messages about beauty. The end result, she says, is a promise that you can be “as happy, thin, blonde, and perky” as the woman selling the image.

Is this a thing?

Since I bought the ticket, I start my morning as one of about 600 people who know his secret location in the trendy Culver City neighborhood of Los Angeles. When I arrived, the hangar-style car park was transformed into a kind of open-air living room, lined with greenery and furnished with sofas with white cushions. The cheerful Goop staff gives me a worry bead bracelet with a purple tassel indicating my humble status of lapis lazuli. (Ticket tiers are named after the stones used to heal crystals .) I also get a large bag in case I want to make any purchases, and a Goop notebook to jot down any nuggets of wisdom I might come across …

Someone hands me a smoothie and I start looking at the “wellness activations”. The first thing I find is a sound bath. If I bought a higher-level ticket, I could experience it personally, with sound therapy practitioner Sarah Oster playing tunes calibrated for my chakras (imaginary centers of psychic energy in the body) using tuning forks and crystal bowls. However, I must not completely miss: there is a station where we can listen to recordings of Oster’s work through expensive headphones.

A woman in a floral dress sits at the other end of the couch, in complete bliss, with her eyes closed and wearing headphones. I ask the masked guide to pick a track that will help me focus, and then I close my eyes and start listening.

All I hear first is music from a distant loudspeaker. I listen more attentively. I can hear the conversation next to him, an advertising course of Weipa pen cannabis from a brand that has no vowels title . (They weren’t available for sampling.) I need three or four full minutes to muster the courage to ask if the sound is on. No.

My guide taps the iPad a few more times and turns up the volume. Now I can get the full experience. In my left ear I hear a hum like a distant herbalist, a deep throbbing hum, and in my right, a hoarse flute. When the session ends, I open my eyes. I don’t feel that difference, but I want to believe that the treatment worked. I want to believe that I am optimally prepared to absorb everything that In Goop Health has to offer.

The things i ate

All food was free (more precisely, it was included in the price of my ticket), so I knew what I needed to do. I still regret not having room in my stomach for a pumpkin or burrito wrapped in seaweed, but I’ve done my best to try as many different flavors and textures as possible. Here:

Tropicana pineapple mango probiotic smoothie
Luna Juice decoction, a deep blue-green color that I said, contains coconut water, spirulina, and brain dust . Taste good but muddy.
A tiny cinnamon sugar donut from Erin McKenna ‘s bakery , and later strawberry.
Bowl of granola from pumpkin seeds with cumin and dates from Botanica with date milk from cashew.
Bone broth from Belcampo that tastes disgusting, but then I add some yellow coarse liquid from a jar labeled “ginger-turmeric” and then it’s heaven.
Banana from the table in the center of the room, piled high with fruit. At the moment I’m not very hungry, I just feel bad that the table looks untouched.
Salad from Sweetgreen , their Mexican Eloté Bowl corn bowl with quinoa, tomato and goat cheese.
A bottle of coconut-flavored Baí juice with Antioxidant Cocofusion written on it . I take a sip and decide I’m sick of sugary drinks. Later, I don’t notice there is a hidden cooler with water bottles behind the Moon Juice counter.
Bulletproof coffee , not homemade coffee with whatever oil you have in the fridge, but a Dave Asprey-approved version with bulletproof coffee beans, grass-fed oil, octane brain oil, and maybe (depending on which cup I took I’m not sure) Collagen supplement too.
Healthcare that looks like a tiny bottle of orange juice but tastes like fire.
Chill by Chloe Cabbage Cookies and Ice Cream . Shut up, this is delicious.
Matcha latte (green tea) with unsweetened almond milk and a scoop of Moon Juice’s Beauty Dust.
I take an apple from the table, but I don’t have time to eat it.
Garnish of Ankole , lentils and grated carrots, and I do not know what else. It is served in a can, like all Ancoli food. The jug belongs to me.
Black coffee from a bulletproof coffee rack. The guy seems genuinely annoyed that I order it without butter.
Google Bumble Bee Pollen Smoothie It doesn’t sound like Bumble & Bumble, or the dating app Bumble, or the verb “to bumble,” so I give up. They seem to be making bee pollen smoothies and during one of the breaks they send the waiters with trays full of smoothies to make sure everyone tries it. I’m already holding my coffee, but the waiter puts a smoothie in my other hand.

Total: a billion calories. When I was still the fifth on this list, I wrote in my notebook: ” I will get so fat on healthy food . “

Not selfish, self respect

I wandered the hallway for an hour deciding what I would like to try (taking a photo of an aura, whatever it is, but time slots fill up while I’m still in line) and whatever I would (vitamins are delivered directly into the bloodstream ; Goop I can play with my stomach, but my veins are inaccessible.) At ten o’clock, a tape of Gwyneth’s mother, Blythe Danner, prompts us to sit in the audience. She announces the layout of the bathrooms, “since I know you all started sipping Goop kool-aid.” And then Gwyneth herself walks onto the stage, wearing a floral maxi dress that costs $ 1,670 , or a little more than a top-tier Clear Quartz ticket.

Gwyneth tells us that our goal here is “to reach and be the optimal version of ourselves.” She tells us the story of her origin: her father contracted cancer, and therefore she became obsessed with health. Everyone here today, from the doctors onstage to Sandy from Seattle sitting next to me at lunch, has a story like this. It all starts with deteriorating health, be it for them or a family member. When modern medicine could not save them – or even if it did, but just felt cold – they turned to naturopaths, or to the “cosmic stream”, or, if they already became doctors, they abandoned their medical specialty and declared themselves experts … in a completely different area.

Alejandro Jünger , for example, was once a cardiologist but now advises people to flush out toxins from the liver with a juice diet. Stephen Gundry was a heart surgeon like Dr. Oz , but now claims to have expertise in nutrition and microbiology. Amy Myers specialized in emergency medicine, but now writes books on natural remedies for autoimmune and thyroid diseases.

“Why does an endocrinologist never say that your thyroid gland is the root of all your problems?” I asked Britt Hermes, a retired naturopath. In short, real specialists know the limitations of their specialty and do not offer simple solutions to complex problems. She pointed me out to this endocrinologist’s point of view as to why Dr. Myers missed the mark.

After Gwyneth told her story and the audience laughed at her dad, saying her gluten-free zucchini bread tasted “like the New York Times,” she asked her own question:

“Why do we all feel bad? Why is there so much cancer? Why are we all so tired? “

And the solution:

“This time, we came to understand that we do have autonomy with regard to our health. Our psychological health, our physical health, our emotional health. “

I think autonomy is a core feature of Goop’s health advice. Everything immediately requires action. There is always a prescription or product to buy and no doctor’s prescription is required. What if we could solve our problems by wanting a crystal? I don’t believe in this idea for a second, but I’m still upset that I couldn’t make an appointment with the crystal healer. I want to believe.

Gwyneth then introduces Dr. Habib Sadeghi, her personal mentor. He congratulates us on coming here, on what is “not a convention” but a “pilgrimage.” His speeches wander, but he constantly returns to the idea that we need to devote more time to caring for ourselves. According to him, this is not selfish. This is worship itself .

“Yes, I don’t think there is any evidence.”

By mid-morning, I had heard enough promotional offers and realized that I needed to dig deeper than listen to rehearsed conversations. I decide I’m going to ask for proof of everything that someone is trying to sell me.

So I ask the saleswoman in the beauty department why I should buy Goop deodorant instead of the brand name deodorant sold at the grocery store. She tells me that we need to avoid aluminum, which has been “scientifically” proven to be harmful to you. She can’t explain why, but I don’t insist, because this whole intimidating aluminum thing is just not true . She then tells me that I should buy Goop sunscreen because it is a mineral sunscreen and not a dangerous chemical sunscreen. ( Sigh .)

Goop usually scares people about what they shouldn’t be afraid of (the topical headline on the website this week is “ Are Your Clothes Toxic?” ), But there is no fear-based marketing here today. Toxins are a given, putative scientific evidence that is not seriously disputed, but hinted at as the familiar we all know. I end my awkward conversation with this saleswoman and dial in a free finger of Blue Cocoon lotion aka $ 180 a can.

I will try again later with another seller who would recommend a bath product called Digital Detox . It contains salt and French clay, and after a bath, you rinse the clay and wrap yourself in a warm towel for 30 minutes. “It’s a whole detoxification experience,” she says.

But she doesn’t even pretend that he can cleanse our body of EMF waves , as stated on the package. When I ask for proof, she laughs. “Yes, I don’t think there is any evidence. It just makes your skin look really beautiful. It’s a great experience. “

Bowel check

I return to the chat room and am devastated to realize that I have missed most of the gut health panel. (I later heard that the recommendations included skipping breakfast and avoiding tomatoes. Goop hadn’t sent out the promised video of the conversation yet.)

However, I could guess what I was missing. Gut health is a cool blame for all of our problems these days. We do have a ton of bacteria and other microbes in our gut (especially the large intestine) and other parts of our body, such as the surface of our skin. These microbes live in complex communities similar to the rainforest ecosystem. They certainly affect our bodies and we influence them. It’s true.

But even the world’s leading microbiome researchers are struggling to agree on what a healthy microbial ecosystem should enjoy. They know probiotics do almost nothing for us. The more we learn, the more hope we see that perhaps someday in the future we may be able to develop microbial-targeted treatments, but for now all we have is faecal transplants for C. difficile , and sometimes probiotics can help with diarrhea .

Probiotic tablets and yogurt are marketed for a variety of other uses, but the types you find in probiotics are only a tiny fraction of the rich ecosystem we need. And they don’t settle: probiotics enter our gut, they may (or may not) interact with the ecosystem while they are there, and then leave like poop.

Partners and Products

Everything at Goop comes from a special partner. Dyson, a hairdryer manufacturer, opened a mini beauty salon to showcase the capabilities of its products. Tumi gave suitcases to the Crystal Quartz crowd, and everyone else got a 40% discount.

Ad Week reports that brands were eager to make their mark at the summit; if your target audience is wealthy white women, Goop readers are golden. Eliza Loenen, Head of Content at Goop, said of the audience: “They are tough, they trust us, and they have a feeling that if it’s good enough for Goop, it’s good enough for us. This is really important for our partners. “

A significant part of Goop Hall – probably about a third – is dedicated to shops. There is a “detox pantry” section with spices and cookbooks, and next to it is an exhibition of beauty and personal care products. Within walking distance is a section of clothing, including Tory Sport sportswear, and then a “pharmacy” full of nutritional supplements and medical supplies. Prices are high: $ 56 for organic lipstick , $ 48 for a classy but not-so-supportive sports bra , $ 90 for a month’s supply of vitamins.

I believe the ticket sales brought in half a million dollars. Goop has 585 followers in the universe, which probably reflects the number of tickets paid, and then the chat seating tells us a breakdown: around 250 seats at the $ 500 Lapis tier, with the rest being split between Amethyst ($ 1,000) and Crystal. Quartz ($ 1,500) But Goop’s real value goes beyond ticket sales. Gwyneth appeared on Jimmy Kimmel a week before the summit, after all tickets were sold out. Tim Caulfield told me earlier that her real purpose is probably just to spark discussion. “If she does it, she will win. No wait. She did it. She won.”

Goop Health had such wild success even before Gwyneth and friends planned it as a recurring event. Expect to be fooled, as the emails say, in New York in January and then again in Los Angeles next June.

Conflict of interest

I don’t mind Gwyneth making money selling clothes, cosmetics and food. But it’s a different story when her medical experts have financial conflicts of interest.

Just as doctors who have MRI machines are more likely to send patients for unnecessary scans , and doctors who receive meals and other gifts from pharmaceutical companies are more likely to prescribe these companies’ drugs , a doctor who recommends supplements, and then makes a profit when you buy them. has a clear conflict of interest . Here’s what the doctors depicted in today’s panels are selling (not counting books, because everyone has books):

Dr. Habib Sadeghi : He says he’s not here to sell anything, but his clinic’s website has a store that sells his own brand of supplements. (Example: $ 60 unspecified number of doses of Sekret Greener Joint Health Supplement.)
Dr. Alejandro Jünger : $ 475 21-Day Cleanse . You will get a discount if you can convince your friends to subscribe.
Dr. Stephen Gundry : Skin care products ($ 79 to $ 120) and supplements like Vital Reds for $ 70 a month.
Dr. Amy Myers : Online courses like this six-week course, which costs $ 297 and promises to “reverse autoimmunity.”
Dr. Phil Stutz : Lectures and workshops, but I can’t find the product line.
Dr. Oskar Serrallah : There is no product line on his website, but he developed the Goop Mother Load app.
Dr. Robin Berman : No product line.
Dr. Sherri Sami: There is no product line, but she works at Dr. Habib Sadeghi’s clinic.

The high-profile platform of these doctors exacerbates their conflict of interest. They seem to be – and may be using – their fame to spark interest in their medications and supplements. Dr. Jünger lists everything you can ever wish for (more energy, weight loss, “release of emotional blocks”) as benefits from buying and using his products. Dr. Myers goes even further, writing in his book Thyroid Connection , that “I do find feeling less of a terrific problem — a bigger problem.” Who doesn’t feel less than awesome at least once in a while?

IV Dock

At dinner I found myself at a table standing next to a woman who had a bandage on her elbow. “Have you tried a drip?” I have asked. “Tell me about it!”

The IVs were made by nurse practitioners using what looked like legitimate medical supplies, procedures, and consent forms. They worked for a company called The IV Doc , which might come to your house or host your party. When the 15-minute drip intervals were filled, they were happy to get the vitamin B12 shots to those who waited. A shot of B12 will not help you unless you have a B12 deficiency ; and if you think you have a B12 deficiency, you should see a doctor, not the mobile injection service that opened at the health summit.

My new friend said her friends had done IVs before, so she wanted to try it too. Some love him for his recovery from illness, others – from a hangover. She didn’t have much of a complaint, so she just chose the one that contains vitamins C and B12. When I asked how she was feeling, she put on a thoughtful face and danced a little. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I just did it.”

The bandage on her arm was a pinkish beige shade that Crayola called “flesh,” until someone pointed out to them that not everyone had that color. However, here it looked perfectly appropriate in an audience of almost all white women. (There were a few women of color, but there were fewer of them, just one simple example: white women in denim jackets.) I noticed only four men – paying customers, that is, not counting the operators, waiters, and doctors approved by Gwyneth. , or the tough guys running the Bulletproof Coffee station. By lunchtime, someone had printed out the unisex bathroom logo and taped it to the sign of the men’s room.

Floral Remedies

In the afternoon, a floral station appears in the lobby, and I’m curious to know if there is any science behind it. I guess my chances are roughly 50/50.

Many plant extracts and herbs have medicinal properties, but it’s easy to be overly optimistic about how much they can help us. For example, willow bark can reduce inflammation, but a synthetic version of its active ingredient, better known as aspirin, works much more reliably. Echinacea is believed to be beneficial for colds, but studies so far have not been able to find a significant effect . Maybe it helps a little, or maybe not at all.

The herbal ingredients that do the job should be treated with caution: Yohimbe , for example, is marketed as an aphrodisiac, and it may in fact have Viagra-like properties. But it can also cause irregular heartbeats, dizziness, and anxiety, so yohimbe supplementation is not something to be taken just for pleasure. At the other end of the spectrum of effectiveness are homeopathic remedies that don’t work because they can’t : they claim to have magical properties outside of the realm of physics. It turns out that flower remedies, although not really homeopathy, work in a similar way.

The concept was invented in the 1930s by a British physician , practitioner Alexis Smart tells me. The doctor has discovered 38 flower essences and Smart uses them in every bottle. All flowers grow wild in England and Wales, and they float in a crystal bowl of water in or near their natural habitat. After several hours in the sun, the water absorbs the healing vibrations of the flower. The water is then mixed with organic brandy and bottled.

According to Smart, it takes people three weeks to actually see results from flower remedies, but today she only offers dosages as an introduction. Maybe we will feel different after we try them, or maybe not. “How do you know they work?” I’m asking. “By speaking,” she says. “I’m just talking to the person and I see the signs of the drug.”

I ask for something that might help me as a writer, but Smart says, “I knew what you needed before you said anything.” She shows me a bottle labeled ” Ganesh” in honor of the Hindu obstructor . She points to a line on the box that says it’s good for the “creative block,” but I notice that it also refers to “self-doubt.” It tastes like brandy.

I talk to editors

When Goop posts something weird or worse, harmful, I often wonder, what are they thinking? Recently on Jimmy Kimmel, Gwyneth laughed at some of the weird newsletter recommendations and said, “I don’t know what the hell we’re talking about.” I know that Goop is the brainchild of Gwyneth, but I also know that a woman of this status does not write the weekly newsletter herself.

Fortunately, there is an “Ask Me Anything” stop that the Goop editors work with. They are resting on white-cushioned chairs, shaded under umbrellas, and wearing blue button-down shirts. There are a crowd of editors all day. Whenever I go to eavesdrop, it sounds like visitors are offering them products they want to tell.

I find the station quiet during one of the most popular conversations and end up talking to editorial director Nandita Khanna. “You publish a lot of stuff that goes beyond the mainstream. What are your criteria for determining whether it is safe and ethical to recommend something? “

Hannah starts by pointing out that they include a disclaimer at the bottom of the health articles. It’s true. It reads:

The opinions expressed in this article are aimed at highlighting alternative studies and encouraging conversation. They represent the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of goop, and are for informational purposes only, even if and to the extent that this article contains advice from physicians and medical practitioners. This article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and should not be relied on for specific medical advice.

Ok, but how do you decide if something is worth including in Goop to start with? “We’re definitely doing our homework,” she says, and insists that the team discuss and research in depth what gets to the Goop pages. She will not go into details of the process, but points out that some of their sources are doctors. Have you ever asked doctors to test new ideas? I’m asking. Yes, she often says.

But she says they don’t have any specific recommendations. Sometimes Gwyneth says she doesn’t think a particular story is correct, or maybe now is not the time to tell it.

Therefore, I ask: “What do you think, what responsibility do you bear before your readers?” Here at Lifehacker, I recently killed a post that got me excited – a trick to keep kids from unbuckling and escaping from a car seat – after a car seat expert dismissed it. It seems to me that if I provide information that people can act on, I have a responsibility to ensure that the information is accurate enough and that people do not harm themselves (or their children) if they take my word for it.

Goop editors don’t think so. “Our responsibility is to ask questions, to start a conversation,” says Hannah. Even if the product or advice doesn’t work? “I think that each person decides for himself what is right for him,” says another editor, sitting next to him. Hannah agrees. “Medicine is so subjective.”

(Medicine, in fact, is not subjective in this way. The point of randomized controlled trials, the key concept in medical research, is to isolate subjectivity and find out what is useful and what is a waste of time. No one here, staff or visitors, seems to be even though a little interested in separating standing things from garbage.)

I’m turning the conversation to the infamous Gupa Jade Eggs . They are sold that day at the pharmacy, and I had to hold one in my hand. It was smaller than I expected, not the size of a chicken egg, but more like a grape tomato. Both the jade and rose quartz eggs have a hole drilled at the smaller end, and I first imagined Servant Goop taking an egg out of her vagina, rinsing it, and hanging it around her neck. I later learned that the hole is the answer to the question at the bank: you can attach the dental floss to get the removal cord, like a tampon.

The idea behind the jade egg or its more beautiful rose quartz companion is to ” cultivate sexual energy, intensify orgasm, balance the cycle, stimulate key reflexology around the vaginal walls .” The crux of the truth is that using light weight for vaginal exercises can help strengthen the muscles in that area . You can do this without weight.

ButJen Gunter , a practicing gynecologist who is one of Gwyneth’s most outspoken critics, explained that jade eggs are a terrible idea . The rocks can be porous enough to grow bacteria, and she says the instructions for using the egg are wrong and could harm people. For example, the Goop article suggests walking with an egg inside. Gunther believes this overloading of the vaginal muscles can lead to pelvic pain.

The Goop editors remember the backlash against the jade egg , and they are not worried about it. “Have you read the letter from Leila?” Hannah asks. Leila Martin, who sells jade eggs and has a seven-week course on their use , wrote a 2,000-word letter to the editors defending the eggs. Goop posted it in their newsletter and below it is a disclaimer and below it is a link to their store.

Hannah says they “never thought to back down.” She, as it were, points out in defense that the eggs were very popular and were immediately sold out. I ask her: has there ever been a health article in Goop that you thought about later, maybe we shouldn’t have published it?

No, she says, never.

Photo of Aura

For the fifth time, when I enter the aura station, someone is late for an appointment, and before I know it, I am escorted to a domed tent . I sit down on a stool and the photographer places two boxes with metal contacts in the shape of handprints in my lap. I hold my hands to them and stare into the camera for ten whole seconds. (“Don’t move or the image will be blurry.”) Then photographer Christina Lonsdale sits down at the table next to me to show the image.

Some people think that aura photography can tell you what’s going on in your body and your psyche , and when aura photography first gained popularity in the 1970s, it was meant to be a kind of diagnostic tool to determine which treatments for the new age You need. But Lonsdale says she’s not going to recommend any crystals or supplements, nor is she telling me what I should do or think based on the image. “I’m an artist. I’m not a healer,” she says. She may be the most honest person here.

Lonsdale removes the backing from the photo and we both gasp. Photos with aura usually have a few spots of color, but my image came out completely purple. That usually means an artist or activist, she says: someone with a message to get across.

For a moment forgetting that auras are not real, I wonder if my sonic bath, brain juice, and Ganesha flower remedy could improve my creative side. “Will this change over time?” I’m asking. “What if I took a picture in the morning?” Lonsdale’s eyes widen as she excitedly tells me, “Some people change and some don’t. Isn’t it exciting? “She also keeps track of what colors she sees in different cities and in different people. Maybe when she collects enough data, she can analyze it and find patterns. But until then, she doesn’t want to speculate.

conclusions

That’s all. If you don’t have a ticket for cocktails with Gwyneth – I don’t – the summit is over. I was at In Goop Health from 9 am until almost 7 pm. On the way out, I grab my “$ 200” gift bag, which I decided wouldn’t hold much: maybe two jars of trendy lotion . But the guys at Goop have figured out a way to pack a big bag (thanks 20oz canister of collagen protein), so I’m taking it all back to Pittsburgh.

My bag might be filled with takeout food, but my notebook might not. I haven’t taken any actionable, fact-based health advice. As much as I love to play the joyous whistle-blower, coming empty-handed makes me sad. I want autonomy in my health as much as any avid Goop reader would.

The problem, however, is that Goop sells the control fantasy and at the same time takes away the tools to make informed decisions. If you can’t tell what is real and what is nonsense, how can you choose what works for you? In a world where all marketing copies are potentially correct, the only way to get things right is to try them all.

But trying useless things costs money, time, and mental energy. Wealthy Goop fans can afford the former, but it would hardly be an honor to give every implausible product a shot. You may need to sleep more if you’re “damn tired,” instead of expecting a suite of vitamins to do what vitamins really can’t.

But sleeping, eating vegetables and washing your hands is boring . Why grab some fruit off the table in the middle of Goop Hall when you can try a bee pollen smoothie instead? Why run or lift a few weights when there are foam rollers that promise to make you “taller, slimmer, younger” ?

And so Gwyneth’s open-minded attitude is wasted. Rather than trying new things and communicating which ones make sense, the Goop machine simply adds more products and ideas to the already convoluted set of options we come across. And if someone criticizes this approach – for example, me, perhaps – Goop fans will not be deterred. Parenting team member Robin Berman praised Gwyneth’s bravery in this area: “Every time you suggest something new, you are a warrior. You will get grief because of this. “

Epilogue: Bag of Candy

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