Goop embraces novelty, including alternative therapies that range from useless to harmful.
Before I hopped on the plane to LA, I engaged in a few weeks of Goop immersion.
I read (okay, skimmed) Goop-endorsed doctors books.
And I talked to two non-Goop experts who were able to provide some perspective.
One of those wasTim Caulfield.
He said: Usually.
So shedoeshave legit health advice?
All of those things are great and we need to do them more.
But every single bit of [Goops] advice is wrapped in a blanket of pseudoscience.
Every single bit of Goops advice is wrapped in a blanket of pseudoscience.
(That may refer to a specific punch in of workout, but still.
I routinely lift weights bigger than Tracy Anderson.
I could probably lift herandGwyneth if they sat on a barbell together.)
It doesnt even matter if the health advice makes sense, Caulfield says.
People will gladly try beauty and health treatments they dont believe in.
We make choices in our life based on our personal brand, how we want people to see us.
I also talked to Britt Hermes, an ex-naturopath whonow catalogs the harms of alternative medicine.
Its impossible [for consumers] to tease apart what is marketing nonsense and whats real, she said.
Is This Thing On?
The cheerful Goop staff gives me a worry bead bracelet with a purple tassel indicating my lowly Lapis status.
(Ticket levels are named after stones used incrystal healing.)
Someone hands me a smoothie, and I start browsing the wellness activations.
The first one I find is the sound bath.
All I hear at first is some music from a loudspeaker in the distance.
(They were not available to sample.)
My guide taps the iPad a few more times and cranks up the volume.NowI can get the full experience.
When the session ends, I open my eyes.
I dont feel all that different, but I want to believe that the treatment worked.
I want to believe that I am optimally ready to absorb all that In Goop Health has to offer.
It tastes kind of good but with an aftertaste of dirt.
A tiny cinnamon sugar doughnutfromErin McKennas bakery, and later a strawberry one too.
A bowl ofcaraway date pumpkin seed granolafrom Botanica, with cashew date milk.
A bananafrom the table in the middle of the hall that is piled high with fruit.
At this point Im not really hungry, I just feel bad that the table looks untouched.
A salad fromSweetgreen, their Mexican Corn Elote Bowl with quinoa, tomatoes, and goat cheese.
A bottle of coconut flavored Bai juice, labeledAntioxidant Cocofusion.
I take a sip, and then decide I am sick of sugary drinks.
I dont notice until later that there is a hidden cooler of water bottles behind the Moon Juice stand.
A wellness shotthat looks like a tiny bottle of orange juice but tastes like fire.
Kale cookies and cream ice creamfromChill by Chloe.
Shut up, its delicious.
A matcha (green tea) lattewith unsweetened almond milk and a scoop of Moon Juices Beauty Dust.
I grab anapplefrom the table, but never get around to eating it.
A side salad fromAncolie, with lentils and shredded carrot and Im not sure what else.
It is served in a jar, as is all of Ancolies food.
The jar is mine to keep.
Black coffee, from the Bulletproof coffee stand.
The guy seems genuinely annoyed that I am ordering it without butter.
A bee pollen smoothiefrom a company named Bumble that is impossible to google.
I am already holding a coffee, but a waiter puts a smoothie into my other hand.
Total: a bazillion calories.
She announces the location of the bathrooms since I know youve all started sipping the Goop kool-aid.
Gwyneth tells us our goal here is achieving and being the optimal versions of ourselves.
She gives us her origin story: her father got cancer, and so she became a health nut.
It starts with a health crisis, either theirs or that of a family member.
Why is it never anendocrinologistsaying your thyroid is the root of all your problems?
I had asked Britt Hermes, the ex-naturopath.
She pointed me tothis endocrinologists takeon why Dr. Myers misses the mark.
We really do have autonomy over our health, Gwyneth says.
Why is there so much cancer?
Why do we all feel so tired?
And the solution:
Weve come into this time understanding that we really do have autonomy over our health.
Our psychological health, our physical health, our emotional health.
Autonomy, I think, is the common thread of Goops health advice.
Everything is immediately actionable.
Theres always a recipe to make or a product to buy, and you dont need a doctors prescription.
What if wecouldsolve our problems by wishing on a crystal?
I want to believe.
Gwyneth then introduces Dr. Habib Sadeghi, her personal mentor.
He congratulates us on coming here, to what is not a convention but a pilgrimage.
To do so, he says, is not selfish.
I decide Im going to ask for the evidence behind anything somebody tries to sell me.
She tells me we need to avoid aluminum, which is scientifically proven to be bad for you.
Then she tells me I should buy Goops sunscreen because its a mineral sunscreen rather than a dangerouschemicalsunscreen.
There is no fear-based marketing here today.
but there is no fear-based marketing here today.
I have another go later with another salesperson, who recommends a bath product calledDigital Detox.
Its a whole detox experience, she says.
But she doesnt even pretend that it can cleanse our bodies fromEMF waves, as the packaging claims.
When I ask for evidence, she laughs.
Yeah, I dont think theres any evidence.
It just makes your skin feel really nice.
Its a great experience.
(I hear later that recommendations included skipping breakfast and eschewing tomatoes.
Goop has not yet sent out the promised video recording of the talk.)
I could guess what I missed, though.
Gut health is the cool thing to blame all our problems on these days.
These microbes live in complex communities, like the ecosystem in a rainforest.
They certainly affect our bodies, and we affect them.
This much is true.
But even the worlds top microbiome researchers cant agree on what a healthy microbial ecosystem should like.
They know that probiotics do little to nothing for us.
Partners and Products
Everything at Goop comes from a special partner.
Thats really powerful for our partners.
If your target market is wealthy white women, Goop readers are golden.
A good chunk of the Goop Hallprobably about a thirdis dedicated to shopping.
I figure ticket sales must have brought in a half million dollars.
But the real value to Goop goes beyond ticket sales.
Gwyneth appeared on Jimmy Kimmel in the week before the summit, after all the tickets were sold out.
Tim Caulfield told me earlier that her real goal is probably just to generate discussion.
If she does that, shell win.
Conflicts of Interest
I dont really mind that Gwyneth makes money selling clothes and cosmetics and food.
But its a different story when her medical experts have financial conflicts of interest.
(Example: $60 for an unspecified number of doses ofSekret Greener, a joint health supplement.)
Dr. Alejandro Junger: A21-day cleansecosting $475.
You get a discount if you’re able to rope friends into signing up.
Dr. Amy Myers: Online courses such asthis six-week onethat costs $297 and promises to reverse autoimmunity.
Dr. Phil Stutz: Gives talks and workshops, but I cant find a product line.
Dr. Oscar Serrallach: No product line on his website, but he did design GoopsMother Loadsupplement.
Dr. Robin Berman: No product line.
Dr. Sherry Sami:No product line, but shes part of Dr. Habib Sadeghis clinic.
These doctors high profile platform adds to their conflict of interest.
They seem to beand perhaps areusing their fame to drum up interest in their medical treatments and supplements.
Who doesnt feel less than terrific at least some of the time?
You tried the IV?
Tell me about it!
My new pal said her friends had all done IVs before, so she wanted to try it too.
Some love it for recovering from illness, others for hangovers.
She didnt have a particular complaint, so she just chose the one with Vitamin C and B12.
Im not sure, she said.
I just had it done.
It looked perfectly appropriate here, though, in an audience of nearly all white women.
I figure my chances are about 50/50.
Maybe it helps a little, or maybe not at all.
It turns out that flower remedies, while not exactly homeopathy, operate on a similar principle.
The conceptwas invented in the 1930s by a British doctor, the practitioner,Alexis Smart, tells me.
The doctor identified 38 flower essences, and Smart uses a selection of these in each bottle.
After hours in the sun, the water absorbs the healing vibrations of the flower.
The water is then mixed with organic brandy and bottled.
I knew which one you needed before you even said anything, Smart says.
Maybe well feel different after we try them, maybe not.
How do you know they work?
By talking, she says.
I just talk to the person and can see the signs of a remedy.
She shows me a bottle labeledGanesh, after the Hinduremover of obstacles.
It tastes like plain brandy.
Luckily, there is an Ask Me Anything stop staffed with Goop editors.
They lounge on white-cushioned chairs, under umbrellas for shade, and are dressed in light blue button-down shirts.
The editors are mobbed all day.
Whenever I stop by to eavesdrop, it sounds like attendees are pitching them products to feature.
You publish a lot of things that are outside of the mainstream.
What are your criteria for determining that something is safe and ethical to recommend?
Khanna starts by pointing out that they include a disclaimer at the bottom of health articles.
It reads:
The views expressed in this article intend to highlight alternative studies and induce conversation.
Okay, but how do you decide that something is worth including in Goop to begin with?
Do you ever ask the doctors to vet new ideas?
Yes, she says, often.
But she says they dont have any specific guidelines.
So I ask: What responsibility do you believe you have to your readers?
I think its up to each person to decide what works for them, says another editor sitting nearby.
Medicine is so subjective.
Goops editors dont see it that way.
Our responsibility is to ask questions, to start the conversation, Khanna says.
Even if the product or advice doesnt work?
I think its up to each person to decide what works for them, says another editor sitting nearby.
Medicine is so subjective.
(Medicine, actually, isnotsubjective in this way.
I turn the conversation to Goops infamousjade eggs.
you’re free to do this without a weight, too.
For example, a Goop article suggests walking around with the egg inside of you.
Gunter counters that overworking your vaginal muscles this way can result in pelvic pain.
The Goop editors remember thejade egg backlash, and they are unfazed.
Did you read the letter from Layla?
Khanna says they never considered backing down.
No, she says, never.
I press my hands onto them, and stare at the camera for a full ten seconds.
(Dont move, or the picture will be blurry.)
Thenthe photographer, Christina Lonsdale, sits down at a table outside with me to reveal the image.
Im not a healer, she says.
She may be the most honest person here.
Im not a healer, she says.
She may be the most honest person here.
Lonsdale peels off the photos backing, and we both gasp.
Aura photosusuallyhave multiple blobs of color, but my image came out completely purple.
Does this change over time?
Like, what if I had my photo taken in the morning?
Lonsdales eyes widen, and she tells me excitedly: Some peoples change, and some dont.
Shes also keeping track of what colors she sees in different cities, and from different people.
Maybe when she collects enough data, she can analyze it and find patterns.
But until then, she doesnt want to speculate.
The Takeaways
Thats it.
Unless you have a ticket for cocktails with GwynethI do notthe summit is over.
Id been at In Goop Health from nine in the morning until almost 7 pm.
My tote bag may be brimming with takeaways, but my notebook is not.
I didnt pick up a single actionable, evidence-based health tip.
As much as I love to play the gleeful debunker, coming up empty-handed just makes me sad.
I want autonomy over my health just as much as any hardcore Goop reader.
If you cant tell whats real and whats bullshit, how can you choose whats right for you?
But trying useless things costs money, and time, and mental energy.
But getting sleep and eating vegetables and washing your hands areboring.
And so Gwyneths open minded attitude goes to waste.
And if anybody criticizes that approachlike me, perhapsGoops fans arent deterred.
Youre going to get grief for it.
