MAHA must harness the power of Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow may be set to pass her celebrity-everyone-loves-to-hate crown to another out-of-touch elitist. The Goop founder and queen of outrageous “wellness” hacks has announced – gasp! – that she’s begun eating like the rest of us.

Paltrow has followed a Paleo diet for years – meaning she cut out virtually all culinary joy for the sake of eating like a cavewoman, though I assume she did more gathering than hunting. Yet on her Goop podcast last week, Paltrow announced, “I’m a little sick of it if I’m honest. I’m getting back into eating some sourdough bread and some cheese. There, I said it. A little pasta. After being strict with it for so long.”

Paltrow’s foray into normal-people food is serendipitous; or perhaps it’s ingenious timing. Paltrow is advocating for “eating foods that are as whole and fresh as possible” at the same time Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has begun his crusade against toxic food dyes, with an eye on severely regulating ultra-processed foods at large. What a dream Make America Healthy Again team this pair would make: RFK Jr., a crunchy sort of pseudo-Democrat whose overly weathered face and vibrato voice make him not quite the picture of health, and Paltrow, a dewy, glamorous 52-year-old with the vibrancy of a woman half her age (her 20-year-old daughter basically looks a clone of her!).

Paltrow can obviously be supremely annoying, like the know-it-all-aunt at the family reunion lecturing you across the Jell-O casserole about the magic of her six-day cleanse. But in her defense, health trends these days are about as dependable as the Trump administration tariffs. I was a die-hard hater of carbs for a couple of years, firmly entrenched, along with my guru, Dr. Mercola, in the energizing, fat-burning, brain-boosting benefits of the ketogenic diet. Research has emerged now, however, as Mercola openly acknowledges, showing that avoiding carbohydrates increases the body’s cortisol levels. Except in extreme circumstances, the body performs better with some carbs.

Then there’s the controversy over fats: I grew up with a grandmother whose nutrition mindset was shaped by USDA dietary guidelines of the 1960s. She regarded butter and full-fat dairy products with horror as she slathered seed-oil-saturated Crisco and margarine on everything. We’ve been allowed to learn lately, however, that these guidelines were heavily funded by Procter & Gamble, the inventor of Crisco.

As the girth of the average American citizen has ballooned along with our healthcare costs, researchers like Nina Teicholz, author of 2014 New York Times bestseller The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet, and Calley Means, co-founder of TrueMed and RFK Jr. advisor, have pulled back the curtain on America’s obesity crisis. They’ve concluded that eating a well-rounded diet full of a variety of whole foods – including healthy fats – is vital to a long, healthy life.

It appears Gwyneth Paltrow has come to the same conclusion. She may be a little wacky, what with her “five-step guide to yawning” and “eyebrow-raising Goop moments,” but she’s also unapologetically open-minded. Her website declares, “We operate from a place of curiosity and nonjudgment, and we start hard conversations, crack open taboos, and look for connection and resonance everywhere we can find it.” And the strategy has been working for years. Her newsletter has 8 million subscribers. CEO magazine reported in 2021:

In the past decade, Goop has grown steadily into a multinational powerhouse valued at more than US $250 million. Paltrow scaled down her movie acting to a few cameo appearances including Pepper Potts in The Avengers franchise, redefined herself as an affectionately eccentric lifestyle guru and, much to the surprise of her detractors, proved herself to be an astute businesswoman, steering the company on instinct alone and attracting high-profile backers.  

Even if you’ve developed a Paltrow intolerance, there’s no denying she has massive influence. If she can use her goopy powers to change the eating habits of Americans to make the nation healthy again through moderate eating, go for it, Gwyneth.