Paltrow defends Goop wellness brand

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This article was published 12/10/2018 (2893 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness brand Goop has promoted “energy stickers” made from “the same conductive carbon material NASA uses to line space suits” — even though the stickers had nothing to do with space suits at all.

And coffee enemas. And vaginal steaming.

And those jade eggs — the ones that were supposed to be inserted into women’s vaginas to help them “get better connected to the power within.” One gynecologist called them “the biggest load of garbage,” and they ended up costing the company US$145,000 in civil penalties last month.

But when asked whether the products Goop sells online are based on pseudoscience, Paltrow told BBC News no.

“We believe that there are healing modalities that have existed for thousands of years and they challenge maybe a very conventional western doctor that might not believe necessarily in the healing powers of essential oils or any variety of acupuncture — things that have been tried and tested for hundreds of years,” the actress and business executive said Tuesday on BBC Breakfast. “And we find that they are very helpful to people and that there’s an incredible power in the human body to heal itself.

“I think anytime you are trying to move the needle and you’re trying to empower women, you find resistance and we just think that’s just part of what we do and we’re proud to do it.”

Goop’s penalties stemmed from a consumer protection lawsuit filed by 10 prosecutors across California who accused Paltrow’s company of advertising products with medical claims that “were not supported by competent and reliable science.”

Paltrow said Goop now has a science-and-research team as well as a regulatory team to vet the products.

Goop started simply in 2008 as a newsletter, telling readers where to shop, what to cook and how to better their lives. As it grew, so did the criticism of its medical and spiritual claims, but controversy helped drive business, according to the New York Times Magazine.

— Washington Post