beauty

Professor tests Gwyneth's health advice: "It's incredible how much she's wrong about."

Despite having a stellar film career and an Oscar to her name, Gwyneth Paltrow seems to be channeling all her energy into becoming a beacon of ‘healthy living’.

Through her successful cookbooks and lifestyle website Goop, 42-year-old Paltrow spruiks everything from detoxing and $4000 juicers to “sex dust” and vagina steaming treatments. The mum of two is clearly enthusiastic about her diet and health regimen, and nobody’s about to argue that being health-conscious is a bad thing — but should we really be taking this kind of advice from a celebrity?

RELATED: Gwyneth Paltrow tries to feed herself on $29 a week. Cue: controversy.

According to Timothy Caulfield, a Professor of the University of Albert’s Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health, the answer is… nope. In his new book Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?, Professor Caulfield puts the actress’ many health claims and endorsements to the test. Evidently, they’re all a load of… well, Goop. (Post continues after gallery.)

“It’s incredible how much she is wrong about. Even when she is right about stuff — like telling people to eat more fruits and vegetables — there is always a bit of a tinge of wrongness,” Professor Caulfield tells Vox.

“She’ll say, ‘It has to be organic,’ for example. She is still distracting us with these untrue details, as opposed to just pushing the honest truth.”

Like our intrepid Editor in Chief Jamila Rizvi, Professor Caulfield even submitted himself as a guinea pig for one of the detox programs with a Paltrow tick of approval. Judging by this excerpt from the book, it was not a happy experience.

RELATED: Why Jennifer Lopez’s #BeTheGirl weight loss challenge is disappointing.

“I am three days into my cleanse… at this stage I do not feel clean or pure or happy,” he writes.

“I feel and behave like a miserable bastard. The combination of caffeine withdrawal and hunger pangs has transformed me into a feral beast with a fuse as short as one of Gwyneth’s fabulous dresses.”

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Hey, Gwyneth? Stop steaming that vagina of yours. (Getty)

 

While Professor Caulfield lost around four kilos from his already slim frame, eventually it all came back — which just served to prove what he, and the world of science, already knew.

"The evidence is so clear. It’s just not supported by the scientific information. We don't have to be equivocal. There’s just no evidence to support the idea of cleansing and detoxing," Caulfield tells Vox.

RELATED: 9 things all women need to know about cleaning their vagina.

Oh, and about that whole "vaginal steaming" thing? Go ahead and steam your veggies and your clothes, but for the love of common sense leave your poor ol' lady bits alone. “The claims made for [steaming] are wrong and it could even be harmful … You shouldn’t monkey with the bacterial flora down there," Professor Caulfield writes. Got it.

Miranda Kerr is also mad about health and fitness

 

Although his approach to the topic is quite amusing and biting, Professor Caulfield is genuinely concerned by our increasing tendency to put trust in information endorsed by celebrities. Paltrow isn't the only celebrity who has dipped their toes into the 'self-styled lifestyle guru' waters — model Miranda Kerr, among others, has been splashing around there for a while now.

RELATED: Pippa Middleton is apparently the new royal health expert.

"Take someone like Paltrow. She’s a beautiful woman. When she’s endorsing something, it looks like it works. And her advice is available to us — it's just more prominent than other people's advice. It also confirms that desire for us to have some simple answer to difficult health questions," Professor Caulfield tells Vox.

"There seems to be this erosion of trust in traditional sources of scientific information — whether it’s because of pharmaceutical influence, or people think universities are too commercialised, or they think science is always wrong about things."

Do you think celebrities should be doling out health advice?