Goop Responds To Concerns About "Unhealthy" Advice

From Redbook

Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle site, Goop - along with the actress's personal trainer, Tracy Anderson - have come under fire after a nutritionist tore apart advice the trainer gave in a column, citing that it could be "extremely damaging." Since then, opinions have been flaring on social media, prompting Goop and Anderson to clarify the statements.

In the original Goop story, Anderson's asked an all-too-common (and all-too-Googled) question: How do we jump-start weight loss?

The fitness guru, who runs seven workout studios worldwide that follow The Tracy Anderson Method she created, recommended working out daily, going "very low carb," and cutting out gluten entirely. "You are how you move, you are how you eat. Ideally, you want to be regular and strategic with the design of your body and your weight management all year," she explained.

Later on, Anderson shared a meal plan for people who've reached an unhealthy weight and are looking to drop pounds quickly. "If you have weight to lose, you can effectively do a fourteen-pound weight loss in four weeks," she said. "This requires focus and physical, mental, and emotional willpower."

These statements struck nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert, who told The Independent she was "in complete shock that this article has been published, as this has the potential to harm a lot of relationships with food." She warned that exercising daily, as Anderson suggests, may not give your body time to recover, and that eliminating gluten shouldn't be seen as a magic bullet to lasting weight loss.

"It is not sensible to eliminate whole food groups or make drastic dietary changes which are not sustainable - you may end up deficient in micronutrients and lacking important dietary diversity which aid gut bacteria," Lambert said.

Though Anderson's advice for Goop was originally published months ago, at the start of summer, The Independent story prompted a wave of tweets from people who felt Anderson's advice was "science-free bunk" and "promote[s] anorexia lite," among other complaints.

Anderson and a spokesperson for Goop responded to these accusations, clarifying the article's - and the trainer's - intent with the advice.

"Over the course of her 20-year career, Tracy has consistently practiced owning a 1-2 lb. weight loss per week when someone has unhealthy weight to lose. Owning a 1-2 lb. weight loss per week is different than simply dropping 1-2 lbs. per week, which causes people to hold onto unhealthy weight," Anderson's spokesperson told E! News. "Of the 14 lbs. that someone could effectively lose in a month - if they have excess weight on them - the goal is to own 8 lbs. of that, which is aligned with Tracy's practice of not living on extreme diets."

Similarly, a representative for Goop told E! that the brand doesn't promote weight loss, "only healthy eating." (Note: The headline of the story is "Tracy Anderson On How To Lose Weight Fast," though the first paragraph details how often people ask Anderson to answer diet-related questions.)

"We would never advocate for an unhealthy diet or extreme routine," the Goop spokesperson explained. "As Tracy said in the interview, you should make choices based on what is best for your individual body."

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