Gwyneth Paltrow invented a new thing: walking around outside without shoes

Gwyneth Paltrow Attends Smartwatch Launch Event In NYC

The more I write about Gwyneth Paltrow these days, the more it feels like one of us – me or Gwyneth – is doing some kind of mega-commentary on the absurdity of the world. Is Gwyneth basically a parody of herself at this point? Is Goop just an elaborate satire? Is Gwyneth chuckling into her goat-milk-and-panda-tears smoothie because the peasants are actually buying what she’s selling? I have no idea at this point. Just in the past few months, we have heard that Gwyneth won’t eat octopi because “octopus are too smart to be food.” We’ve heard that we should take medical advice from a professional ghost-whisperer. We’ve heard that we should stick a jade egg up our lady-business too. So what is Gwyneth’s latest advice? She has a no-prescription cure for insomnia and depression: walk around barefoot. It’s called “earthing.” I sh-t you not.

For many of us, our first reaction upon realizing that we’re suffering from insomnia and/or depression is to seek psychiatric or pharmaceutical help. But the time has come for us to ask ourselves: Why go for those proven treatment methods, when taking off our shoes and walking around barefoot might just do the trick, as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop suggests?

The lifestyle website that wants us to drink raw goats’ milk and shove a jade egg up there would also like us to try a new trend called “earthing,” which involves walking around barefoot to connect to the energy of the planet. Although people have been walking around without shoes since before shoes were invented, practicing “earthing” stems from the belief that “access to the abundant supply of free electrons in the (subtly negatively charged) ground can help neutralize free radicals — if only we would take off our shoes and access them.”

Paltrow herself apparently swears by earthing — which is also called “grounding” — and members of the Goop community believe it can help with inflammation, arthritis, insomnia, depression, and more. So, to learn more about the barefoot trend, Goop interviewed Clint Ober, an “earthing-movement leader” who worked in the cable-television industry for 30 years.

According to Ober, the “most natural method” of grounding (or earthing) is to take your shoes off and walk around outdoors on the ground. However, the showbiz veteran noted that “walking barefoot in your home … will not have the same effect.”

Luckily, it turns out you actually can ground yourself indoors — by purchasing one of three kits linked to in the Goop article, each of which comes with a mat and electrical cord and ranges in price from $29.99 to $199.99. But what’s $199.99 if it cures your insomnia?

[From NY Magazine]

Note that the advice isn’t simply, “take off your shoes and go outside for some fresh air.” No, Gwyneth has to cloak that relatively simple advice in fake science and bulls–t New Age terminology. It’s NOT grounding or earthing, it is WALKING AROUND OUTSIDE WITHOUT SHOES. People have been doing it LITERALLY since we became homo sapiens.

What’s next for Gwyneth? She’s going to invent a completely new thing called Vitaminizing in which she’ll suggest people consume healthy veggies to get their necessary vitamins. Then she’ll invent Conscious Unconsciousness, wherein she’ll suggest tired peasants lie down on some kind of flat surface and close their eyes so they can do this newfangled thing called “sleeping.”

Gwyneth Paltrow Attends Smartwatch Launch Event In NYC

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

106 Responses to “Gwyneth Paltrow invented a new thing: walking around outside without shoes”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. kNY says:

    Still smoking those cigs, Gwyn? She’s full of crap.

    • Bonehead says:

      Earthing isn’t new. I read an article about it in 2009, when it still wasn’t even new but becoming trendy.

      • TQB says:

        Right? I feel like my hippie pals have been all about touching soil for years, although to their credit, they didn’t bother with all the pseudo-science BS.

      • raincoaster says:

        You’re right. It’s been A Thing in hippie circles for at least ten years. Sort of a byproduct of the whole Ley Lines hysteria.

  2. Mrs. Wellen Melon says:

    I love it when Gwyneth starsplains.

  3. detritus says:

    “access to the abundant supply of free electrons in the (subtly negatively charged) ground can help neutralize free radicals ”

    Ugh. Gwyn. You need to stop talking science. You mess it all up.

    • anna says:

      i mean, it’s kinda awesomely meta, considering the discourse right now, to use these pseudo-scientific alt-facts to sell feelgood stuff. it’s just so random and whoever buys into it, deserves to be ripped off. maybe i should get in on this and open an online boutique for moonlight-charged linen. on the other hand, i recently read an interesting article contextualizing vaginal rejuvenation surgery as a phenomenon of the doomed female quest for perfection in a capitalist world. women are being told that something is wrong with them if they dont sleep like babys, have the best sex every day, the happiest and brightest children and the smallest labia and that they need to buy stuff to optimize themselves. in the end it’s quite sad because it’s totally unattainable.

      • vauvert says:

        Don’t forget host crowds effortlessly in perfectly decorated homes, serving homemade fresh food from their artisanal garden, free range chicken and hydroponic herbs. Preferably while wearing high end couture, but only if sourced ethically. No wonder half of us are losing our minds while trying to do all that, and earn a living, and still be involved in the actual world currently being menaced by the most inept governing team we’ve ever seen.
        But yeah. Earthing will cure all our woes.

      • detritus says:

        She is kind of the epitomy of the times isnt she? Its especially sad, when you consider that all of her motives have been to purify and elevate, and the real cure is to connect to yourself and the world around you, to experience the simple pleasurs and joys of being alive.
        Even when she finds her real happiness, she feels the need to couch it in pseudoscience.

        It makes me wonder, is there a friendly grifter in her life? Or 20? All of this seems like its coming from someone who knows just enough science to confuse people who do not.

        I mean, technically free electrons from antioxidants DO help neutralise free radicals. But the antioxidant effect would be from the grass and maybe dirt, so unless shes rolling in it, it’s only going to help the bottom of her feet. And even then, only the first layer of skin.

      • marmalazed says:

        @anna I’m totally stealing your moonlight-charged linens idea! lmbo!

    • Tata says:

      She also believes water has a personality and emotions! I sort of feel bad for her for falling for every snake oil salesman, she is so gullible. her friendship with tracy andersen, grifter extraordinaire, is another example of her naivete.

      • Digital Unicorn (aka Betti) says:

        I don’t think she’s gullible – she’s the snake oil salesman out to make as much bucks as possible.

      • detritus says:

        how in the know do you think she is?
        Does she buy all of it herself? Hook line and sinker?
        Or is she aware she’s peddling snake oil? Maybe i underestimate her, she seems dumb AF most of the time. Just educated enough to know the right words to say.

      • Tata says:

        Gwyneth doesn’t make this stuff up, she always cites her colleague who is an MD or other naturopath type guru. After the goat milk cleanse thing, I peeked at her site article on parasites and there was a licensed medical professional (!!!!) advising her to do the goat milk + herb cleanse for parasites. That is why I say I pity her and think she is dumb, who else would follow a doctor’s advice to do a goat milk cleanse, as opposed to Carefully Backing away from that dr and never going back.

        Interesting read is this site called the naturopathic diaries, by britt marling. She was a naturopath, had many of the same medical privileges as an MD despite what she shows was much less training and understanding, and she is now a part time journalist who calls out her former profession for peddling sh*t medicine to people like Gwyneth.

      • Tata says:

        https://www.naturopathicdiaries.com/

        Britt hermes I meant. Britt marling is an actress.

      • Jessica says:

        Tata, I love Naturopathic Diaries!
        I live in Oregon, where we’ve never met a pseudo-science scam we won’t believe if it’s wrapped in a layer of spirituality.

  4. Sera says:

    She is too full of herself to be believable. Tired of the media coverage she gets.

  5. Snowflake says:

    Wow, this is just ridiculous!

  6. shelley* says:

    Good luck earthing the next time you’re in New York Gwynnie…

    I can’t wait to hear her thoughts on Fecal detoxing, or as others call it, going to the toilet.

  7. Luci Lu says:

    One time, I was outside, walking around in some shoes, and I stepped into some dog shit. Glad I wasn’t barefoot and enjoying the Earth.

  8. SusanneToo says:

    I have newfound respect for Whatshisname for getting out of that marriage.

  9. Miss Melissa says:

    Britney did it first, y’all.

  10. Beth says:

    I’ve stepped on a slithering, gross snake and been bit by red ants while outside barefooted. I jumped and screamed when I felt that snake! Barely step outside without putting on at least a pair of flip flops now

    • shelley* says:

      Is there anything worse than stepping on a piece of Lego though…Argghh

      • WTW says:

        Yes, stepping on a piece of glass, which I did as a child. I wasn’t barefoot. I was outside next to my apartment wearing slippers. It didn’t hurt too badly. In fact, I thought it was a rock, but when I took the slipper off, the entire sole of my foot was covered in blood. I completely freaked out. Crazily enough, my stepdad’s friend, a foot doctor, was visiting and helped sort me out. Anyway, because of this experience I remain wary of venturing outdoors sans shoes.

      • shelley* says:

        Yeah I had to have stitches after treading on glass when having a water fight outside as a kid, but some reason it didn’t hurt as much as a more trivial Lego injury, which only involved me hopping around and swearing, instead of a trip to the Hospital.

    • PinkCoconutIce says:

      @Beth, you are one brave woman. If I had stepped on a snake while barefoot, you can be damn sure that I’d be wearing combat boots all year round. 😀

  11. Chetta B. says:

    Actually, she is right for the most part. We were meant to make contact with the earth. Human beings weren’t meant to live high above the ground, never touching the earth:

    https://www.emfanalysis.com/is-grounding-good-for-you/

    Barefoot grounding is a prescribed treatment for many ailments, including MS and inflammation, depression, etc.

    • Daisy says:

      I had very flat feet as a kod and my orthophedic physician said that sometimes walking outside barefoot was helpful.

    • QueenB says:

      were we humans beings meant to read about actresses on the internet?

      • Tata says:

        LOL

      • Chetta B. says:

        She is right, Queen B. I don’t agree with her vaginal egg business (nor steaming) completely but she is right about this and also Vitamin D exposure from sunlight. I have MS myself and grounding is highly recommended. Walking barefoot on grass feels good for a reason.

    • WTW says:

      I read most of this. I think the best advice was to spend 30 minutes outside daily. Obviously you make more Vitamin D that way. And I think it’s good for one’s mental health to be outside for a bit every day, if their schedule allows for it and it’s safe in their area. My husband is a teacher ad many of his students spend very little time outside because it’s dangerous where they live.
      However, we live on the outskirts of the city near a lot of green space, and walking my dog for at least 30 minutes daily definitely has a peaceful effect. We also see lots of unexpected animals, including everything from beautiful and harmless peacocks to scarier animals like coyotes.

      • swak says:

        I agree it’s more time outdoors than grounding. If I don’t get outside I kind of go stir crazy! Told my daughter who has had a respiratory virus the last three days (still has it) to try and get outside to get out of the stale air in the house and get some fresh air and sunshine. She opens her windows but it’s not the same.

    • Becky says:

      Well I guess it’s also using Mindfullness, a technique used in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which is taken from Buddhism.

      • Elyna says:

        Exactly, Becky…sounds like she’s ripping off “Walking Meditation”. This isn’t some new medical break-through. She should change her last name to Spicer.

    • Tinkerbell says:

      I actually went to a seminar about one of those mats. My sisters have used them after surgeries and swear they work.

    • NeoCleo says:

      I have a friend who has MS. Walking barefoot isn’t going to do a damn thing for her or anyone else’s MS symptoms. When did adults in the country become so stupid?

      • TQB says:

        Walking barefoot makes feet stronger. Being outside makes us feel better because of fresh air and vitamin D. It’s all very nice if you keep it in context. It’s not going to cure MS, or cancer, or any serious ailment. It’s like saying exercise can “cure” depression. No, it can’t. it might alleviate some symptoms, it might help, but it’s not magic and the people for whom it does not work are not lazy failures. Because that’s the risk with this stupidity, right? That we start to suggest to people suffering from horrible conditions that they could have fixed themselves by going for a walk and thus they are choosing to suffer instead.

      • KB says:

        All great points TQB

  12. Lightpurple says:

    Watch with us now as Gwyneth discovers tetanus!

  13. Nicole says:

    I’ve walked around barefoot…to raise awareness about people being barefoot out of lack of shoes. Not because I’m so vain and into my own BS that I believe whatever “new” crap I decide to peddle.
    She’s so full of crap I’m over her (and have been for a while)

  14. Mia4s says:

    Oh GOOP do you need some attention? Here, I clicked on a story about you. There. There you go. *Pats her on the head*. Now you run along now and look up some Internet science while the real artists and actresses keep working. Bless.

  15. QueenB says:

    She cant be serious. That has to be trolling.
    On another note she looks really good in those pics.

  16. greenmonster says:

    If she steals my invention called oxygening – I will riot. If you want to know how it works send me 500$ and I’ll explain this concept to you. Also available the idea of vodka-ing.

    • shelley* says:

      Ha Ha Ha Greenmonster

    • Digital Unicorn (aka Betti) says:

      I will join that riot if she steal my idea of wineing and how good it makes you feel about yourself and others around you – you LOVE everyone once you’ve had some of this amazing red/white or rose juice.

    • Snowflake says:

      Sign me up for the vodkaing!

    • Nicole says:

      This sounds amazing. Where can I sign up?

    • Lightpurple says:

      But vodka-ing is not new. I’ve been vodka-ing for years. I strongly recommend it for loosening up one’s spine and limbs and tongue.

    • frisbee says:

      Only one word CHOCOLATING if she steals that it may involve a hand grenade…

    • AnnaKist says:

      And let’s not forget another benefit of vodka-ing and wine-ing – the oft-forgotten enhancement of one’s singing voice…

  17. lala says:

    i love being barefoot outside – but I also read some of those “wellness” mommy blogs and earthing is a thing in that community. You can (and are highly encouraged by these “wellness gurus”) to buy special “earthing” shoes, and even earthing bedding!! Instead of just encouraging people to spend some time outside barefoot (if they can/want to) or gardening (which are free activities) they’ve found a way to monetize it and do it will all their usual pseudo-scientific gobbledygook

    • Tata says:

      Yes why do you need that mat? What is the deal with that? Why can’t I just walk on the beach?

      • lala says:

        and of course, the “must-have” grounding accessories are not cheap at all! It can be a real costly habit, being “natural” 🙂

  18. Chinoiserie says:

    Walking around without shoes is fun in your summer cabin but what is crazy here is that she is trying to scam 199 dollars to walk
    indoors. I doupt she really believes this stuff, she is trying to use lifestyle thing to get money.

    • AnnaKist says:

      Ha! Walking barefoot outside in an Australian summer would soon sort Gwynnie out. Let’s see…snakes, funnel web spiders, bindiis, bull ants, red ants, mosquitos as big as mice, blisters on the soles from the baking earth, wasps, bees, bruising on the underfoot when you trod on the rocks hidden in the grass after your kids discarded them when they discovered they weren’t diamonds after all…

  19. HK9 says:

    The concept of ‘earthing’ is as old as the hills and shouldn’t cost you a GD thing. This woman is exhausting.

  20. bap says:

    Gwennie go sit down. She is a has been.

  21. Tata says:

    kaiser, instead of getting vitamins and energy through food you can just take her $180 worth of supplements. Don’t you see? It is the upscale soylent green.

    I call that her next article will about the dangers of EMF, electro magnetic fields, aka wireless internet and cell phone ‘energy’ making us sick. (There are people in ultra natural communities who actually believe this)

    • KB says:

      Her business is internet based, so I doubt she’d want to advance that theory. Unless there are something like crystals she can peddle to protect you. That’d be right up her alley.

  22. Jayna says:

    She loves to share. Why isn’t she discussing the filler she’s putting in her cheeks lately?

  23. Belooooga says:

    RHOC Vicky and Brooks did this as part of his alternative “cancer” treatment. So clearly Gwyneth is late to the party.

  24. courtney says:

    I actually get the barefoot thing I like to do it in the house or the backyard particularly on the off occurance of my feet ankles swelling up like they do sometimes in hot weather or if I’ve eaten too much salt

  25. smcollins says:

    The write-up had me chuckling, but the subject couldn’t make me roll my eyes any harder. “Earthing?” “Grounding?” GMAFB!

  26. Anilehcim says:

    “Just in the past few months, we have heard that Gwyneth won’t eat octopi because “octopus are too smart to be food.””

    Of all the things that Paltrow says and does, this is by far the least ridiculous. I don’t understand why you find it so farfetched and hard to believe. This is relatively common practice… there are many people, including quite a few of the people who comment here, who hold this viewpoint. They are largely regarded as one of the smartest animals on the planet, unlike any other animal that is eaten in the Western world, so I really just don’t understand why this baffles you so much.

    • Wellsie says:

      I guess it depends on how you choose to eat what you do. Eating only slow-witted animals is an interesting way to justify what you consume. Why not choose to not eat animals? Or only eat the most ethically sourced foods? Just for example.

      • Mel says:

        I agree, Wellsie. Personally I don’t like the fascism (yep, that is the right word) implicit in any kind of selection based on any sort of evolutional “superiority”. So, less intelligent creatures – and that includes humans – are less worthy of living on this Earth?
        Personally I don’t eat animal flesh because I do not have the right (or the inclination) to participate in the termination of ANY living creature’s life.
        (Yes, plants are living creatures, too. But we don’t know whether they suffer or not – not to mention that many of them aren’t “killed” if the root system is left intact – and we do know that about animals. We know it without a doubt.)

    • KB says:

      I think we all tend to find our own justifications for what we eat and what we don’t. I don’t think her argument is all that odd either. I know my choices are much more emotional than logical. I think rabbits and deer are sweet, gentle creatures so I refuse to eat them. That doesn’t mean cows and chickens and pigs aren’t, I’ve just never really come into much contact with those animals. I have no issue with her “irrational” reasoning because I’m guilty of it myself. I suppose her inability to see her choices objectively is where she becomes problematic.

    • MrsBadBob says:

      Too smart to be food, yet they’re on the dinner plate, that’s why it’s an asinine comment. If it were an intelligent, thoughtful comment, about consuming a creature we don’t need to eat, maybe I would cut her slack, but it’s not, it’s a self-serving, selfish comment, what a shock, a comment that reflects how shallow and non-thinking she is, a comment to pander to others, she’s such a faker.

  27. Linabear says:

    Lol, I wish I could publicly quote Kaiser as one of my favorite writers because she cracks me up so much but people would just see me as a superficial crazy. I am ;).

  28. Who says says:

    I think Gwyneth should start hanging out with Ivanka, they both would get along great, How can I say that, because it seems both live sheltered lives and are totally out of touch with the day to day lives of women.

  29. manda says:

    A friend of mine took microbiology in college and told me she would never walk barefoot in the grass again because of what she learned. I didn’t press for details, but yeah, it’s something I think about

    • Aysla says:

      *Raises hand* I took Micro in college too and I have no idea why your friend would be squeamish about walking barefoot on the grass. Sounds a little… agrostophobic? Germophobic? Something along those lines. It’s perfectly fine to walk on earth barefoot.

    • MrsBadBob says:

      That’s just someone being a germaphobe, barefoot is fine, just don’t cut your feet and stroll through crap or stagnant water or whatever.

    • Mel says:

      I’ve been walking barefoot outdoors literally forever, and I never get sick (as in: not even a cold in decades). So, she might have been right, but the conclusion might have been wrong. 🙂

  30. Zuzus Girl says:

    My mother said it better and I didn’t have to pay $199. ” Get your ass outside and play until the sun goes down.” Thanks mom.

    • swak says:

      🙂

    • AtlLady says:

      My childhood best friend came from a family of 6. Her Mom’s birthday was in April and her Dad’s birthday was in October. The kids were only allowed outside without shoes between their parents’ birthdays. We were raised in the US South so the timing made sense. That was prime bare-footing weather.

  31. Whyme says:

    A zillion eye rolls. And I can’t walk anywhere barefoot because I have super high arches and need support or I walk like Quasimodo and have all sorts of body pain. So, yeah, no thanks.

    And pediatric orthopedists have been saying this about babies forever. Not new.

    • swak says:

      I remember with my first baby that I asked the pediatrician what kind of shoes I should by when she started walking and he said that the best shoes were no shoes. So went with that. Not a total good thing because when I had to take her to the babysitters and put shoes on her, she wasn’t buying it. All my girls hate shoes because they ran around barefoot all the time.

      • Whyme says:

        LOL SWAK that’s true, never thought about them not wanting shoes on. My son always wanted socks or slippers on indoors as a toddler and just recently has gone barefoot (he’s 7).

    • MrsBadBob says:

      My high arches force me to wear shoes or cripple around the next day, also I have plantar fasciitis, which mandates appropriate footwear. Barefoot is fine, but I’m not ashamed to wear shoes, my love of nature is not in jeopardy.

  32. Marceldeux says:

    “People have been doing it LITERALLY since we became homo sapiens.” hahahaha, dyinggggg at this sentence. You’re hilarious!

  33. tealily says:

    Well, if it helps with inflammation…

  34. Marianne says:

    Listen, I’m sure for some people it may have a bit of calming effect. Something similar to stepping away from an issue that is stressing you out and taking a bit of breather. But, this is not some magical cure to depression or imsonia or whatever. You can walk outside barefoot all day, its not going to make your troubles go away.

    • TQB says:

      Exactly. Context. Why can’t we just be satisfied with saying something is slightly helpful? Why do we have to carry on about inflammation and MS and snakeoil cures? Can’t something just be a thing that makes you feel a little better for a little while?

  35. KiddVicious says:

    I had read that walking outside for 20 minutes after a cross-country flight will cure you of any jet-lag. I tried it, it worked. Or it could have been the bottle of wine I drank afterwards that worked. Either way I slept like a baby. 😀

  36. Crikey, you can’t just GO OUTSIDE any more without calling it something fancy pants or making some sort of private hipster club out of it. You’re not going barefoot, you’re “earthing”. You’re not swimming in a lake, it’s WILD SWIMMING. This is what happens when we all retreat to the cities and bow at the altar of consumerism. It is no longer just connecting with the natural world. It’s a commodity to be parcelled-out by someone who KNOWS. Bullshit.

  37. MrsBadBob says:

    I’m doubling down on being an old-lady, compression socks. $15.99 or less and they have changed my life. Going barefoot is for young people, or privileged clueless women with jade eggs shoved somewhere, my feet hurt, my back hurts, I have weird bruises on my legs. My cheap plantar fasciitis socks have changed all of that. Thanks, no thanks, Goop.

    • Mel says:

      While I do think of myself as “young” (“same as always”, actually), I doubt very many people would necessarily identify my AGE as “young”, yet I walk barefoot all the time, circumstances permitting; always have. The funny, perhaps unexpected thing about it is that I’ve never even had a corn or a callus – and I don’t even moisturise my feet regularly.

  38. ALF-M says:

    I wish Gwyneth would walk barefoot off a cliff! I think most people are sick of her ridiculous, elitist, self important bullshit lifestyle advice. If her father was still alive he’d put her in her place and tell her she sounds like a snotty schmuck!

  39. Mel says:

    I’ve been walking barefoot, indoors and whenever I can take off my shoes outdoors (on grass, gravel etc.) – ever since childhood. I LOVE it. I suppose it’s difficult to describe the feeling and pleasant “side effects” to anyone who hasn’t tried it (doing it consistently), so I won’t bother.
    BTW, “earthing” (a silly name, yes) has been around for quite a while. Maybe she wasn’t paying attention.