One of Gwyneth Paltrow’s greatest passions is “diets.” She loves a diet. She loves trying new diets. She loves mixing and matching different crazy diets. I remember in the early days of her Goop newsletter, every other week she was on some kind of “juice cleanse” or starvation diet (“fasting” for elites). Over the years, she’s promoted strict elimination diets, macrobiotic diets and Paleo diets. At one point, she even admitted that her doctors basically told her that she was making herself really sick with all of the dieting, and that her bones were really fragile (because she hasn’t ingested vital nutrients in thirty years). Oh, and don’t forget that she’s a regular IV user too, because she’s literally so food-disordered, she can’t just eat like a peasant or swallow vitamin supplements. Well, big news! Gwyneth has given up her Paleo diet.
Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed she’s ditching her ultra-strict Paleo diet after years of being ‘obsessed with eating healthily’ and restricting bread, cheese and pasta. The actress turned wellness guru, 52, who founded her wellness company GOOP in 2008, admitted she’s ‘sick’ of the caveman diet.
In recent years, Gwyneth’s diet involves drinking coffee for breakfast, bone broth for lunch and vegetables for dinner. The idea of the Paleo diet, also known as the Paleolithic or caveman diet, is to eliminate modern foods and eat what our ancestors would have. It advocates eating meat, vegetables, nuts and limited fruit, and excluding grains, legumes, dairy, salt, refined sugar and processed oils. Although its followers boast of benefits including weight loss, a smaller appetite, and more energy, there has been little research into its effects.
The Hollywood star turned to the Paleo diet a few years ago alongside her TV producer husband Brad Falchuk, 54. Speaking on her Goop podcast, she said: ‘I went into hardcore macrobiotic for a certain time, that was an interesting chapter where I got obsessed with eating very very healthily. I really deepened my connection with food and the whole philosophy around macrobiotics which is essentially just how they eat in the mountains of Japan, so very local and seasonal. Lots of fish, vegetables, rice, no diary, no sugar etc. I think that period of time I might have got a little didactical about it.’
‘I was just so amazed that we had this power in our hands that if we treated ourselves well and hydrated and ate whole foods that we could just feel so much better. I was sort of intoxicated by that idea and I still feel that way to this day. Things have gotten a little more complicated with me and longer term with inflammation and stuff. It’s the reason Brad and I became Paleo a few years ago now. Although I’m a little bit sick of it, if I’m honest. I’m getting back into eating sourdough bread, cheese – there I said it. A little pasta after being strict with it for so long. But again I think it’s a good template, eating foods that are as whole and fresh as possible. I don’t think there are any doctor or nutritionist that would refute that.’
“Things have gotten a little more complicated with me and longer term with inflammation and stuff.” “And stuff” is doing such heavy lifting. Like… she has consistently refused to put it together that she’s made herself sick over the years by adhering to these extreme diets, in between starving herself and using IV drips. I can’t even imagine being this food-disordered for so many years and creating a whole “wellness” company around it too. Gwyneth is in her 50s and she’s still got all of these hang-ups over food and it’s just, like… leave us out of your disorder, you know?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
-
- LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 4: Gwyneth Paltrow at the Netflix Premiere Of The Brothers Sun at the Netflix Tudum Theater in Los Angeles, California on January 4, 2024. Copyright: xFayexSadoux,Image: 834365496, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Faye Sadou/Avalon
-
- SANTA MONICA, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – APRIL 05: American actress and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow wearing a Donna Karan New York RE15 gown, Messika jewelry, and Santoni shoes arrives at the 11th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony 2025 held at the Barker Hangar on April 5, 2025 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 984384919, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Gwyneth Paltrow, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
-
- SANTA MONICA, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – APRIL 05: American actress and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow wearing a Donna Karan New York RE15 gown, Messika jewelry, and Santoni shoes arrives at the 11th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony 2025 held at the Barker Hangar on April 5, 2025 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 984385232, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Gwyneth Paltrow, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
-
- 11th Breakthrough Prize Awards at Barker Hanger on April 5, 2025 in Santa Monica, CA,Image: 984525086, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Gwyneth Paltrow, Credit line: Nicky Nelson/Wenn/Avalon
-
- SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 05: Gwyneth Paltrow attends the 11th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at Barker Hangar on April 05, 2025 in Santa Monica, California.,Image: 984705744, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Gwyneth Paltrow, Credit line: Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon
Here’s the thing: a lot of people just eat a well balanced diet. Not too much sugar or processed foods. Eat vegetables and meats and some carbs. Exercise as best they can and they are fine. That maybe to peasanty for her though.
There’s no way to monetize that, though. Eating a balanced diet is just too boring, too normal, for Gwinny and her ilk. Now, they’ve got osteoporosis to deal with, along with the effects of menopause. Hopefully, everyone who followed her ridiculous grifts/diets is wealthy enough to afford health care in the short and long term.
Yeeeahhh ive followed Gwyneth long enough to know that she also does this too. She describes her extremely restrictive diet, the world reacts to her eating disorder, then she backpeddles with something like “oh relax, I love French fries!!”
Gwyneth, I don’t believe you.
She actually looks better than ever in your pics. Perhaps stopping those crazy diets and putting on a couple of additional pounds is what she really needed…
I was going through some health stuff when the paleo diet first became a thing, so I really learned a lot about it. I never did it because it was always cuckoo- tomatoes, bell peppers and anything classified as “nightshade” was also on the forbidden foods list. I do feel better when I don’t eat bread, so I only freshly baked bread if I’m eating it.
Anyway, almost all of the women who made a name in the paleo space and had cookbooks and blogs quit it within a couple of years, a lot of them had health crashes where they felt terrible and gained weight. They pivoted to “hormone balance” or “whole food” diets if they stayed in the wellness space.
Anyway, I’m shocked she’s doing something that came out 15-20 years ago. She keeps claiming to have chronic inflammation issues that she’s “curing” with her perfect diets. Sounds more like her body is sounding the alarm that it’s unwell.
The thing is, there are actual anti-inflammation diets designed and researched by medical professionals and followed by people who have, say, inflammatory bowel disease ( Crohn’s, colitis). If you want to google, University of Massachusetts IBD AID. These plans are very restricted and it’s for life. If your body genuinely requires this kind of diet, it is not terribly difficult simply because you truly have no choice in the matter – follow the plan or get sick. Get sick can mean severe diarrhea, vomiting, internal scarring, hospitalization. It means you can hardly work, make plans, have a life. Ask me how I know.
Yes, I know there’s legitimate anti inflammatory diets. My point is, if all of these different food restrictions were as awesome as she says, she wouldn’t be talking about her inflammation every other interview. It would’ve resolved itself. She has the money, time and inclination to follow any diet perfectly, which means it’s the dieting that’s the problem.
I looked up the paleo diet: essentially it’s supposed to mimic hunter-gatherer foods from about 10,000 years ago? The issue is that you can’t find most of that stuff in a supermarket because the produce and meat has been genetically altered on the intervening thousands of years due to farming. If you go further (ie, hunting animals, wild-picking edible wild plants) you will definitely see some health effects, because you need to cover a lot of ground (literally) to find your food. I just cannot see Gwyneth doing that–she most likely relies on a store for her food.
The story behind the paleo diet is a modern myth. Early humans did not actually eat a lot of meat because hunting was difficult, dangerous, and required a lot of calorie expenditure. Most diets were wild harvesting and primitive cultivation where roaming bands would return to their same sites seasonally in a lot of human cultures. Plant knowledge was actually essential to survival for not just nutrients, but also for medicine, cloth, tools, etc. I don’t care if anyone eats paleo or not; I’m not here to bash it. I don’t care what people eat or don’t eat; but I have a problem, as an anthropologist, with this weird and completely false mythology being put forth about its origins. However, I understand that folks are forced to create stories because other people judge their diets.
I feel that it’s the old story where ancient men’s contribution to diet/survival is exaggerated where women’s roles are minimised
I think Gwen’s need to control everything has contributed to her eating issues — it’s like she’s trying to exert control over something & her body is what she CAN control. Now that she’s getting older and going through menopause, eating decently is super important. Relying on IVs, a smoothie here and there, and one meal a day isn’t gonna cut it if she wants to feel good. It’s just weird that she’s made it her entire personality.
People who have disordered eating, what they eat and don’t eat and why take up a huge portion of their brain space every day. She basically has no choice, this is all she thinks about so it’s her only topic of conversation.
At this point I’m just sad for her.
The perks about being in your 50’s is that you just tend to not give a fuck anymore. You do what’s right for you, and are less worried about social appearances and most importantly you reach a point where you are at peace with yourself .
All of this distorted eating is just really sad at this point.
I’m just wondering how practical it is for a “normal” person in America to eat like someone from the mountains of Japan.
Seeing pictures of Apple really showes what Gwyneth’s natural body type would actually look like. She looked painfully starved when she was the same age.
“Keep your disordered eating to yourself”
I feel this about Oprah too. So much damage she has done with her endless dieting & extreme eating, always promos the next big weight loss thing.
To be fair to her, and let me say that she drives me crazy, she came up in the early 90s when super thin was in and she naturally had that body type…rail thin and tall. She never had to worry about eating a specific way but when she was in her late 20s/early 30s I remember that she gained a little weight when she stopped smoking and started the macrobiotic diet. The tabloids definitely talked about it. That’s around the time her dad died from cancer. Pretty soon after that is when she got pregnant with Apple and so I think over the next two years it was a battle for her to lose the little bit of weight she gained and that really was hard for her psyche. When you are known for your style and wearing sample sizes and then all of a sudden those don’t fit you anymore and you don’t feel like yourself you can get very much in your head. I think she just took in all the negative things she may have felt about herself for that short period of time and refuses to go back to it so she tries everything possible to stay ultra-lean. Of course she is someone who wants to look like everything is easy for her so she just calls it “wellness” and eating to “feel good”.
ARFID — Avoidant, Restrictive Food Intake Disorder — she’s the poster girl for it. Nothing about this is “health” related, it’s fear of gaining an ounce of weight. Look how long she was involved with and promoting Tracy Anderson’s ridiculous workouts and 800 calorie per day eating plans. No small wonder she ended up with osteoporosis in her 30s.
Having bone broth for lunch is not the Paleo diet. She’s malnourished not because of that diet but because she didn’t eat enough. There is a reason her hair and skin look so terrible – you can’t get around feeding your body properly…or circumventing your GI tract with IVs