Gwyneth Paltrow Responds to Backlash Over Wellness Routine

The actress and Goop mogul stirred controversy following an appearance on The Art of Being Well podcast during which she told host Dr. Will Cole that, among other things, she follows a restrictive, largely liquid diet during the day before opting for paleo at dinnertime.

Related | Hey Gwyneth, What's Rectal Ozone Therapy?

"I usually eat something, about 12, and in the morning I'll have some things that won't spike my blood sugar. So I have coffee, but I really like soup for lunch — I have bone broth for lunch a lot of the days," Paltrow said on March 13, adding that she does one hour of movement a day before hitting the infrared sauna. "And then for dinner I try to eat, you know, according to paleo, so lots of vegetables. It's really important for me to support my detox."

Following that initial appearance, a clip of Paltrow discussing the diet circulated on social media, and she was widely called out for sharing a "starvation diet" that might negatively influence viewers. According to Page Six, Meghan McCain blasted Paltrow, calling her "haggard;" meanwhile, Buzzfeedcited a dietician who labeled her eating habits "disordered."

On Friday, Paltrow took to social media to explain the full context behind the video, noting via a series of Instagram Stories videos that Cole is actually her long-time doctor who has worked with her to craft a diet that met her needs. "I think it's important for everybody to know that I was doing a podcast with my doctor," the 50-year-old. "This is a person that I've been working with for over two years now to deal with some chronic stuff."

Paltrow reveals her diet was created specifically to help address the effects of long COVID. "I have long COVID, and the way it manifests for me is very high levels of inflammation over time," she said. "This was a transparent look at a conversation between me and my doctors, not meant to be advice for anybody else. It's really just what has worked for me."

The wellness guru closed out the conversation by noting that there's more to her diet than what she described in the clip. "By the way, I eat far more than bone broth and vegetables," Paltrow said. "I eat full meals, and I also have a lot of days of eating whatever I want and eating French fries and whatever. But my baseline really has been to try to be healthy and eat foods that will really calm the system down."

Photo by Mark Mainz / Getty Images