THE bad ...
INTIMATE STEAMING WITH MUGWORT
Goop swears by the so-called ‘V Steam’, which it says involves sitting on a ‘minithrone’ as a ‘combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus’. It’s an ‘energetic release . . . that balances female hormone levels’. Alarming nonsense, say experts who say it could cause painful burns (from the steam) and even bacterial infections. Dr Gunter points out that ‘balancing hormones’ is medically meaningless and that, anyway, the mugwort plant isn’t a hormone. ‘The people who push V-steams also need a little anatomy lesson,’ she adds. ‘Steam isn’t going to get into your vagina unless you are using an attachment with some kind of pressure — and most definitely never, ever do that!’
RAW GOAT’S MILK TO ERADICATE PARASITES
pAlTrow recently suggested a ‘cleansing’ eight-day diet of nothing but raw goat’s milk to drain the gut of parasites and ‘heavy metals’. Her advice came from Goop’s resident ‘naturopathic physician’, linda lancaster, who insists we all probably have a parasite inside us. lancaster relates how a Biblical era community, known as the Essenes, would deal with worm infestation by sticking the sufferer in a tub of milk until the worms came out of the body to drink it. parasites love milk, she claims, so the goat’s milk draws them out of the body. Scientists say it’s yet more drivel. If anything is likely to give someone a microbial infection it’s half a gallon of goat’s milk, as unpasteurised dairy products can contain parasites, causing infections such as toxoplasmosis (fever, headache, and a range of other problems), and brucellosis (joint and muscle pain). At best, a goat’s milk diet will make you embarrassingly flatulent.
DRINK-ACTIVATED CHARCOAL CHAI
Yum Yum, says Goop of this somewhat unappetising-sounding hot drink (made with plant-based ‘milk’ and flavoured with cardamon and cinnamon), one of the top ‘wellness’ trends. Activated charcoal is made by chemically converting carboncontaining materials such as coal into pure carbon (charcoal). This is then ground into a powder and treated with chemicals. Goop claims this tipple detoxifies as the charcoal chemically ‘bonds’ to toxins. But while it’s true that charcoal is used as a treatment for acute poisoning, it can cause harm and pain in large, repeated doses, forming ‘bezoars’, or small indigestible obstructions that build up in your digestive tract. Better stick to that morning hazelnut latte instead.