Why, Gwyneth, Why?

What the hell is thin, beautiful, talented Gwyneth Paltrow doing fasting on live foods? If you don't know what a live food fast is, it just means that you drink (and sometimes eat) things that are totally raw. You can eat raw nuts and seeds, drink juiced kale, parsley and green chard or drink flax or olive oil. That's right, oil. Some people go even further. We know someone who did a live food fast and ate raw steak and raw fish for breakfast - bloody, fresh, raw meat. If she was in a rush, she would just blend the meat up with her green liquid and drink it like a milkshake. Yuck.

We don't care what kind of fast Gwyneth was doing, because we know that countless girls will hear this and think, "If skinny, gorgeous Gwyneth has to go on a fast in order to lose weight, then I need to go on a severe diet if I want to dream of ever looking anything like her." The idea of Gwyneth fasting will make other women think about their own "imperfections" and obsess about food and diets even more. It fuels these issues just like the crappy celebrity tabloids, and this nonsense has to STOP.

This is why we wrote HOW TO EAT LIKE A HOT CHICK - we want women to enjoy food again, celebrate it, and have all of the information they need to indulge in the foods they love and balance it out so that they start feeling hot. If you eat like a Hot Chick there is no need to go on a fast. We have actually been shocked to see that some diet books recommend fasts. Our book has inexplicably been compared to SKINNY BITCH, which suggests the very same "live food" fast that Gwyneth was allegedly doing. Talk about perpetuating a "quick fix" mentality instead of teaching women how to treat and feed themselves well throughout their lives.

Of course, nobody knows for sure if Gwyneth was hospitalized for fasting. That's just what the media told us. She could have been hospitalized for an ingrown toenail or a bladder infection, but the tabloids want us to think it was all for a diet because they seem to want women's lives to revolve completely around diets. But maybe it wasn't fasting itself that made Gwynny sick. Many live foods actually contain parasites, so maybe what little she was eating caused the hospitalization. But the sad part is that it doesn't matter. By simply telling women that Gwyneth was hospitalized for fasting, the tabloids have turned poor Gwyneth in to a bad role model who will end up making women feel worse about themselves. We're sure this was not Gwyneth's intention when she decided to try live foods.

This is the same thing that happened to Jennifer Love Hewitt and Tyra Banks. J-Love and Tyra are both gorgeous and perfect and make great role models for our young women, but when the tabloids ran photos of them in bikinis with nasty captions, it instantly turned them into negative icons. And it's not their fault. In a world where Hewitt is accused of being too fat at a size 2 and Tara Reid is attacked for being too skinny at a size 0, it's no wonder that women (Gwyneth included) are confused about what to eat. Again, this is why we wrote HOW TO EAT LIKE A HOT CHICK - to help end the vicious dieting cycle caused by these tabloids and fad diets (fasts included) and teach women how to make choices about food from a place of confidence rather than guilt or insecurity.

We, too, have been in the spotlight (though of course not at Gwyneth's level) and have experienced people judging us and saying mean things about our bodies and what we look like, and it HURTS. So even though we're mad at Gwyneth for thinking that she needs to fast in order to be healthy or skinny or whatever, we really just hope that she gets better and starts feeling like the total Hot Chick that she is--even if she did name her kid Apple.

 

Follow Jodi Lipper and Cerina Vincent on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HotChickBooks

Comments

[smugglerdurant]

12:26 AM on 01/24/2008

I love how people react to some BS story they heard on the wire and clearly make up what they think happened and then comment on it.

Whatever Gwyneth Paltrow was hospitalized for its (1) none of your business (2) if she was on a 'live fast', you should actually know a thing or two about raw food before you blather on. I'm a vegan and know many raw food folks NONE of whom eat raw meat. Get real.

You both are just added to the sh$tstorm of crap out there by subtracting from the discourse. congratulations.

[A3U]

02:46 PM on 01/22/2008

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Jodi and Cerina on their above mentioned book for my podcast site. The interview went really well and we couldn't be more pleased. Our site is geared toward movies and comic books and this was something special and out of our usual fair. Because of this, I thought I'd include a link on Huffington where regular readers of their column could get a little something extra with no calories!

http://www.a3upodcast.com/node/142

Both ladies were super nice, and I think the interview reflects that. If anyone was interested in hearing more about their book, they should take a listen.

Thanks girls!

[wildflowermaven]

12:18 AM on 01/21/2008

For most of human history, it was fashionable to be a bit plump, if not a lot. It meant that you had money and were healthy. Poor people didn't have the money to eat enough. Look at paintings by artists like Gaugain and Rubens or Cassatt and Renoir. We can turn this around, and we must for the sake of our health and happiness. Being sexy doesn't equate with being skinny.

[Rockyman]

02:05 PM on 01/20/2008

Seems to me eating raw foods isn't "fasting" but is a choice on preparation......to cook or not to cook!

[wanked]

07:26 AM on 01/20/2008

I always resort to lots and lots of salads when I diet...what is news here?

[Beve83]

12:53 AM on 01/20/2008

Well Gwenyth is also an African:

http://afropolitans.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/12/what-is-an-afri.html

[boycottrightwingthings]

11:31 PM on 01/19/2008

Gywneth has that gray, unhealty pallor of most vegans I have seen. If you want to people watch to see what I mean, go to the Village in NYC and watch the vegans- they are too skinny, have a gray pallor, and look like the walking dead. A balanced diet is what is healthy, with a few ounces of lean protien at each meal, one salad during the day, a little bread, lots of vegetables and some fruits, a couple of eggs a week. Gwyneth looks anorexic and I don't think that she is setting a good example for Apple, she probably named the kid the only thing that she lets her eat. Poor kid. I am not a fan of Gwyneth and think that she sucks as an actress too. Her mom was prettier and a better actress, (and wasn't anorexic) if it wasn't for her mom, she would never have been able to get in pictures at all.

[cheaplazymom]

11:05 PM on 01/19/2008

This post might have been more interesting if it wasn't such a thinly veiled promotion for your book. And the catchy title is just playing on women's insecurities and their desire to look like "hot chicks". I can only assume that you're advise will help them lose weight, not accept the bodies that they have. So, how, pray tell, are you any different than anybody else trying to make a buck on the fact that most women hate their bodies?

[realnoia]

10:55 PM on 01/19/2008

You can't argue with reality. This is what
women think about, read about, talk about,
shout about, and go crazy about. Something
else to feed into that multitasking computer.
We're talking hormones and you can't go/leave
home without them. (wha wha)

[NoPCZone]

09:52 PM on 01/19/2008

We as a nation are almost $10 Trillion in debt, are in a recession, the Constitution is under attack, are actively involved in 2 wars and this is news?

Ms Paltrow is hot and I volunteer to show her the error of her ways. Send her on over...

[meeneecat]

08:54 PM on 01/19/2008

Reading this article was painful. The authors obviously know little about facts as their first paragraph is filled with judgmental statement after judgmental statement and the rest of the article fixates on a rumor. They take this idea that Ms Paltrow was fasting and run with it, even though they admit this was probably created by the media. I know people on raw diets who are incredibly healthy. I know people who fast for reasons other than weight. Yes, many people do eat like this. But how the authors got from putting down raw diets and then to exclaiming that Paltrow was hospitalized due to fasting is beyond me. Where do they get their facts? Just because a person doesn't eat like these authors apparently gives them permit to judge, condemn and make insane assumptions. I would take what these two say with a grain of salt. Maybe they are the people of 10 years ago who would go around saying all vegetarians are crazy mental defects. They may call them selves HOT CHICKS, but to me they seem to be nothing but the dumb airhead "chick" variety, but that's okay as long as you're HOT. I don't know any feminists who proudly refer to other women as "hot chicks". Maybe there's other women who will disagree with me, but every time I read an article from these two it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I find them a bit insulting and condescending.

[Pdubya]

06:39 PM on 01/19/2008

I'm picturing Gweneth with raw carrots, cucumbers and squash.

[LaloCeli]

06:03 PM on 01/19/2008

Fasting is about "cleansing" not "thinning". The idea is to clean your system by only eating, or drinking fresh stuff.

You are actually supposed to not eat anything but to drink light juices that will provide you with the vitamines and mineral to survive the week of cleansing.

[hope4theflowers]

05:57 PM on 01/19/2008

men,media and money.
Girls dont stand a chance at happiness and true self confidence as long as these 3 things are more important in our society than female well being.
To grown women:
You cannot give any of these 3 things the choice to use you for a door mat.You WILL be abused if you let anyone or anything control you.And when you are a public figure who kids look up to,knowing what you do will in a small way,effect their perceptions..could you please get your heads out of you asses and stop being so shallow and sold out to the big 3?????

[GrauWulf]

02:47 PM on 01/19/2008

Why do you assume 'diet' always means wanting 'uber-thin'? Diet simply means what you eat. Eating donuts and coffee is a diet. The raw diet described is merely a very healthful diet, if you can stand it. Too much of anything is too much. But in this diet you can eat lots of olive oil, raw (unpasteurized) butter, nuts, avocados, meat, fish, raw honey, etc. So one can certainly maintain muscle, weight, and health. It is also, when eaten in good order and amounts, better and easier to digest and utilize.
The diet is meant to get and keep your system both clean and energized, free from clogging, system burning, over-processed stuff and bad fats, the dangerous cancer and other illness causing free-radical chemicals produced by high heated foods, etc. People in general have become accustomed and addicted to chemicals that are not really good food, but fool our brains about feeling full, being comforted, being de-sensitized.
It is as though we have a world of heroin addicts who think persons who want to clean their system of heroin are abnormal nuts.
BTW, i find Ms.Paltrow to be a lovely, if not magazine cover gorgeous, natural woman, of high intelligence and education, and, though no Meryl Streep, is a talented artist. (I'm in the biz and know very well what real talent and ability are.) That others make her an object of derision, or an icon, is their psychological problem, not hers.