The In goop Health New York summit happened last weekend. Did you hear about Dr Jennifer Gunter MD, FRCS(C), FACOG, DABPM infiltrating the summit? You can read her post here. Sounds like her experience was similar to Sarah’s when Sarah went to the LA summit, only with more official expert medical knowledge to interrogate some of the bullsh-t that gets shared at these goop events. Dr Jennifer Gunter MD, FRCS(C), FACOG, DABPM is funny, spirited writer. But she also knows her sh-t. And she’s been calling out goop’s bullsh-t for a while now. And that’s not funny at all. Because there are people in pain and there are people who are struggling. And what Dr Jennifer Gunter MD, FRCS(C), FACOG, DABPM is warning against is that some of these goop experts could be capitalising on this pain and struggle by promising solutions that are potentially very, very dangerous.
Wednesday, as I mentioned, was Bell Let’s Talk Day in Canada, raising awareness about mental health and helping to eliminate the stigma around mental illness. We had the privilege of meeting a young man called Noah Irvine on The Social. Please, if you can, watch the interview and hear his story. He’s unforgettable. Noah is 17. When he was 5 years old, his mother died by suicide. When he was 15 years old, his father died. He lost both his parents to mental illness. And he’s become an advocate for prioritising mental health initiatives across Canada, lobbying politicians for more access to programs and services so that no other child has to experience what he has experienced. Imagine someone like Noah being at the goop summit, hearing from an “expert” that it’s “lifestyle imbalances and inflammation” that “are actually at the root of depression and anxiety”. Should someone who is considering suicide be thinking about their gut health!?! Eating well is important, FOR EVERYONE. No one is disputing that. But for too long, people with mental illness have been dismissed, their suffering minimised and discounted, because society has not recognised that mental illness is a medical condition that deserves the attention and support of other medical conditions.
According to Kelly Brogan, one of the goop experts, this is what depression is:
“But it’s my passionate belief that depression is in fact a message. It’s a message and an opportunity to change. And the primary pillar of this change is nutrition.”
Think of someone who’s been sexually assaulted and has to live with anxiety and depression afterwards. Are you going to tell them that this is a message? And that what happened is a message? And that the “primary pillar” to wellness is nutrition? Nutrition as an added pillar to a fully researched treatment plan I can understand. But primary pillar? Telling people in crisis that their crisis is a message to change their diet is beyond disrespectful. And the first step in trying to help people get better is to respect what they are going through. I can’t see how that’s happening here.
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Here’s Gwyneth Paltrow at the Bumble event in LA earlier this week and at the In goop Health Summit on the weekend.
