Actor, entrepreneur and model Gwyneth Paltrow has garnered many headlines over the last few days. And sadly, they were not centred around her many accolades, achievements or Hollywood acting roles. These headlines, instead, zoned in on her decision – declared publicly, mind you – to start eating carbohydrates again.
She broke the 'news' on a recent episode of her Goop podcast. 'I’m getting back into eating sourdough bread, and some cheese – there, I said it,' she said. 'A little pasta after being strict with it for so long.'
My first reaction? Discomfort. That any woman sees fit to announce this feels strangely insidious. Media outlets, from tabloids to serious news organisations, have all reported on it. In a world of war, famine and international financial crisis, are a woman’s dietary choices really headline worthy? Social media is also awash with commentary, shock and awe being the most common response.
It’s not the first time Gwyneth has divulged a dalliance into eating carbs, and she’s by no means the only Hollywood woman whose diet is the Internet obsession of many. Previously, she referred to making pasta and eating bread during Covid-19 quarantine as being 'totally off the rails'.
Gwyneth called a previous hardcore diet that she and her husband writer, director and producer Brad Falchuk went on – also known as the 'caveman diet' focusing on vegetables, nuts, seeds and meat, not carbs – an 'interesting chapter'. 'I got kind of obsessed with eating very, very healthy,' she said. 'I went into hardcore macrobiotics for a certain time.'
In turn, that’s what the news and social media reaction around a Hollywood celebrity's dietary choices creates – obsession. Obsession over dieting, obsession over body image, obsession over what famous women are eating or not eating, obsession over how we are perceived and how our food and lifestyle makes us feel.
Countless people in the public eye gloat over obscene dieting habits, many citing intermittent fasting or juice cleanses as their 'life hack' when it comes to weight loss - these acts, our obsession with them and what they mean to us and how they influence our take on healthy eating is undeniable. Beyond that, the fact that women that we admire have private chefs and personal trainers that most of us cannot hope to afford laces the entire issue with the complications that come with such high-level privilege.
To set the record straight, eating carbohydrates is not a sin, nor is it newsworthy. The suggestion that it is either of these things stinks of diet culture rhetoric that we hoped we’d seen the last of. In the age of Ozempic – and a fixation with who is and isn’t taking it, as well as a frightening UK market supplying it without appropriate screening or consultation – and a technological world where an AI 'chubby filter' exists, it’s time to admit that the direction our diet culture and body image conversations are going in is not the right one.
The body positivity movement exists, sure, and has helped so many. The 2010s saw plus size models hit the runway and a curvier body became in vogue, with the Kardashians’ hourglass figures causing an uptick in Brazilian butt lifts. But the pervasiveness of diet culture is still prevailing. This year’s Paris Fashion Week saw designers criticised for prioritising 'skinny' models due to this look’s apparent alignment with 'elitism', while a model wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the statement 'I [heart] Ozempic' at 2024’s Berlin Fashion Week. Fat shaming is increasingly prevalent once again in both the fashion world and our everyday Internet consumption. Within this context, the fact that the story of a privileged, white woman eating carbs again is ranking this highly in the news cycle is barely surprising. It’s a reflection of a regression when it comes to our attitudes around body positivity.
To be clear, Gwyneth and the rest of the Hollywood ladies who go to extreme lengths to stay thin – whether that’s through Ozempic or crash dieting – are not the problem. The problem is, in fact, the societal expectation that underpins and encourages their actions. That a woman’s worth is so intrinsically attached to her weight, body image and dietary choices.
Sure, the influence that Goop has – as well as the clout that comes with the social media following of any famous woman – should be used responsibly to not exacerbate diet culture. But the pervasive obsession with diet culture that caused Gwyneth to feel the need to discuss it, and led media outlets to seize on it and prioritise these choices as a news story during a time of such global instability and fear, is the deeper issue at play here.