[imagesource: Getty Images]

Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness empire, Goop, has not been able to maintain a squeaky clean image over the years.

Critics have questioned the legitimacy of the company’s health guidance, with people from the inside and outside dishing the dirt on the clean lifestyle it promotes.

What began as a newsletter in 2008 soon became a celebrity wellness empire, and now it seems to just be struggling under the weight of well, losing weight.

As far back as September 2019, the media was reporting on the “mass exodus of employees” with many leaving unfavourable reviews online, and digging into how “toxic” the workplace is.

Low wages and “fear-based management” were included on top of a “‘mean girl’ vibe,” reported The New York Post.

Speaking of which, Paltrow’s former right-hand woman, Elise Loehnen, has now spoken out about the toxicity of Goop’s diet culture, which forced her to punish and chastise her body, per BuzzFeed News.

Goop has made claims that to “get off gluten and go very low carb” is best for weight loss, encouraging fans to “aim for their leanest livable weight,” among other more damaging guidances.

Elise, Goop’s former chief content officer (CCO), was also the co-host for The Goop Podcast and also made regular appearances on the Netflix show, The Goop Lab:

She worked alongside the clean queen for seven years, until finally walking away from Goop in October 2020. She then “vowed to never do another cleanse again and went into full rebellion,” according to a confessional Instagram post:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Elise Loehnen (Fissmer) (@eliseloehnen)

It looks like Elise had to step away to find a new perspective on the company’s “toxic” practices, realising too that she had developed an unhealthy and “distorted” relationship with her body.

Gwyneth had the impression that the parting was on good terms:

In a statement after the news of her departure, Gwyneth said that Elise was “like a sister” to her and said that she looked forward to “proudly” watching as she entered the next “monumental stage in her professional life.”

I guess that stage is to “forswear any cleansing,” according to Elise’s Instagram post, despite confusingly plugging Kroma Wellness and their liquid “five-day cleanse” of broths, smoothies, and lattes.

She insists that this time it will be different (not weighing herself and allowing herself to play around more with the parameters of her diet), but when you’re still obsessing over food, how different can it really be?

Anyway, she said that her renewed approach to health has allowed her to discover a new kind of love and appreciation for her body:

“I refuse to punish myself with food, or hold myself under the weight my body seems to want to be anymore,” she said. “I don’t have the energy or the interest, thankfully.

(And more importantly, I’ve come to realize that I really like my body and am grateful it is mine.) Hopefully I’ve broken that cycle for good.”

Good for her.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Elise Loehnen (Fissmer) (@eliseloehnen)

To clear one thing up, though, a source who knows the situation well mentioned that Elise didn’t actually resign:

The source went on to claim that shortly before Elise’s departure from Goop was announced in October 2020, executives at the company had been made aware of internal complaints alleging that Elise was a “toxic manager.”

They added that Goop staff are “surprised” by Elise’s recent comments on wellness culture, saying that she was a “proponent” for cleanses and “pushed forward” on the same kind of practices she condemned in her recent statement.

Perhaps people change, though.

Or perhaps, as has been mentioned, Elise needed to step away from Goop to fully see the toxic cycle she had gotten herself, and those who followed, involved in.

[sources:buzzfeednews&nypost]