Goop published an interview about “protecting yourself from wifi & cellphone toxicity” today with a nutritionist whose genre of “detoxification” diet advice has been called “tantamount to fraud” by an actual doctor.
Nutritionist Ann Louise Gittlemen is basically your mom’s version of Food Babe—a fearmongering opportunist who uses buzzwords like “organic” to freak people out about modernity. She’s most famous for her utterly unhealthy detox plan, the Fat Flush Cleanse. But she has expanded into a new genre of terrible advice.
Here is a sampling of some of the very wrong things Gittlemen says, published by Goop:
The bad news, unfortunately, is that cell phone radiation has been associated with many types of cancer, the best known being brain tumors. The longer the hours of use, and years of use, the greater the risk.
This is not true. Linking cell phone radiation with cancer is a great way to scare the shit out of people—but organizations like the American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission all disagree that there is substantive evidence.
The longer the hours of use, and years of use, the greater the risk. In addition, certain effects, like neuron death in the brain, and blood brain barrier permeability, from radiofrequency radiation, have been shown to be even greater, the lower the power. Such risk is increased for those who began cell phone use as a teenager or younger, as children have been shown to be at almost 4x the risk for brain tumors compared to adults.
Again, there is no substantive evidence that cell phone radiation causes cancer, period.
Our smartphones, tablets, cordless phones, routers, smart meters, and even baby monitors can all emit electropollution. This biologically active, disruptive manmade radiation that surrounds us 24/7 in a sea of invisible energy is a major stressor to the autonomic nervous system—and more. You can’t touch it or see it, but it’s there, and our bodies are responding to it.
“Electropollution” is not a real term.
And a new condition is emerging in children called “digital dementia” from overuse of RF-emitting technologies.
“Digital dementia” is not a real thing.
I don’t read Goop for the science (I read it because I’m a bougie white lady who wants to daydream about obscenely expensive beige clothes). I’m not going to say this damages Goop’s tech advice credibility because that assumes it existed to begin with, but credulously treating gadgets like they’re literally toxic is bogus scaremongering at its finest.
Come on, Gwyneth. I freaking loved you in Duets girl. Get it together.
Image: Getty