Celebrity Health & Beauty Tips Could be Wrong, Says 'Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?' Book Author

Author of the book "Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?" targets celebrity health and beauty tips. According to Daily Beast, Caulfield tries out a lot of celebrity- endorsed diets for his book, showing that "celebrity culture, at best, is selling us a tiny, broken umbrella."  

The professor from the University of Alberta sheds light on the influence of celebrity health and fitness advice versus the influence of actual scientifically supported health advice.  

"There seems to be this erosion of trust in traditional sources of scientific information...Social media play a big role in that [celebrity] voices are louder and seem more credible. And other counterweights in society, for whatever reason seem to have less credibility," the professor states in an interview with Vox.

Caulfield believes that even when celebrity health advice is valid, there is still a "tinge of wrongness," reports Raw Story. 

He tells Vox, "It's incredible how much [Paltrow] is wrong about. Even when she is right about stuff - like telling people to eat more fruits and vegetables - there is always a bit of a tinge of wrongness. She'll say, 'It has to be organic,' for example. She is still distracting us with these untrue details as opposed to just pushing the honest truth." 

The professor believes that celebrity health tips often lead people to focus on the wrong things. He says, "We have a few simple things we can do for health. One of the more harmful things celebrity culture does is that it distracts us from those points. [Celebrity culture] emphasizes the wrong things, like extrinsic, short-term goals: look good in a bikini, exercise to make your arms look like Jennifer Aniston." 

He goes on to say, "Research tell you over and over again those [short-term goals] aren't going to work long term. You're less likely to succeed and more likely to be unsatisfied with the results as compared to when you concentrate on intrinsic goals, such as improving your long-term health or focusing on how positive lifestyle changes are making you feel. You'll also be happy with the results." 

The professor believes that people should educate themselves on health topics and to not always fully trust celebrity health advice. According to Daily Beast Caulfield wrote in his book that "we need to strive collectively to put celebrity culture in its proper and entirely worthy place: as a fun and entertaining diversion."