kimchi health claims

Gwyneth Paltrow’s kimchi COVID-19 advice is bad, warns NHS

Gwyneth Paltrow has caught heat from the Director of NHS England for suggesting kimchi and kombucha may help with long COVID-19.

Since the COVID-19 crisis shook the world, many people posing as “functional medical practitioners”, “herbal experts” and similar people selling snake oil have made it significantly harder to find the stuff that really helps in the fight against the virus, and its symptoms.

This of course led to many people seeking out their advice, who’d later share their newly found knowledge. Naturally, some of the people tricked into buying their stories also happen to be famous and that’s when these things tend to take a wrong turn.

We saw one such example is the recent warning from NHS England not to listen to Gwyneth Paltrow’s advice regarding her new “COVID recovery” diet. Paltrow allegedly caught COVID-19 some time ago, and has since been suffering from “long-tail fatigue and brain fog”.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s COVID diet

According to a blog post written by Paltrow, she’s been trying out a new diet in order to get rid of her “long COVID” symptoms.

This diet is a version of intermittent fasting, called intuitive fasting, in which a “keto and plant-based” diet is introduced, fasting until 11 am every day is recommended, as well as “lots of coconut aminos” and sugar-free kombucha and kimchi.

She also suggests that long COVID can be treated with this diet, of course supplemented with herbal cocktails and regularly spending time an “infrared sauna”.

“I’m doing an infrared sauna as often as I can, all in service of healing. I’ve been doing major research and finding some great stuff to support what I’m doing,”

Gwyneth Paltrow, for Goop.com

National Health Service disagrees

Prof Stephen Powis, who is the national medical director for NHS England, pointed out the dangers of listening to such unproven claims, especially from people with no real education on the topic, such as social media influencers.

“In the last few days, I see Gwyneth Paltrow is, unfortunately, suffering from the effects of Covid. We wish her well, but some of the solutions she’s recommending are really not the solutions we’d recommend in the NHS.”

Prof Stephen Powis, National medical director – NHS England

Turns out that the article Paltrow wrote for Goop.com seems to be nothing more than a promo piece pushing the products she promotes onto her readers.

Sure, certain foods, herbs and spices have medical potential. However, as prof Powis put it, we all have a duty towards not spreading misinformation, and currently there’s no scientific evidence to support ms. Paltrow’s health claims.

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