The 2021 Grifties

Weirdest had to be Valerie Bertinelli’s self-loathing or self-love (not sure which) video.

Coffee enemas.... Goop approved! https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2018/01/06/gwyneth-paltrows-goop-promotes-a-135-coffee-enema-kit/?sh=76b1622f3229

Noom as griftiest, most toxic wellness trend of 2021: “natural immunity” 🤡

"Yoni steaming" has to be the creepiest 2021 new wellness fad for me. So wrong on so many levels.

Ok. This isn’t exactly a wellness fad or a diet, but I would LOVE for Aubrey and Mike to do a deep dive into Katrina Markoff of Vosges chocolates. https://www.vosgeschocolate.com/pages/our-story There is nothing inherently harmful and their truffles are delicious. But the BS is soooooo deep!!

Thank you, Aubrey and Mike! It’s so refreshing to listen to you two trash all the things that make me ‘irrationally angry’ too! Thank you for doing what you do!

OMG NOOM. I also look at lots of plus size clothing online. Hence, Im drenched in NOOM advertisements.

M not knowing who Aaron Rodgers is made me laugh so hard.

Is it too late to nominate? Hilaria Baldwin, "wellness"/postpartum bounce-back grift. Nominate for WORST or GRIFTIEST

Griftiest grifter - Noom. It's a VLCD posing as tailored psychology.

Ok I found it!! Worst fad diet - breatharian. (claimed ability for a person to live without consuming food)

Best Influencer: Saucye West (https://www.instagram.com/saucyewest/) for her fight for full inclusion of all sizes in fashion

Unique Hammond and “the bean protocol” - so much non science in those scientific claims

Best health take for me this year was from Abby Sharp commentary on the Jaclyn Hill diet (60 day challenge) videos. Jaclyn diet is like a combo of every never eat X again and you will lose 10lbs in a week and Abby is so funny

I'm not sure what category to put this in but the whole excessive water drinking has been a think for a couple years. My co worker drinks 3 FULL GALLON JUGS OF WATER EVERY SINGLE DAY. and insists everyone else should do the same

Griftiest town: Brentwood, Tennessee. Home of both Gwen Shamblyn of “way Down” fame AND the ministry of Lou Taylor, Britney Spears’ former business manager and mastermind behind conservatorship that allowed her to bilk millions off Britney’s back. Something in the water?

Griftiest is Gwen Shamblin

Huberman Lab podcast is giving me some huge red flags 🚩. He starts off telling you he’s not going to talk about mouse studies and extrapolate to people and then BOOM mouse studies galore. All with the sheen of Stanford. Also sells so many supplements on his show. Yikes!

Celery Juice to cure OCD. Garbage!

I recently came across the instagram account of Kayla Barnes (@Kaylabarnes) who's a, and I quote "certified brain health coach". Her page is filled with basically every trash "health" trend imaginable, including "beauty biohacking", "normal vs overweight vs obese brains", "brain anti-aging". She only has like 70k followers but MAN this stuff is toxic af.

Noom is evil and is grifty AF for pretending not to be a diet and instead to help address food issues, preying upon people with histories of disordered eating by offering them more restrictive eating guidelines. Also, this trend where everyone one and their middle aged dad is insisting on plant protein only but they can’t articulate why.

Late but honorable mention to "The 5% Way" podcast which shows up when I search for y'all on Apple's Podcast App: "Join Sustainable Weight-Loss Specialists Paul Salter and Micheala Barsotti to learn what it takes to become a fiver-percenter - a member of the exclusive community of women who’ve successfully achieved sustainable weight loss and exude feelings of confidence, control, and inner calm." Way to take the reality about how ineffectual diets are and run with it to suggest... more diets...for just women though! Kudos to you! 🥂

weirdest wellness trend: foam rollers wellness trend that fell of the radar: kale and green smoothies in general

Wait was this the year that a bunch of girls on TikTok thought they had worms in their poop so they took dewormers which makes you shit the lining of your intestines (which looks like more worms!!!)

i'm probably a touch too late...but i've discovered vpbodycarespa in which they basically physically hurt clients to help get rid of belly fat aka 'tightening' why anyone would do that i do not know!

Also, Dr Paul Marik is rising on my list of untrustworthy physicians.

Elizabeth Holmes and Sunni Balwani, without hesitation. I don’t know why it took me so long to think of that and comment here.

Griftiest grifter: Michael Wendler, a middle-aged German entertainment singer who lives in Florida with his just about "legal" wife Laura. They have an OnlyFans but he also is active against vaccinations and makes money promoting prepper stuff and recommends stuff big pharma doesn't want you to know, e.g. vitamin D

Worst take: can we talk about any of the comments on any NYT article around weight? The fat shaming is unbelievable. And the proselytizing about whatever diet or exercise regimen works for them 🤮

there was the time trump told everyone to inject disinfect to kill Covid

ARMRA. I mean, colostrum? Totally weird. It's "grass-fed!"

Modere Trim "Just a Tablespoon a day and you'll have a flat tummy!" https://www.modere.com/productdetail/lean-collection-vanilla I had a bunch of friends selling this shit this year

“SBBS” - SuperBeets BullShit

There was some very short-lived bbc-induced (or possibly channel 4) panic in the UK about super-processed foods that seemed to put oat milk and salami on the same 'this-will-poison-your-children' scale. It disappeared after about a day.

I’m really turned off by the frankenfoods coming out in the “plant-based” category. Genetically engineered hemoglobin to make tofu taste like meat? No thanks.

GRIFTIEST GRIFTER goes to chiropractors working outside their scope of practice

Also, I’m sure you saw this, can there be a category for trash journalism?! And most ridiculous misleading trash headline ?! hhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/15/well/move/exercise-weight-loss-metabolism.html

this is off-topic, but I would love to know your top book recommendations (aside from Aubrey’s outstanding book which I read and loved).

If one more person explains intermittent fasting to me, I will scream. Also, superfood of the year absolutely goes to aloe vera juice

As for bad fitness takes, she has actually IMPROVED, but any given quote in here probably still counts: https://www.today.com/health/diet-fitness/jillian-michaels-regrets-time-biggest-loser-rcna8772?fbclid=IwAR04T8g3qAR055r02obV73MUJDqDcfq8tY2c6L652p737nuaVXmBzXQybHA

It's weird because I want to give the Lularoe lady a grifting prize but wellness wasn't really her thing, just leggings. I heard bad things about Goop's new season about sex. I think a prize needs to go to fake Covid treatments. Black Oxygen Organics (the dirt people) just went bankrupt, so they may be a good one for "In Memoriam"

Food allergy tests for IGG antibodies - spend $200 so the test can tell you what you ate the most of in the past two weeks! (Spoiler: they don’t tell you what you’re allergic to.)

Mudwater/Mushroom everything deserves a spot on the list! This is definitely a double edged sword. Is it probably fine for you, yes! Do mushrooms cure cancer? Maybe we should look into it more before we tell everyone they do! Key companies: Host Defense, MudWater, Four Sigmatic.

Does eating horse dewormer count as a weird health trend, lol. At least a dishonorable mention.

BOO - Black Oxygen Organics, this is W I L D https://www.vice.com/en/article/epxz4z/how-wellness-mlm-brand-black-oxygen-organics-spawned-a-parasite-detox-trend?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-vice&utm_content=later-23065024&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio

I just learned about a thing called “water imprinting” that sounds like some grade A baloney… Also I very much hope the hype around charcoal dies.

Does this apply to any of the award catergories? Im over Hyaluronic Acid being advertised as something new and novel in EVERYTHING skincare and how it apparently solves all skin problems.

I love you folks a lot and I did try and say this on twitter but I haven't seen you address this at all, but I'd really like to see some sort of acknowledgement about your weird gendered language in your Vibrators episode. I'm sure a lot of other trans people were probably also a bit uncomfortable listening to it :( Sorry, not relevant to the post at all I guess, but I found it disappointing, and even more so that you haven't seemed to have answered any of the criticism about it.

Fad diet- intermittent fasting Grittiest grifter- LuLaRoe In Memorandum- Goat Yoga

For best influencer I would recommend Jessamyn Stanley, a plus size queer woman of color shaking up the western white yoga complex. She’s amazing!

Weirdest Trend: The Mighty Patch videos that folks post on TikTok. I always think that when people take the little acne patch off it looks the exact same as before they put it on. “Hydrocolloid” is the only ingredient on the box and all I can find about it that’s not from The Mighty Patch itself is that it’s a food additive/thickener. If they managed to slap some Vaseline on a bandaid, mark it up, and sell it as a pimple popping product I will be S H O O K.

Aloe vera juice. How anybody can pallet it in any capacity is beyond me.

The biggest FAD and I unfortunately think this will go into 2022 is Intuitive Eating (ugh)

Has anyone mentioned the microbiome-weight loss thing? I've seen at least two different companies offering analysis (and $$$ supplements, of course!) as well as articles about the research around poop pills and the idea of prescribing them to fat people (including here, with a truly obnoxious graphic: https://www.google.com/amp/s/atlasbiomed.com/blog/link-between-gut-bacteria-and-weight-loss/amp/ )

Noom is the griftiest grifter bc of how far it has spread and how many people are convinced by the crap. I'm in my lounge in Australia just trying to watch 90s episodes of midsomer murders (yes I am actually 80, what of it) and I will get 2 noom ads in the same break. I see doctors on twitter, not sponsored, who say noom works.

In memorium goes to Paleo. Nobody talks about that anymore, thank God

First of all- I love your podcast! It has really helped me and I find the research so fascinating. Prior to being a maintenance phase listener, I tried Noom (early 2021). I had a friend doing it, so thought it might be fun to do it together. Ugh! I took this long ass survey (about 20 minutes) that asked all kinds of eating, health, and lifestyle questions. I thought it might actually be personalized or somehow tailored to my needs or preferences. Nope! Just a 1200 calorie diet with little PowerPoint presentations about eating vegetables and drinking water. Oh- and no food is "bad" but most of the yummy stuff is labeled "red".... When I canceled my membership I wrote a long, research-based email about how awful it is, but never heard a peep (except for all the "come back, don't give up on your goals" emails) YUCK!

For trash, I would nominate Noom, and for best influencer, I would nominate Tally Rye (@tallyrye), who talks a lot about intuitive movement! So so so excited for this episode 😍

Not sure if it‘s a superfood exactly, but my roommate got REALLY into immune booster ‚shots‘ (ginger and turmeric juice, with lemon and a rotating variety of spices)

Alright... Health food! I was just going to cook some rice and found that the supermarket has replaced the basmati rice with something called Barenaked rice! It's not even rice! It's strange little noodles from Konjac (isn't that a sponge?). It swims in water, is only good till tomorrow apparently and will not feed a family of four. But apparently it's going to help loose weight...

The fad diet that people won’t stop proselytising about is 8/16 and other variants of ‘time restricted eating’ or ‘intermittent fasting’ (Including my doctor who prescribed me a medication that must be taken with food twice a day 12 hours apart while telling me to try only eating in an 8 hour window).

Please don’t forget Hilaria Baldwin!

GRIFTIEST GRIFTER goes to BANG energy ceo and his weird ass book “the anti diet book” — here’s the instagram handle for it https://instagram.com/bang.anti.diet?utm_medium=copy_link

For superfood, I would say MUD\WTR. The company is apparently a few years old but I only started to see ads this year regularly. I also don't know where this would fit, but I feel that canned food made a strange comeback during COVID.

I feel like Noom was everywhere for the first half of 2021.

https://www.elitefamilycharleston.com/blog/7-natural-strategies-to-protect-against-the-coronavirus-flu-elite-family-chiropractic

“Natural” COVID protocols like this one:

Rachel Hollis

“Parasite” cleanses. People are picking their poop apart!

I kept hearing about that diet where you only eat meat...

The diet I kept hearing about in 2021 was Noom, but that's probably because I listen to a lot of podcasts. Although, I did see some commercials for Noom this year as well. I don't know anyone personally who's tried it.

Ivermectin must be included somehow

Casey Johnston/A Swole Woman/She’s a Beast is the only good fitness influencer IMHO

This is a fascinating intersection of race/class/ethnicity/wellness culture - immunocal and immunotec is a MLM thing that all my moms yoga friends in Mexico are obsessed with. They claim it prevents COVID, Alzheimer’s and basically every illness under the sun and is somehow magically supposed to help you lose weight also. Noom also - they’re just lying to people!

I wholeheartedly recommend TINX (Ig @itsmetinx, TikTok @tinx) for the WORST WELLNESS INFLUENCER OF 2021: after amassing over one million followers, mostly young, impressionable young women, and then recommending and endorsing PROLON a fasting cleanse. Also posting toxic "what I eat in a day" videos that are mostly raw veggies and starvation food. Also at one point recommending "Shopping to distract from hunger,"

I just want to know why everyone keeps talking about Noom. Also one health trend I’m glad to longer hear about Paleo diet

Just had to say that I couldn't stop laughing when I opened up Spotify to listen to the newest episode and you're talking about Matthew Walker! My brother has severe epilepsy and Dr Walker is his consultant, he's literally on speed dial on my brother's phone haha

IN MEMORIAM: Black Oxygen Organics: https://www.vice.com/en/article/epxz4z/how-wellness-mlm-brand-black-oxygen-organics-spawned-a-parasite-detox-trend

Really all I want is a bonus episode of Mike explaining his methodology behind his Stardew Valley farm and town to Aubrey

Chlorophyll water and the TikTok concept of the "it" girl or "that" girl !!

Eckhart Tolle; Oprah @ 2000? Power of Now author was humble and seemed authentic … since his “marriage” he has become unaffordable and unapproachable apart from the rich and famous.

In memoriam: really hoping to not see activated charcoal anymore

Guru Jagat, who may deserve a whole episode, and her sudden death from ankle surgery

I had this experience, and found out that tons of people also did, that when you try to quit Noom, they, like just won't let you. There's nobody to call or anything, people are reporting them to BBB? I just fought the charge on my credit card. Sleazy! Oh, I quit because their "technique" seemed to be harassing me all day long with text messages.

Herbalife, beach body, shakeology and every other pyramid scheme

Also Joe Rogan taking ivermectin is probably the worst take… or similar anti-vax use of celebrity voice

Elizabeth Holmes for Griftiest Grifter, for SURE.

Intermittent fasting, aka starving with *science*

I reached out to my dear friend Courtney because I knew she'd know. Here you go: "I would have to put Emrata as the worst health and wellness celebrity because she equates her struggle of being “objectified” as basically being oppressed. She is the WORST. I feel like Adele may be a contender for best health and wellness take because she doesn’t promote weight loss and speaks of her health and weight being a completely personal choice and decision that shouldn’t involve anyone else. Griftiest grifter would always be Rachel Hollis. But I’d put Hilaria Baldwin up there too."

I see nonstop ads for Colon Broom and Noom. I also get a lot of MLM pitches for cleanses and see the phrase "leaky gut" more than I can count!

Lots of people who are otherwise critical of health and wellness fads have promoted noom - perhaps they win for most successful rebrand of disordered eating lol

Intermittent fasting! It’s just socially acceptable anorexia + binge eating!

Also second to the people who mentioned chef Pete Evans!! He is the worst of the worst!!

Hey Michael and Aubrey -- a separate suggestion -- how about a show on completely ridiculous, yet commercially successful -- exercise gadgets? Suzanne Summer's "Thigh Master" comes to mind! Cheers, Elizabeth

Worst was Joe Rogan taking horse dewormer for COVID.

I feel like bulletproof coffee finally fell off the radar, but that may just be because I don’t follow any food/“health” bloggy people anymore. 😂

SUPERFOOD: matcha. 🤢 matcha EVERYTHING. No. Just no. As someone with Japanese heritage, just leave the matcha alone!

Definitely that trend where everyone was just eating fruit in water and calling it cereal. Can that get the mental gymnastics award?

Griftiest grifters: ever bachelor nation influencer that got a PPE loan ??

SUPERFOODS OF THE YEAR: vitamin c and ivermectin

What category can we fit the "make your own hydroxychloroquine" TikTok into?

Fad diet I had to unfollow people over: Code Red. Is it a diet? Is it an MLM? Why not both?

What was the FAD DIET your friends, family and coworkers wouldn’t stop talking about in 2021? - definitely intermittent fasting 💀

Worst 2021 take: Bloomberg news writing about workers coming out of pandemic work from home situations trying to slim down for “their perfect office bod” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-13/trapped-in-a-shirt-u-s-workers-confront-pandemic-poundage?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-businessweek&utm_medium=social&utm_content=businessweek&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter

I also submit the concept of ‘Intuitive Fasting,’ the way Gwyneth Paltrow and Will Cole kicked off the year. Intuitive fasting is an oxymoron, you literally can’t be intuitive if you’re actively setting time restrictions on eating. Period. Fasting is, by definition, NOT intuitive.

@jennifer Higgins YES! My husband and I just watched Heavyweights a few months ago after me nagging him for years since I loved it as a kid, and as an adult, I can see just how problematic it was!

Oh my god, that BOO folks were talking about... I think the company is recently defunct but it was Canadian bog mud or something and people were doing all kinds of dumb stuff with it. The general meteoric rise in dangerous snake oils amidst the *gestures vaguely*

I’d love your take on the movie Heavyweights! One of my favorite movies growing up and I’d love a deep dive into how it handles being a movie about a children’s weight loss camp!

Please take on the law of attraction and the craze of manifestation

Off topic maybe? Can you do a bonus episode on Hilaria Baldwin?

For WORST influencer can I nominate my friends from high school who “found god” and put Bible verses in the captions of their workout videos?

A nomination for Griftiest Grifter from down under has to be Chef Pete Evans https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/25/pete-evans-fined-80000-by-health-department-for-alleged-unlawful-spruiking-of-devices-and-medicines

Intermittent fasting. Even my neuroscience researcher brother is doing it which, what. It's disordered eating.

“intuitive eating” is something i literally could not escape this year, particularly because start-stop-start-stop lockdown has left us all so confused about our daily patterns, habits, and “lifestyle choices”

Can we discuss Lizzo ?

Nature's cereal wasn't the weirdest trend but it might have been one of the most widespread on Tiktok

I really have to give the WORST health and wellness take to the Kardashian Jenner family. At their reunion special, their response to comments about promoting an unhealthy body image was that they "work harder", without mentioning the fact that they have a lot of money and have invested heavily in plastic surgery and fillers.

More of an episode suggestion but I would love something on adaptogens! It includes stuff like ashwagandha, reishi mushrooms, maca etc. I see a huge amount of ayurveda-based supplements being pushed now too.

Also fasting for trends…..only in a land of abundance would people choose to starve. So odd.

Superfood: mushroom powder overload

I feel like Dr. Oz running for Senate can't not make an appearance in 2021 rap up

Biggesr Grifter of the Year: Katie Griggs AKA Guru Jagat. Huge anti-vaxxer, fake wellness product-pedaler, toxic #girlboss, head Guru of made-up religion of a known sex predator, all around Spiritual Grifter. RIP. Too soon?

The Medical Medium and Mark Hyman are tied for the biggest grifters of the year

best health and wellness take: simone biles and her withdrawal from olympic events/all of her commentary about that decision

I heard a TON about intermittent fasting over the last year!

Griftiest Grifter: *spoilers for new sex and the city reboot* Mr. Big dies of a heart attack while riding his pelaton bike in episode 1. The founder of pelaton said that his extravagant lifestyle led to his death, but the pelaton bike might have delayed it. Like wow. Maybe fictional characters aren’t a good case study for your product.

please talk about emily marikos salmon rice craze

Something I've noticed crop up around my friends recently is an obsession with the Oculus Supernatural Workout. Is this the Wiifit of 2021?

Prolon the "Fasting Mimicking Diet." One of the days all you can have is tea and a small package containing like four olives — it will be like catnip for you guys. Also thank you for this wonderful podcast.

I don't know how prevalent this was in 2021 and maybe it will get bigger or maybe it will fizzle, but I saw mints derived from weed (so, like cbd but not cbd) and they were supposed to suppress your appetite. Like, some type of cannabis doesn't cause the munchies, and they took just that part. They were expensive or I probably would have tried

Was Naomi Wolf this year or last year? I still miss her posts about how vaccines make you travel through time and the teddy saying Noooooo! Looking forward to finding out what Noom is, either that hadn't made it to the UK or I've adblocked very effectively.

Did people still do beach body this year? I feel like I'm behind on all of this stuff

How does noom work? Is it basically ww?

Best Take: Abbey Sharp, Christy Harrison, honorable mention to Diane Sanfillippo who was a best selling Paleo cookbook author who turned fully anti-diet this year. Worst Take: Gwenyth/ Dr Will Cole for Intuitive Fasting Weirdest Wellness Trend: Cold plunges to access brown fat (I know this isn’t new but has gained a lot of popularity this year) Fad Diet: Carnivore or Intermittent Fasting In Memoriam: Paleo (I feel like this is really out of style.. people just say Whole Foods diet these days)

Superfood yada yada, bio hacking, meal replacing bro, Kachava! https://www.kachava.com/

Griftiest Grifter : Mikhaila Peterson and her diet- "The Lion Diet" - Cures autoimmune diseases! https://www.instagram.com/theliondiet/ Guess who did a panel with Noom ;) ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl3pUaePxWI&list=PLFGVw1aK9Hb73FFl2ts2X1Z11Wak0klQE&index=2 Yes, this is the daughter of Jordan Peterson, who advocates for the carnivore diet. Lot's of fun, wonky sideshow circus shit in this family! https://www.vice.com/en/article/epgb37/what-drug-experts-say-about-jordan-petersons-benzo-dependence Is the Lion diet just a repackaged version of the carnivore diet? The grift alarm says, 'ya' and also- (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson#Political_views), which is in itself a massive can of worms!

worst influencer take: jenna ryan’s 2-month prison diet. i predict a diet book and protein bar called “behind bars.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/12/09/jenna-ryan-capitol-riot-prison-detox/

This isn't a superfood but a super supplement? Protandim!!! My boss loves telling people all of the ways in which it's "proven" to fix your whole entire life and it drives me bananas

Another vote for noom. How about Colon Broom? I’ve been getting nonstop ads for it 😂

I'm loving all of the comments here. There is so much I agree with and so much I've learned. It seems like all roads really lead back to social media for so much of the crap that we are being sold/told. Even though I've deleted my accounts on the main apps, NOOM still haunts me on Pinterest.

I don’t know where this fits but can we please talk about the trend of “what I eat in a day” videos? These seem very toxic to me and especially for anyone with disordered eating. They are EVERYWHERE - like those saying Noom haunts them, it seems like I can’t log into Facebook, YouTube or Instagram without seeing one.

Australian here - Pete Evans was the worst influencer. Also, good riddance Acai palm.

OMG I wish everyone would shut up about intermittent fasting 🤦‍♀️ I also nominate Noom, because I actually clicked on the link once, found out it was just a diet/food tracker, and now they won’t leave me alone on social media! I’m HAUNTED by Nooooooommmmm

Best influencer of the year: Alison Bechdel who wrote a book about her devotion to fitness culture throughout the decades without mentioning body image once. Worst Influencer: Joe Rogan. Worst wellness trend: Text based therapy from services likeBetter Health. This works not for the patient and not for the therapist and only for the bottom line of the platform.

The worst health & wellness take was definitely any celebrity or influencer who promoted vaccine hesitancy and/or disinformation! Special mention of Sam Frost, an actress on Home and Away who called Australian vaccine mandates 'segregation', and Aaron Rodgers, of the homeopathic 'immunization', get special mentions.

Noom we aren’t a diet and we don’t judge now write down every thing you eat and we’ll tell you to eat low fat cheese instead.

Love @haes_studentdoctor (Jess Campbell) - recent post on allostatic load was amazing, but all of her takes are fantastic!

Best influencer either Lucy mountain or tally rye. Both dedicated to anti diet content and health at every size. Lucy has a wicked sense of humour when dragging diet culture and tally spreads the joy of intuitive movement. Can’t recommend highly enough

Best Influencer has to be Mama Doctor Jones (OB/GYN and mom) for fighting misinformation around women's health care, birth control and putting "hormone healers" on blast with peer-reviewed studies!

Griftiest grift: i know Noom will be hard to beat but TEDDI MELLENCAMP’s starvation bootcamp and text bullying program is … truly something special

WEIRDEST: NYTimes pushing the 7-minute workout. GRIFTIEST: Agree with @holly barrass -- it has to be Noom. Maybe one of the BEST CELEB health things: Selma Blair being open about having MS. And IN MEMORIAM: maybe intermittent fasting, thank god

Best message from an influencer: author and fat Black yogi Jessamyn Stanley urging the culture to normalize and destigmatize the word "fat."

Noom has to be the griftiest of grifters. The fad I noticed that seems to have dropped off is collagen peptides that everyone was obsessed with in like 2019. Also I have noticed so much Cauliflower lately! Cauliflower pizza, tacos, wings. Etc. like I like cauliflower but not that much.

Optavia for fad diet. Plus OF COURSE it’s a pyramid scheme

I'm confused about intermittent fasting. Maybe not for the Grifties(or maybe so) but please do a deep dive on IF in the future, as according to some sources (Jason Fung MD-The Obesity Code, or David Sinclair, PhD-LifeSpan). Perhaps, its a matter of fasting for the longevity/health benefits and not to lose weight? Or is it just Science based fat phobia?

I'm learning a ton just from this thread. Mushroom coffee? Why?!

For best influencer I nominate Jessamyn Stanley from the underbelly yoga. She approaches wellness from a perspective of body acceptance and teaches yoga for all bodies. Love her❤️ and we’ll get past the woooy astrology stuff.

Khloe Kardashian for a celebrity that said some stupid insensitive shit

superfood of the year has to be mushroom coffee or anything with CBD added to it

Brene brown talking about Keto (and whole 30 and being in OA) also makes me sad and mad and ALL the feels… which is ironic bc she has done so much to teach me about my feels

Noom SUCKS and must be dishonored in some way. Any celebrity talking about intermittent fasting fills me with rage. Fad diet, optavia (the “health coaches” selling this MLM make my skin crawl) the terms quarantine 15, quarantine body, dad bod, mom bod, etc all need to die a slow painful death.

Noom was so aggressive this year that I actually signed up just to see what their bullshit angle was. They badgered me with ads and emails until they offered me 80% off, which I felt was an appropriate price point to hate read their lessons every day and scream “citations needed!” at my phone. Does it count as a grift?

Not so much an influencer, but a nomination of Yoga with Adrienne for the best health & wellness thing on YouTube! Her videos are so clear, simple, encouraging, and YOGA!

Weirdest health trend: 'Black Oxygen Organics' - bog dirt that claimed to heal, well, everything, INCLUDING COVID. Dunk in it, drink it, eat it, LIVE IT.

I nominate Dr. Will Cole (and inevitably Gwyneth Paltrow) as Griftiest Grifter(s) for their role in making "Intuitive Fasting" a thing, which co-ops the intuitive eating movement to try to sell a book about not eating instead. He didn't even try to make the *title* make sense, which is a grifter move if I've ever seen one.

Weirdest health trend: “hacking” your gut microbiome by putting things that aren’t food into your body

In memoriam: the tea that makes you shit :'-(

I really feel like Caroline Calloway's magic anti aging snake oil that she literally made in her apartment from other products needs a mention somewhere

let’s talk about dave asprey, bulletproof coffee guy now recommending rectal insufflation of ozone https://daveasprey.com/ozone-therapy-at-home/

Fad diet no one would shut up about: intermittent fasting. Weirdest trend: people freaking out about gaining weight during a fucking pandemic. You are lucky to be alive!

superfood of the year: bone broth. Like that shit's been around for ever, just because you cracked open your great grandma's cookbook doesn't make you special.

Weirdest: my nursing school teacher saying, she's not a feminist but she does think that women need to be included more in medical studies???

Best: Kumail Nanjiani, was very open and self aware about getting in shape for eternals, how it messed with his body image and how he is also perpetuating an unhealthy/unattainable body standard Also how attractiveness is tied to race (his vulture interview is great)

Not sure if this was 2021 or 2020, but one of the weirdest has to be Vanessa Hudgens saying we were panicking about covid because "Even if everybody gets it, like yeah, people are going to die, which is terrible... but inevitable?". Alright Thanos.

BEST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer for me has to be Jonah Hill. Him directly asking people to not talk about his body was the most refreshing thing in the WORLD and helped me raise the issue with my friends and family! Love him.

The Best: the fat doctor who is a UK HAES advocate and offers weight stigma training to other health care professionals https://www.fatdoctor.co.uk/

Best celebrity was Adele who was like, fuck off, I did a lot of exercise and had a lot of help from trainers and I just wanted to be stronger and not on my phone all day anyway.

Superfood- collagen seems to be getting a lot of mentions these days. If that counts.

Fad diet- noom (which is just calorie counting you pay for) or those meal kit delivery things eg Eat Fresh.

My favourite health and wellness influencer is Tiff XO. I’ve followed her for 2 years and it’s all about just moving to make you feel better, eating a balanced diet, but no food is evil, looking after your mental health above all else.

Best grifter- Pete Evans! He’s Australian celebrity chef, turned paleo wellness self proclaimed expert. Came up with a baby cook book that had a recipe for bone broth that could kill babies! Doesn’t believe in sunscreen, this year opened a “fasting retreat” and this year, became a holocaust denier! Anti-vaxer and subsequently got kicked off Facebook and Instagram. He really deserves a full episode!

best influencer(s): jameela jamil & Dr. Abby Sharpe & Stephanie Buttermore

WORST TAKE : Jillian Michaels on Lizzo

Also worst celebrity take …not from this year but Olivia Munns book speaking on how fat people should not be allowed to have cars is terrifying and chilling and I hate it

Teddy Melancamp however you spell it …I feel that this is a whole episode in itself but everything her and her toxic program stands for is easily the WORST take

Weirdest trend: chlorophyll drinks

Fad diet: noom

Fad diet: fibre. Fibre is great! But I’m seeing a lot of stuff lately where fibre is being promoted as a kind of ‘shit yourself thin’ solution. Worst: Noom. The ads pop up everywhere. We’re not a diet, we just quack like one Grifter: Pete Evans. Who knew you could go downhill from “feed your baby beef stock instead of food”? Superfood: all those weird mushroom coffees.

Weird: Stephanie Buttermore's "All in"-process. I am happy for her but the backlash she received from the fitness community is just terrible. They live in a world I can't comprehend: https://youtu.be/N9z5xqAP7ek

FAD Diet: intermitten fasting 🙄 and also my dad who started lecturing us on how much sugar is contained in orange juice....

Best Take: Jonah Hill (he instantly became my celebrity crush!) Worst Take: The 'pandemic' of Influencers pretending to have a bad Covid reaction to spike their 'likes' Weirdest: Orlando Bloom's 'morning routine' Fad Diet: Intermittent Fasting Griftiest: Gwyneth 'I'm on the 3rd day of my fast' Paltrow Superfood: Oat millk In Memoriam: Paleo - Paleo is not extreme enough, now everyone's gone Keto - Paleo softies must be so embarrassed.

Worst advice: someone on reddit calculatet how much weight you ll gain, if you "overeat" 100 calories a day. It's like 50 pounds in 10 years..

Best Advice: maddie dragsbeaks video "recreating outfits I'll wear when I am skinny on a size 16" . + The podcast "feminist survival project" by emily and emilia nagoski also the video by leena norms on PCOs... she recommended maintanance phase ;)

Oh and don’t get me started on all these ppl around me doing fasting. Jeeeeeesus. What ever floats your boat but I worry about these mfs. They often doing intense heavy workouts and they not eating anything. It feels like odd culture. I want to work out to be strong n shit but these ppl around me be doing these weird starvation shits. And they tell me about it and I’m like 😐😐😐😐😐. I don’t know how to conversate with them

Mannnn i am from Iceland but I live in Chiang Mai Thailand. Very hippie place. A lot of yoga people n shit. Very spiritually n chakras n shit. Everyday I meet someone who tells me about their mfkn JUICE CLEANSE. And how tired and low energy they are but it’s all worth it cuz they need to clean out their system. Wtf. And I go to a CrossFit gym (that’s another story, CrossFit ppl are like a cult) and people are workin out real hard on a JUICE CLEANSE. I don’t get it. Also they be eating crushed insects because it gives great protein. I mean sure why not but no thanks im good lol. I accidentally ate one of those crushed cricket protein bar and when I found out I cried. Anyway I love your podcast you make me so happy

Fad: nootropics Weirdest: eating an orange in the shower will make you be able to taste again if you lost your taste to covid Worst: noom Superfood:. Liquid death mountain water

Fad diet....The grape diet

Trendy superfood: celery juice , General weirdness: SquarEat/food cubes/“modular food”

https://twitter.com/jd_durkin/status/1468381094189973506?s=21 HAVE YOU SEEN THIS? Capitol rioter talking about losing weight in prison. Wellness to q-anon to federal prison pipeline???

I know someone who is teaching about having good health in all areas of life, yet continuously posts ‘before and after’ weight loss photos right after… just doesn’t add up.

Superfood of the year/of late: activated charcoal!! 🙄

Best wellness influence: Maintenance Phase! From the bottom of my 2x/3x heart, thank you for helping me accept and love myself as I am. ♥️

Intermittent fasting and Keto are in and Paleo seems out. Superfood: cannabis & CBD oil Best influencer: everything from “thefuckitdiet” (Caroline Dooner) on IG. And Maintenance Phase!!

Another contender for best celebrity health take: Olivia Rodrigo showing up at the White House dressed like Elle Woods to tell us all to get vaccinated

Dr oz running for office in a state he doesn't live in is grifty af. Fuck that dude.

Best celebrity health take was Britney speaking bluntly about her abusive conservatorship and then taking time for herself to figure out what she wants to do!

Superfood of the year: COLLAGEN

The Weirdest: The Fat Bear Contest. And the think pieces relating animal fatness to human fatness.

Griftiest— Rebel Wilson getting thin and saying she was only fat to further her comedy career. And then telling other fat people to get in line 😑

Fad diet: optavia !

in memoriam: crossfit (finally!!!!!)

fad diet: intermittent fasting 🙄

Most annoying fad diet—intermittent fasting 😒

Weirdest wellness trend, those weighted hula hoops

Anything and anyone selling “waist trainers” or “diet/weight loss tea” is a grifter 100%

This one goes for Weirdest and Superfood: Chlorophyll water! Literally wtf

Please drag the shit out of Noom...

Dumb shit I fell for: Boom bod, apple cider vinegar gummies, Elle McPherson green powder..

FAD: intermittent fasting... mind boggling just how bold and obvious (yet also oblivious and delusional) the public endorsement of eating disorder behaviors was this past year or two GRIFTIEST: noom, their whole corporate image and strategy is the sleaziest slimiest shit I’ve ever seen. A sham from top to bottom. I want them cancelled immediately lol

Totally agree that the WORST wellness advice comes from Joe Rogan 😒😒😒😒

Weirdest- chewing on paper and spitting it out

Griftiest is ofc Joe Rogan

BEST- going to therapy OR weed WORST- fucking juice cleanses or fasting WHAT NO ONE WILL STOP TALKING ABOUT- Veganism (I get it, you saved 1000 trees and your better than me shut up)

Weirdest: #BOO

FAD DIET: I’m in a COVID longhaulers group and everyone is talking about an anti-inflammatory diet (the usual shit, if it makes people happy, it has to go.) Maybe it even works! But how are we supposed to do a complicated, expensive diet when some of us can’t cook, work, or reliably walk?!

Tonya Harding being anti-vax really deserves some kind of recognition ... 🤡

WEIRDEST wellness trend of 2021: Alkalinizing your blood? How is this a thing? Also heavy metal detoxes GRIFTIEST GRIFTER of 2021: I think my answers make it pretty obvious, but my nom goes to the Medical Medium "SUPERFOOD" of the year: Tie between warm lemon water and celery juice IN MEMORIAM: What was the wellness trend that fell off the radar in 2021? Gluten-free diets for non-celiac/allergy wellness

Griftiest: Pete Evans. 🤮 (could also fit into Worst influencer but not sure how much reach he got out of Australia to be honest)

Idk If this fits into any of your categories but I just saw a TikTok from Jenna Ryan (Jan 6 rioter) talking about the "bright side" of prison being she hopes to lose 30lbs in 60 days.

Best Take: Maintenance Phase, but Jonah Hill and Lizzo have been pretty good too. Worst Take: Antivaxxers/Ivermectin users in general Weirdest: That BOO dirt stuff Fad Diet: Noom or intermittent fasting Griftiest: Joe Rogan or Gwyneth Paltrow Superfood: Oat milk, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is everywhere now. In Memoriam: I think Keto is on its way out

I think the shift in the beauty industry to skincare and clean beauty falls in here somewhere.

Fad: Intermittent fasting. Best celeb: Agree with the above poster who nominated Jonah Hil

Best: Aubrey’s tweet thread on why it’s not the best to say “did you lose weight?” to someone. I cried.

Worst: ivermectin as treatment for covid

Weirdest: liquid chlorophyll Fad: oat milk

This may be more of a trendspotting item than an award candidate, but I've been hearing more ads on the radio (NPR) and on podcasts (Up and Vanished comes to mind) about diets that say "being fat is biology and not your fault! and... here is how we will "fix" you." It is the co-opting of body positive/fat activist language, and for a split second it seems like it is on track and then immediately pivots back to diet culture. Heard this today on NPR as a sponsor bit for Novo Nordisk, but there's another one that keeps popping up on the true crime podcasts I listen to that I am forgetting/have blocked out. (It isn't Noom - it it uses words like "no AI chat bots!" and "tailored to your metabolism" but my googling is not helping me remember the name. Will try to circle back when I hear it again.)

Choose your own category: Intermittent fasting. Ivermectin (great for horses, maybe helped my rosacia- but Covid???) Hair growth/luminous skin vitamins. Oz for senate Can Fauci saying 'get vaccinated' count as best Health & Wellness Influencer?? Pretty please.

Superfood: I’m seeing a lot of reishi and ashwaganda mushroom products and supplements about lately. I don’t know what supportive science there is, but I don’t know that’s it’s quackery either

WORST: Elly Miles (Former Bachelorette Australia) and her carnivore diet that decided spinach and broccoli were "most toxic" and cucumbers and berries were "less toxic"

FAD DIET: intermittent fasting

BEST: Jonah Hill's moment

Worst celebrity health take - Nikki Minaj’s cousin’s friend (we all know it)

So many people I know are doing this terrible #inspiredhealth weight loss MLM. It’s terrible because it’s disorder eating and MLMs!

Best- a lot of fitness influencers/coaches are telling women they have to eat more and not be restricting calories all the damn time. I can point to accounts if needed Worst: just that noom exists and says it’s not a diet? Fad: IF

BEST health & wellness take: can we nominate this entire podcast? WORST health & wellness take: Adele telling Oprah she lost all that weight just by exercising a bit more 🙄 WEIRDEST: those weighted hula hoop things on tiktok! FAD DIET: gotta be intermittent fasting, or preparing an entire week’s worth of food in one day GRIFTIEST GRIFTER: Dr Oz running for Senate in PA

For fad diet, intermittent fasting and/or 75 Hard...bleh.

Fad: intermittent fasting

Weirdest wellness trend, maybe that BOO thing? Black Oxygen Organics. Soil from a Canadian bog that’s next to a dump. It was an MLM and recently shut down and screwed over their consultants. Life After MLM podcast did an episode about it. Weird.

Griftiest grifter has to go to zuPoo with the “most people have 5-20 lbs of toxic poop sitting inside them” claim and the nonstop YouTube ads

Belle Gibson - Australian wellness blogger, author, and app owner - who based her entire business on her cancer diagnosis. Spoiler alert - she faked the cancer

Wait... this might be 2020 but can we talk about TikTok lemon water to “kickstart weight loss”??

Fad diet: intermittent fasting…even I tried it (and then ate three meals and snacks in six hours everyday🤢).

• What was the BEST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? - Lena Dunham unapologetically getting bigger and loving it • What was the WORST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? - Khloe Kardashian and her weight loss lollipops • What was the FAD DIET your friends, family and coworkers wouldn’t stop talking about in 2021? - Intermittent fucking fasting

fad diet everyone was talking about was definitely noom i never want to hear about it again

Best commenter/take 3 way tie between Jonah Hill telling everyone to stop talking about his body and Simone Biles’ and Naomi Osaka’s moments in athletics and mental health.

75 Hard for Fad Diet nonsense? https://www.askamanager.org/2021/12/update-my-team-is-requiring-us-to-do-a-diet-exercise-mental-toughness-program.html

Idk if it’s a “superfood” but oat milk is popping off this year. I’m not gonna lie I started using it in my coffee since I recently had to go dairy free due to tummy sadness, and it’s the closest thing I’ve found to cows milk yet.

Don't know if it's just an Australian thing, but everyone I know was going to the F45 gyms and doing their "challenges" multiple times throughout the year 😒

Not sure if Ivermectin would fall into the Weirdest category or the Griftiest Grifter 🤔

FAD DIET: Intermittent Fasting GRIFTIEST GRIFTER: Joe Rogan, always Joe Rogan SUPERFOOD: Mushroom supplements WORST TAKE: Gwyneth Paltrow Intuitive Fasting BEST TAKE: Literally anything Dr. Jen Gunter has said IN MEMORIUM: Keto- everyone I knew was doing it last year but they've all moved on

Worst health and wellness takes are all the celebs who encouraged that 5G causes covid (woody harrelson, there’s more, maybe that’s more 2020) and also nicki linage saying she wouldn’t get the covid vaccine because her cousins balls swelled up???

Fad diet: Noom / “Intuitive Fasting”

I nominate Joe Rogan for griftiest grifter!

WEIRDEST TREND: Mushroom coffee or mushroom supplements in general

I'd say Will Smith was pretty bad this year, the way he talked about himself pre va post weight loss was pretty harsh and it seemed to really resonate with a lot of men who were already struggling after weight gain during lockdown

Who was the GRIFTIEST GRIFTER of 2021? Can we just give the Medical Medium a lifetime achievement award for this or . . . .?

Worst wellness take: ALL the weird anti-vaxx nonsense Naomi Wolf said this year before she got kicked off twitter (but here are a couple of my favorites) - https://twitter.com/MrLiamArnold/status/1365242803396243456 https://twitter.com/thetwerkinggirl/status/1366081412743454731

I would like to nominate mushroom coffee ie MUD\WTR for our superfood of the year. Leave me coffee aloooooooone please

Best take: Dr. Jen Gunter giving warning signs of hormone scams on Instagram https://vajenda.substack.com/p/instagram-is-a-minefield-of-hormone

More votes for: WEIRDEST: Black Oxygen Organics—let's drink literal dirt! FAD DIET: Intermittent fasting BEST TAKE: Simone Biles, "I'm worth more than gold"

I lose track of when these things became “superfoods” - but… coconut oil, coconut powder, all sorts of replacements for flour to cut out gluten for people without medical issues with gluten… any variation on clean eating/vegan/raw that seems to be more like orthorexia… any recipe I find on MyFitnessPal that replaces all the regular ingredients I might find in a local shop with peculiar measurements of things I’ve never heard of, because obviously I’m not going to want to eat butter, flour, bread, pastry etc (oh no, hang on, I do want to eat those things and it’s fine…)

Noom has become ubiquitous in the past year. They must be paying a lot for advertisement on social media because not only do I see their ads everywhere, every online fitness community I’ve participated in in the past year inevitably has multiple people posting about it and asking if it works. They could also be grifters of the year if this article is accurate: https://www.fastcompany.com/90694128/how-noom-co-opted-the-language-of-eating-disorder-recovery-to-sell-users-on-weight-loss?itm_source=parsely-api Also, so-called wellness trackers. Any of them - take your pick. Now they have “readiness scores” that tell YOU what you are “ready for” that day. My readiness scores were mid range, which sent me on a quest to “improve” my “readiness” score .. and also caused months of insomnia because I was so worried about my sleep and readiness score readings from an inanimate object. 🤦🏼‍♀️👀

What was the WEIRDEST wellness trend of 2021? Someone else said it already - Ivermectin!! I tried to buy the now infamous “horse paste” for my rosacea before the pandemic and my boyfriend won’t let me live it down. I was actually given a prescription for Soolantra (Ivermictin) but it would have been $400 for the tube, vs the $20 for Ivermectin from the tack shop. It turns out in my province (Canada), you can’t buy it without proving you own horse anyways… I ended up giving them my contact information for some reason, and I now receive a horse magazine delivered to my house monthly despite never having owned horses. And I had to opt for an antibiotic cream for my rosacea instead. - Who was the GRIFTIEST GRIFTER of 2021? I’ll second another commenter's suggestion for Noom… BetterHelp is also grifty as hell. - What was the "SUPERFOOD" of the year? A) Air fried anything B) Not sure if it’s a superfood, but my grocery store had Yuzu EVERYTHING this summer. Sparkling yuzu cold brew coffee… that’s gonna be a no from me. - IN MEMORIAM: What was the wellness trend that fell off the radar in 2021? Hair Gummies (SugarBearHair)

Fad diet all my family was into: Keto

Worst: Intuitive Fasting by Gwyneth Paltrow

Also is Body By Vi still a thing or has Shakeology run them out of business? Either way any of those “drink our powder mixes in shake form to lose weight” companies should easily qualify for grittiest grifters lol

Griftiest Grifter: Whoever is behind the "75 Hard" program (I am not willing to research this but I understand that has questionable or negative health value *and* he wants to sell you supplements, gag). And *special mention* to the business owner covered on Ask A Manager who told a particular team that they were required to do 75 Hard or quit (see AAM Dec. 8 post for the update and link to original post).

Can we please talk about how Adele literally said she lost weight from overexercising secondary to unmanaged anxiety but everyone keeps praising her transformation? It’s so messed up to me how she’s like “my body is literally a reflection of my anxiety during the worst time of my life to date” and everyone’s like BUT UR SKINNY NOW😍

Weirdest: ivermectin, as like a major thing. In memoriam, either bone broth or vaginal steaming.

Best commenter: Lizzo or Jonah Hill Also Billie Eilish’s whole year “my titties are bigger than yours” Worst: Always Joe Rogan Superfood: Is collagen a food? New fad: I feel like everyone is doing Omad or at least some pretty wild IF if they say they’re on a diet. You guys need to look into r/fasting, it’s legit a starvation group, some of them do 30 day fasting but “don’t allow disordered eating practices to be posted” Also anything that is “reducing bloating” or “killing bad gut bugs” pops up all the time Falling off: I see veganism a lot less being used as a “fad” or a challenge. (Which I’m happy to see cuz they give vegans a bad wrap)

Best Health and Wellness: Chrissy Teigen and sobriety. We were all pretty drunk in 2020 and it's nice to notice how sobriety feels. Huge genre of "quit lit" available for those interested.

Unfortunately, this year's superfood appears to have been horse dewormer.

Worst: I’m not sure which category this would go in but I think the most misleading diet was the general wellness or nutrition diet, where you eat various “super foods” like kale, quinoa, berries, etc. Eating like that is very expensive and makes you feel guilty if you eat another way. Worst: in the beginning of the pandemic there would be news stories about people eating more snacks and processed foods, as if eating them before was some kind of cardinal sin. I haven’t heard as much about intermittent fasting this year as I have in the past.

Worst celebrity take: Sharon Stone commenting on Jonah Hill's body on his instagram post specifically asking people not to do that.

You guys have honestly helped me move past a lot of stuff because I can't really name anyone in these categories and in previous years I would have been all over the newest fad or diet food. I still eat chia seeds now though, even though I am pretty sure they aren't cool anymore.

Best celebrity take: Jonah Hill's instagram, esp his post asking fans not to comment on his body good or bad.

What was the BEST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? "The only diet advice you should take from celebrities is: 'DON'T TAKE DIET ADVICE FROM CELEBRITIES.' They don't give a flying fuck about you, or your kidneys or your liver or your mental health. Unfollow, delete, repeat." - Jameela Jamil (I think the original might have been posted to Twitter. But she posted to IG on April 21.)

Certain family members keep telling me to stop eating vegetables because of oxalates. I was sent me this video I didn't watch, but I'm including a link because it contains my favorite youtube comment of all time: "The amount of veg and carbs that I have consumed over the decades makes me think I am lucky to still be here." I'm obsessed with this quote. https://youtu.be/AfNfehT5F2g

BEST - Jameela Jamil has been great this year, from speaking at the online BodyCon to just generally speaking out on social media. "Don't take wellness advice from celebrities": https://www.instagram.com/p/CN7mSVBjlpB/ WORST - every antivaxxer. Especially politicians who secretly got the vaccine anyway. WEIRDEST trend - maybe this is just weird for me but I am surrounded by people who have jumped into Peloton and have aligned themselves with certain trainers and class communities. I thought it was just a bike with videos but it is this whole society. FAD DIET - Many people I know have tried out Noom because "It'S tOtTaLLy DiFFeReNT tHaN oThEr DiEtS bEcAuSe PsYcHoLoGy". Good marketing on their part because it is the same old garbage SUPERFOOD - anything fermented or with added probiotics. Because so much nutrition research is pointing to gut bacteria as being the root of everything wrong with us. We are just meat suits powering the bacteria inside. IN MEMORIAM - it seems explicit calorie counting is out in most "mainstream" wellness and in its place we have all this weird stuff like bastardized Intuitive Eating or macros or nutrient density measurements. But I am happy to see calorie counting die off

Noom for all the categories!! 😂

Can we all just agree Gwyneth is the Griftiest Grifter of all time? Mother of All Grifters?

Best health take: Virginia Sole Smith, the Fallacy of eating the way your grandmother ate (https://virginiasolesmith.substack.com/p/-great-grandmothers-food) Fad diet: still Keto. griftiest grifter: Nth nomination for NOOM

The BEST health and wellness take - Kumail Nanjiani acknowledging that his physical "transformation" was $$$$ and that it was underwritten by a large movie studio The WORST health and wellness take - Aaron Rogers and his "immunization". GRIFTIEST GRIFTER - Goopy Paltrow followed by Jim Bakker PS - This was fun. Can we please have a Snake Oil Hall of Fame (Hall of No Shame?)

Griftiest grifters: Ionized/alkaline water influencers on IG & Tik Tok and their wildly expensive ionizing machines. MLM and terrible wellness advice all in one!

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, and I don't know if this falls into any of your categories but the obsession over the so-called "Covid-15" has been both annoying and harmful. Just the fact that someone out there thought they were being so clever for coming up with the name "Covid-15" as a play on the "Freshman 15." Different news outlets have covered it off and on for months now, talk shows have covered it as focused topics and it has permeated every day conversation with family and friends. Because there hasn't been enough to worry about while we've been going through a PANDEMIC, let's try to make people feel shame for being 10 lbs heavier so they can worry about people judging them for not "eating healthy" or "getting in those reps" when their worlds were turned upside down.

Celebs whose weight loss journey's even I couldn't ignore/the media seem to have co-opted/sound bited the messaging on: Adele (and her damn white suit), Rebel Wilson and Melissa McCarthy.

This year my mother sent me a bullshit post about vitamin D made by a doctor. I googled the doctor and the first thing that came up was he was a "pegan". The name alone was a red flag. Turns out "paleo vegan" or "pegan" is now the ultimate diet for overall health. It's better for you than regular paleo or regular vegan. Oh and pretty much every major illness in America is caused by a vitamin D deficiency...who knew!

My husband is a big fan of diet fads. For awhile this year he was eating ground ANTS….but he’s now moved on to two kinds of mushroom powder. I think the mushrooms are supposed to prevent Alzheimer’s…I don’t know.

Oh! The Holistic Psychologist on IG for griftiest grifter!!!!!!

Worst trend is “what I eat in a day” by all these people on instagram, and every video starts with a body check. i’ve started muting those accounts on my explore page!

Maybe this is just the crowd I run in, but I feel like cold showers/ice baths are getting way out of hand and Wim Hof is to blame! I'll scream if I hear of another person telling me to check out Wim Hof method. In no way will I ever take advice from someone who thinks they can summit Everest with just shoes and shorts on (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof)

I’m not sure which “worst” this is, but “Nature’s cereal” popularized on TikTok by Blogilates’ Cassie Ho. It’s literally just a bowl of frozen fruit in water so it’s “healthier” than cereal. girl…..

Griftiest Grifter: NOOM. The "absolutely not a diet," diet that allows you the caloric intake of a toddler because Science!!! Also, it coopts the language of eating disorder recovery in order to turbo-feck your relationship with food, as if it cannot wait to get to the Champagne Room in Hell.

Best takes from an influencer: Milk & Honey Nutrition. She's a Type 1 Diabetic and Registered Dietician and has a blog, Tiktok and IG. She puts out non-diet advice for all types of diabetics and has been exactly the antidote I needed to my doctor's BS advice to "avoid all white foods" and cut out all carbs and take cinnamon supplements. Sigh.

Simon Biles prioritizing her mental health in the face of worldwide expectations and scrutiny is #1 take. Worst take was probably Khloe Kardashian freaking out when an unedited photo of her was floating around the Internet. She threatened to sue people to take it down, and then went on Instagram live to show how flat her stomach ACTUALLY is to “show the haters” Friends sadly wouldn’t stop talking about intermittent fasting Weirdest wellness trend was definitely “adaptogens” which y’all mentioned in the moon juice episode but they seem like complete bunk science but my favorite podcasts are advertising “adaptogen gummies” I feel like hair/skin vitamins fell off this year, I stopped hearing about sugar bear hair or tati vitamins

Fad diet in my area at least - Herbalife, but they DON'T KNOW IT'S HERBALIFE! My hometown, where I still work, opened one of their infamous "nutrition clubs" with a "smoothie shop" where they still sell the formulas that make people shit themselves, and people I know just think they're fun coffee drinks in a weird, brandless storefront, because of all their hoop jumping so as not to be zoned as retail. Someone I know is now talking about opening another "nutrition club" in a town half an hour away and people have mentioned driving there to get their "smoothies" too.

Weirdest trend: Definitely ivermectin. It's literally getting prescribed by doctors for covid treatment. What is happening???

Worst celebrity influencer: It made me really sad to watch Rebel Wilson going through her year of "bring healthy" translation - loosing weight. Obviously she can do what she wants with her body, but listening to a lot of what she's saying about weight, eating and expectations on women just made me feel sad that this is something that's still "news" - and I'm dreading to stories that'll come if she gains even one KG back. Fad diets - intimidated fasting is still something so many people around me are talking about

Fad-diet: intermittent fasting; worst grift: all the esoterics that promoted and sold „remedies“ against Covid-19. Btw you really should make an episode on Rudolf Steiner, the OG-esoteric-grifter of them all, the father of Anthroposophy, inventor of organic farming and strong racist.

Can we call all of the DoTerra Essential Oils the griftiest Grifters? Wellness trends that seem to be on their way out: juice cleanses? Weight Watchers?

Off the radar: Beachbody. At least in my area, all the "coaches" have quietly quit. I think a lot more people are becoming aware of the grift that is MLMs.

Fad diet: Still hearing about intermittent fasting from family

Best: he may not be very popular, but check out AdamWrightFitness on TT and on Instagram. He gives weight loss info (bc let's face it, some ppl want that), but it's valid, and he also calls out red flags

I think the best celebrity take has to be Lizzo. I remember seeing a tik tok of her on my FYP about a smoothie cleanse - I initiated howled in despair that she fell into the hands of Ye Olde Diet Industry - but she then detailed that she was doing it with the help of a professional and that she was not doing it for weight loss, but rather to physically feel better after a period of binge drinking and eating junk food. I also love seeing her videos of her working out, which is a shot in the face of all the gremlins telling her to hit the gym. I also just appreciate the fact that she’s not framing this cleanse as a weight loss attempt. I think people are too quick to assume that anyone eating “healthy” foods is just automatically trying to lose weight or keep it off. I have had friends tell me to stop trying so hard because I ordered a salad instead of a burger at lunch, when the truth is I sometimes crave salads. I think it’s important to reframe the way we look at food in many ways, one being that it’s consumption is all linked to weight loss or health, even. I think it’s especially helpful for a fat black woman to be showing this content as well.

I nominate Jonah Hill for best take for asking people not to comment on his body!

Fad diets: My coworkers are still doing Keto and Intermittent Fasting. Superfood of the year: I feel like I saw a lot of seaweed stuff; also, still pomegranate. Matcha.

Lizzo! Best take.

Obvious choice for worst celeb take would be Aaron Rogers, but I gotta nominate Jeremy Strong based on the recent New Yorker profile. He injured his tibia and femur in his devotion to method acting!! Even worse, he made the extremely ableist decision to parade around on set as an autistic character IN CHARACTER OFF CAMERA on a day he wasn't even supposed to be there. Maybe method acting in general because Benedict Cumberbatch said he didn't bathe throughout the filming of the power of the dog and he also appeared to castrate a bull on camera??? Irl????? But if we would like to revisit fat suits, perhaps Jared Leto and his insistence on wearing a fat suit for a character based on a real person who was not even overweight.

For best celebrity/influencer take, I'd like to second the nominations of Simone Biles and Britney Spears, and also suggest Kumail Nanjiani....he hasn't had a totally uncomplicated 'best' take, but has clearly gone through very real journey in his relationship with wellness culture. I also think Rebel Wilson has made some interesting points, but she also now reps a vitamin company so....could we add like "best celebrity nuanced and complicated take?" lol

In memorium - Definitely Whole 30. I used to hear about that one sooooo often and I can't recall the last time I heard someone talk about it. Maybe it became too hard to follow during the pandemic? Fad diet - tie between NOOM (my mother's workplace encourages employees to use Noom by making their health insurance premiums cheaper if they do and I just !!!!) or Intermittent Fasting... really I feel like both Noom/IF fall directly into the "it's not a diet it's a lifestyle" camp and so I see a lot of people in my life who would recoil from officially being on a "diet" fully embrace them. But they're just as harmful!

BEST CELEB TAKE: Adele, refusing to endorse any diets or shortcuts and openly admitting that her key to weight loss was having gobs of money and free time to train 3 hrs a day, 3 different activities; AND that her motivation was to relieve stress, not lose weight. WORST CELEB TAKE: Adele, saying on SNL she kept the half of herself she loved, arguably inviting all the vultures. She covered the spectrum and embodies the discord and discourse. Still love her.

FAD DIET: intermittent fasting. OFF THE RADAR: Keto or CrossFit

Yeah I'm sure y'all don't want to talk about yourselves, but you've got my +1 for BEST take! Celebrity is relative!

Fad Diet: “Intermittent Fasting” is all anyone would talk about and nobody who does it considers it a diet.

I haven't been bombarded with Noom ads like a lot of people here have, but I went on Noom a few years ago and it was GARBAGE. They make a big deal about how you form a community and a team and you get a trainer who chats with you to keep you motivated, and I did like that for about a month. But then I had two weeks with a business trip and a vacation; I didn't stick to Noom those two weeks and didn't use the app. When I came back to it the next Monday, I was on an entirely new team with a new trainer. The new team was full of understandably angry people who had also taken a week or two off and had come back to find they had been removed from their communities and put in our "losers group."

fad diet of the year: intermittent fasting

Worst celebrity health take: in terms of what this podcast covers, I'd have to go with the Kardashian talking about how people should stop eating ice cream & do what she did...

Fad: whoever started that stupid 75 Hard! Working out twice a day for 45 minutes each?? My joints! Best influencer: Anne Helen Peterson has been writing some good stuff about health BS we've been conditioned to believe for a long time (like "earning" your Thanksgiving dinner)

the celebrity anti-vax takes are so numerous it's going to be hard to narrow down. the ones mentioned above for sure, and chet hanks really bothered me for some reason even though i didn't know who he was beforehand.

Intermittent fasting and Noom are the worst. And I’m still seeing people talk about those nasty Shakeology shakes, as well as putting their daily allotment of food in colored containers, so I guess Beach Body is still a thing

• What was the BEST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? – duh, Aubrey Gordon and her book! • • What was the WORST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? – IDK friend, I actively avoid that kinda stuff – I just let you folks tell me what I need to be enraged about . • • What was the WEIRDEST wellness trend of 2021? Kelp is the new kale? I don’t remember voting on that. Wasn’t kale the new spinach or something? • • What was the FAD DIET your friends, family and coworkers wouldn’t stop talking about in 2021? – gut biome shit – pre, pro, and now POST-biotics. Simmer down folks. • • Who was the GRIFTIEST GRIFTER of 2021? – Any wellness app including sleep trackers (other than Calm or Moshi which are gold treasures). Stop outsourcing your relationship with your body. • • What was the "SUPERFOOD" of the year? – Does marijuana count? Because it was absolutely marijuana. • • IN MEMORIAM: What was the wellness trend that fell off the radar in 2021? Are the bros still bio-hacking with weird shakes and stuff? I really want that to stop.

Best: Britney Spears on conservatorships, especially her own. That’s a whole interesting and vital disability conversation. Worst: Every TikTok health influencer who quotes and rates calories. Weirdest: Nature’s cereal, aka a watery gross fruit salad. Fad Diet: Noom, 75 Hard and pretty much every trend on TikTok of people going cold turkey into crazy diets and working out 7 times a day. Noom especially. Griftiest Grifter: Superfood: Capiscums. So many capiscums. In memorium: I saw way less raw veganism.

Fad Diet: OMG can people PLEASE stop pretending that Intermittent Fasting is anything other than disordered eating???

Not to rain on Peleton's parade, but people will still not shut up about it. It almost sounds like a cult. Maybe I shouldn't judge without having tried it, but I don't have THOUSANDS of dollars to spend on workout equipment and programs, sorry.

I would also say veganism is the newest fad diet 😅.

And the Mediterranean diet seems to be making a comeback…

Can the worst wellness take from a celebrity/influencer be all of the celebrity anti-vax takes? Like a little Nicki Minaj’s cousin with “swollen testicles”, a little Aaron Rodgers being “immunized”…add all the celebrities up and we had a pretty big year of bad health takes!

Noom for fad diets everyone I knew was trying it ... but yea intermittent fasting was also huge lol you wanna be a faster runner and a happier person? Stop eating !

Best: Jonah Hill - don’t comment on my body!

FAD DIET: Extended fasts. My boss went 96 hours without eating. I know because we got an hour by hour instagram story about it . IN MEMORIAM: Low-carb in all its forms (Banting, Keto) BEST TAKE: I feel like Lizzo's "my smoothie cleanse and My DiEt" line from "Rumors" just summed up how great she's been for proving that you can be fat whilst also being fit, healthy, and generally iconic SUPERFOOD: Aquafaba. Who decided that chickpea liquid was something we should put in cocktails now

FAD DIET - Intermittent fasting!! I NEED for Instagram to stop trying to sell me this repackaged eating disorder.

I also want to nominate intermittent fasting for fad diet.

Worst health and wellness influencer - Instagram - as an adult with teenage and 20somethings in my life - struggling to fit into the visual norms, the insidious use and impact of filters leads to real damage - it's a direct gateway to disordered eating scary. Griftiest of the grifters - Meta (formerly known as FB).

Activated charcoal is the superfood of 2021. That stuff is so much more dangerous for your health than people realize, and it is EVERYWHERE

Best: Jonah Hill saying please don’t comment on my body kthxbai

I nominate "oil pulling" for weirdest. I don't know if this was a thing before this year and I just managed to miss it, but I am hearing about it everywhere this year.

Fad diet - intermittent fasting

Best influencers: you two!! Maintenance Phase! Does that count??

Best take - anti diet culture/intuitive eating Emily Mariko on tiktok Worst take - intermittent fasting, keto or food privilege sold as a healthy eating app eg. Sunee Fad diet - gut health Superfood - tumeric, maca powder, mushroom powder, chlorella In memoriam: kale 🥲

Does foraging count as a diet/wellness trend? Been seeing a lot more of that kind of thing lately, and Alexis Nelson (@blackforager) is deservedly blowing up on IG.

Tie for Worst and Weirdest take: Christiane Northrup's unhinged, everything-including-the-kitchen-sink conspiracy "theories" about the COVID vaccine. https://www.pressherald.com/2021/05/02/meet-christiane-northrup-doctor-of-disinformation/

Fad diet: intermittent fasting. 🙄🙄😐.

GRIFTIEST: someone has to address Dr. Oz’s senate campaign. WEIRDEST: the wellness to QAnon pipeline is bonkers to me.

FAD DIET: intermittent fasting 🙄 WEIRDEST TREND: "nature's cereal" 😑 SUPERFOOD: activated charcoal or alkaline water 🥴 GRIFTIEST GRIFTER: Noom 😒 IN MEMORIUM: bulletproof coffee 👋

Best - Jonah Hill and his take on the harm of commenting on people's bodies Worst - Noom and its crazy advertising

Ok this is a little bit of an unusual one for the best take category but I think it can fit since money is so intwined with health and wellness in this country (and a key social determinant of health!). I just learned about the actor Ben McKenzie's crusade against crytpo and the celebrities that are promoting it to their audiences of probably mostly inexperienced investors. https://slate.com/technology/2021/10/ben-mckenzie-crypto-celebrities-kardashian-brady-lohan.html https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/11/23/kim-kardashian-crypto-ben-mckenzie-js-orig.cnn

Fad diet: this was apparently the year my coworkers discovered intermittent fasting, and great GOOGLY did they manage to take it to a whole other level of annoying.

Well seeing as it's the end of the year, all of the Cleanse 2022 diets are being advertised like crazy. This reviewed killed me. https://coveteur.com/clean-21-review. I didn't even miss food! Also, a very serious mention of all of the people of privilege in early COVID days (and I am sure many are still at it but I have blocked them) who prefer to rely on their precious moon-juiced farm-raised goopified immune systems instead of vaccines. Because the rest of the world can quarantine safely with 25 dollar sex dust.

Best health and wellness take: Alexis Nikole on TikTok made a great video about how the best thing you can do for the environment is to eat as much locally grown food as possible!! Veganism is touted as being "good for the environment" across the board but that is not true if your foods are decimating the local economies and and areas from whence they came.

Weirdest trend has to be ivermectin for COVID right? I mean it's literally making people shit out their intestines in the name of health. Fad I would say 75 HARD because it's been all over my FYP on TikTok for the last year. Griftiest grifter would have to be Joe Rogan and all the other alt right influencers making coin on bogus COVID folk medicine. In memoriam I would say Peloton? I feel like everyone got them during lockdown in 2020 but I haven't seen people talking about actually using them as much in 2021

What was the BEST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? Fauci for sure What was the WORST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? I also agree on Aaron Rogers What was the WEIRDEST wellness trend of 2021? The bowl method---using a mixing bowl to help give you better curly hair What was the FAD DIET your friends, family and coworkers wouldn’t stop talking about in 2021? Noom Who was the GRIFTIEST GRIFTER of 2021? Planet Fitness What was the "SUPERFOOD" of the year? Eating only raw fruit for breakfast IN MEMORIAM: What was the wellness trend that fell off the radar in 2021? Does anyone care about kale anymore?

Shout out to my favorite health influencer - @thenutritiontea Fad diet - my parents AND GRANDPARENTS jumped on the intermittent fasting trend in 2021. Weirdest wellness trend - The Peloton obsession. I like the classes but I think it is a cult?

A lot of people already said it and it might be because I work in tech but if I hear another coworker talk about intermittent fasting I may lose my mind. The bio hacking bros need to be stopped.

I guess it predates 2021 a bit but its still going strong so have to nominate crystals for weirdest wellness trend. Like what, its a rock!

Superfood: what about collagen?

Everyone in my circles was talking about Optavia, especially because it is apparently the MLM diet of choice among observant Jews because it’s kosher. Since it’s my “niche” I heard way too many stories about people selling Optavia in Jewish communal spaces (synagogues etc.). I wrote a wee bit about it here (but mostly by allusion): https://www.heyalma.com/weight-loss-is-not-a-jewish-value/

In Memoriam: Gluten-free – I’m Coeliac and I have a love-hate relationship with the wellness industry picking up gluten-free diets - but either way it’s really fallen off the map recently - in the UK at least.

What was the BEST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? What was the WORST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? Aaron Rogers on immunity What was the WEIRDEST wellness trend of 2021? Herbalife Nutrition Clubs (One just opened up where a lovely coffee shop used to be....) What was the FAD DIET your friends, family and coworkers wouldn’t stop talking about in 2021? Noom or elimination diets Who was the GRIFTIEST GRIFTER of 2021? Joe Rogan What was the "SUPERFOOD" of the year? kombucha IN MEMORIAM: What was the wellness trend that fell off the radar in 2021? paleo?

Please please please review Kinrgy (https://kinrgy.com/) by Julianne Hough. Cultural appropriation, "not a diet," all of the hits are there! I learned about this at an academic conference and it felt liberating to hate on diet and wellness culture together.

Hard to say this is the "worst" take from a celeb, but earlier this year our girl Gwyneth Paltrow did an interview where she said she "went off the rails" over the past year and *GASP* ate pasta, ate bread, and drank cocktails!!!

Fad Diet: 75 Hard. It's somehow all over my tiktok and who has the time to exercise twice a day for 45 min! Grifter: fucking Noom. They advertise SO HARD on Youtube. I'll be watching a video from an anti-diet commentator and get a Noom ad like what?! I realize that the creators don't necessarily get to pick their advertisers but it feels deliberate on Noom's part.

Best Take -- All the celebrities and athletes talking about mental health <3 Worst Take -- Before & after weight loss videos on tiktok/Instagram. WEIRDEST Trend -- MudWater (dirt/adaptogens and ???) as a substitute for Coffee. FAD -- Intermittent Fasting...what's privilege? CHOOSING not to eat. GRIFTIEST GRIFTER -- GP, GOOP is the grifty-gift that never stops grifting. SUPERFOOD -- Matcha and Green Tea had a nice resurgence this year. In Memoriam -- RIP Atkins

What was the BEST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? Generally speaking moving towards more virtual/accessible fitness What was the WORST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? For fitness clubs to reopen and pack gyms with unmasked people. What was the WEIRDEST wellness trend of 2021? for tiktok influencers with no degree in nutrition or personal training to become online nutritionists/personal trainers Who was the GRIFTIEST GRIFTER of 2021? every sports club that made it impossible to cancel memberships (like having to prove people are dead) What was the "SUPERFOOD" of the year? oat milk lol? IN MEMORIAM: What was the wellness trend that fell off the radar in 2021? That pitbull/tony robbins boxing gym in NY that you can pay with bitcoin to go to

Omg carnivore diet for suuuuuure as *the* fad diet

I second the Noom recommendations! For griftiest grifter and fad diet. Would collagen powder be a superfood? Cause Im seeing that ish in everything.

Wow, I thought intermittent fasting peaked like 5 years ago. Sucks that it's still such a thing. In better news, this sounds like a step in the right direction: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/dec/06/gps-in-england-to-prescribe-non-judgmental-exercise-classes-for-women

Weirdest trend: people over 45 going to the hospital for Delta 8. Thought it would help back pain, end up fully tripping out.

Not sure which category this fits in, but FUCK NOOM! One of their tag lines is "There's a Reason Diets Don't Work" WHILE THEY'RE FUCKING SELLING A DIET!!!! This one has felt like a cult to me since the first time I saw one of their ads.

WORST Celebrity: Aaron Rodgers

Weirdest trend: intermittent fasting and the fake nutrition stores that sell “nutritional” shakes that are full of sugar and are just Herbalife. Grifters: the disinformation dozen.

Fad diet: drinking a gallon of water or your weight in oz. Per day.

Griftiest grifter: Noom! The most triggering commercials when I’m eating dinner. My least favorite boss used to work for them. Please do a Noom epi!

Wellness trend that fell off: Treadmill desks

In memoriam: Whole30. a couple years ago everyone in my circle would. not. shut. up. Now all they talk about is intermittent fasting.

Best Health and Wellness Take - Simone Biles protecting herself by not performing when it wasn't safe. The GOAT for so many reasons!

"Superfood": Herbalife loaded teas and shakes from their "health clubs" that have popped up on almost every corner in North America, Australia, and probably other continents.

Fad diets: Keto and intermittent fasting. Also does the fad of drinking copious amounts of water all day count?

In Memoriam - crossfit!

Superfood- lots of oats everywhere for some reason.

Fad Diet: EVERLYWELL. Would make a great episode because the pseudoscience is strong with this one and duped even my friend who is a nurse despite not holding up to any critical thinking or scrutiny. They’re ads upset me to my core because it’s basically “I totally think I have allergies but my doctor said I didn’t. So I paid $100 for these people to tell me I’m allergic to everything I eat so I cut everything out and now I feel better THANK EVERLYWELL”.

Worst influencer take: very specific, but Jaclyn Hills "anti-inflammatory health journey", specifically the point where she said she wouldn't drink a juice because it wasn't healthy, but bought the juice to see what the ingredients are so she could use exactly the same ingredients to make a smoothie instead. Because obviously if something is a smoothie then it's so much healthier than when the same thing is a juice! This can be found in her YouTube series "Jaclyns Journey"... Possibly the fourth episode but I might be wrong!

Best take from influencers - I’ve seen a lot of discussion on Tiktok about how gym bro and fitness culture can often mask an eating disorder. There seems to be an increase in posts talking about how a lot of macro counting gym dudes might have eating disorders. This was followed by a lot of male fitness influencers telling people they just don’t understand

Superfood of the year: Athletic Greens! Yours might be the only podcast they don’t advertise on? Best celebrity: I like watching Jennifer Garner bake on her Instagram making tons of mistakes, using normal ingredients, enjoying herself Worst celebrity: Joe Rogan’s take on ivermectin etc etc Griftiest Grifter: Dr. Oz running for senate!!! No more Oz! In Memoriam: Hiding “healthy” things in food. Now people are boastful about their kooky ingredients.

2021 Fad Diet: People wouldn’t stop talking about intermittent fasting. In memoriam would be diets that eliminate foods high in fat such as butter, peanut butter, bacon, avocado. Not a specific person but media’s general obsession about “Quarantine Weight”. Superfood: matcha

Best influencer was thenapministry

Weirdest wellness trend was that BOO magic dirt. Here's an article. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/magic-dirt-internet-fueled-defeated-pandemics-weirdest-mlm-rcna6950

Best health and wellness take: registered dietitians on Tiktok giving free advice (with scientific papers to back up their claims) that promote balanced eating and destroying diet culture. Those people deserve an award.

Intermittent Fasting.... So tired of hearing how many hours folks have gone without eating 🙄

Favorite influencer: @thegirlsgonestrong

Worst take: eating bog dirt, vaccine "detox" baths, the "masks make you sick" people. Best take: most of the "influencers" I follow are my age which means they're having babies and actually offering good advice like not prioritizing weight loss and getting enough sleep/food. What's dead: evidenced by the fact that my 67yo FIL is doing it...keto! RIP keto. Weird new trend: It's not that weird but has the potential to be -- former group fitness instructors who branched out to do their own thing when the pandemic hit and offer their own digital/in-person classes. The lack of oversight could easily lead to culty stuff IMO. The star tribune in MN had an article last spring about a local Qanon yoga instructor that sort of illustrates this.

My friends won’t stop talking about Noom and intermittent fasting 🙄🙄🙄

griftiest grifter: gotta go with joe rogan and the ivermectin shit

Weirdest - adaptagens/mushroom coffees/teas that claim to solve literally every problem under the sun (and also taste disgusting)

Omg so many "good" ones suggested above. It will be difficult to name just one in some categories! In superfood or weirdest category, I'd definitely put that fulvic acid/organic dirt/"black oxygen." Or ivermectin. Worst take would be any antivax advice from Joe Rogan, Mercola, or the like. Actually maybe Mercola gets griftiest grifter.

intermittent fasting!! I can't seem to explain to my friends this is called anorexia :((((

Intermittent fasting and Noom are definitely the fad diets I hear friends, family, and influencers talk about the most and I'm dying for Maintenance Phase to do a whole episode about either one!

Weirdest trend: people in the EO cults (whoops, I mean MLMs) bragging about how "safe" they are and posting Topanga-esque photos with what looks like a damn oil slick all over their face. And sometimes all over their tongue. Then also forcing them on their kids when they've been proven to be dangerous for them.

Fad diet: another vote for intermittent fasting

Best health and wellness take: Ryan Reynolds posting a picture of getting vaccinated and saying "finally got 5G" Worst take: Nikki Minaj and that whole swollen testicles debacle Weirdest trend: ivermectin Fad diet: Noom Griftiest Grifter: Gonna have to go with Dr. Oz for jumping into the Pennsylvania Senate race to continue his long-con Superfood: This isn't quite on diet terms but man so many people in my weird-ass world are saying "We're safe from COVID because we took our vitamin C." Dude, not how ANY of this works! In Memoriam: Rachel Hollis

I am so excited about this, I have no words

Intermittent fasting and noom are the worst for sure. Worst wellness take IMO is Dr. Leana Wen tweeting that it’s a bad idea for Kristy Kreme to give free donuts to people who get vaccinated.

I'm still hearing people casually drop the fact that they're intermittent-fasting, so my vote would be for that diet. Peleton for fitness trend, hands-down. That may have been more of a 2020 thing, but I'd consider 2021 part of its epic arc. Finally, the griftiest of grifters has to be the all-time champion Joe Rogan, as he's really out-Roganed himself this year.

Weirdest trend was people on tiktok convincing themselves they had worms and eating papaya seeds to “cleanse” out the worms IMO

I had a very frustrating day today but this is something im so excited about BEST: Ann Reardon debunking fake tiktok cooking - could watch this a day WORST: nicki minaj 🤦🏻‍♂️ WEIRDEST: papaya seeds 🤷🏻‍♂️ FAD DIET: Still keto GRIFTIEST GRIFTER: Dr Oz (still) SUPERFOOD: liquid chlorophyll IN MEMORIAM: intermittent fasting?

2021 wellness trends: Every single IG Reel I see seems to promote Intuitive Eating and/or Fasting, and is usually paired with messaging about "losing COVID weight". While they are diets, they are framed as "lifestyles" and not diets.

Peloton and noom were the worst trends

Best influencer: Abbey Sharp

What was the BEST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? Tom Hanks What was the WORST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021? Nikki Minaj's cousin's balls What was the WEIRDEST wellness trend of 2021? "I thought [Crossfit][being vegan][my MLM shakes][being skinny] would protect me from Covid, which only takes the weak and worthless" What was the FAD DIET your friends, family and coworkers wouldn’t stop talking about in 2021? Out here in rural Texas, LuLaRoe-style nutrition shakes and supplements. Super popular on Facebook with the Q-crowd; also intermittent fasting Who was the GRIFTIEST GRIFTER of 2021? the 12 people convincing the practically-entire-internet not to get vaccines IN MEMORIAM: What was the wellness trend that fell off the radar in 2021? I'd agree with Lindsay Betzel above; people can't really Whole 30 with all our supply issues

Grifter: MLMs! (Plexus, Herbalife, Beach Body, Young Living and on and on.) Also, if I never hear another word about intermittent fasting it’ll be too soon. Would love an episode about it though!

for Fad Diet, I feel like KETO just wont die. I keep hearing about it over and over every time someone else starts it

Wellness: BOO - magic dirt. Also an MLM wellness episode would be amazing!!

I mean, for Memoriam it has to be accepting vaccines as a thing 95% of people did without question, right? I know it's not weight loss but still!

Fallen off the radar – say, whatever happened to oil pulling?? Gone and thankfully forgotten

cross fit has fallen off. ESP w the whole MTG craziness . She’s owns a few. Peloton and soul cycle are the new craze. Definitely cults. Jamella is a great one. I also love Alicia Mccarvell. Her content is great! Intermittent fasting is definitely still alive and well. It’s always a conversation w my clients

In memoriam: Keto. FINALLY.

Worst fad-diet: Noom - to take intuitive eating and mindfulness and warp them in such a manipulative and deceitful way that they serve as weight loss tools is actively harmful. (I'm an eating disorder dietitian, so I have a lot of feelings about this 🥴). Also keep up the amazing work, I love this podcast and many of my clients are avid listeners ❤

Weirdest wellness fad: COLLAGEN as a miracle cure. Collagen powder for energy, collagen powder for hair growth, collagen powder for skin, collagen powder for sleep, AGH. Pretty sure there is no concrete evidence that collagen supplements actually do anything but Aubrey/Mike PLZ ENLIGHTEN US

Griftiest grifter: I'm going to agree with Dr Oz

Noom. Noom Noom Noom Noom Noom. It’s a diet! But it wants you to think it’s not!

Fad diet: Prolon Cleanse!! So many influencers promote it!

the absolute worst health and wellness take from fitness influencers who overnight became MDs and epidemiologists, telling people how masks don't work and you need to diet and exercise to keep from getting Covid.

Fad diet in my circles is def is still intermittent fasting.

Superfood has to be elderberry, I swear about 5 businesses have popped up in my local area alone!

Fermented foods were the superfoods of 2021

Carnivore Diet. WHY? Just WHY? (Joe Rogan thing...WHY??!)

I love all of this sooooo much!!

BOO is woo. Herbalife shake shack fronts. Worst grifter Heidi Powell (Chris Powell's ex wife) and Dave Hollis (Rachel Hollis ex). The. Worst.

Superfood: Powdered collagen

the FAD DIET The Fast 800 was a nightmare. "Lose your covid stone in 3 weeks by starving yourself into a miserable little ball of hatred with Dr. Mosley"

Does it fit into the fad diet or weirdest wellness trend ?- the cult of Peleton, giving badges for over exercising, instructors with only stereotyped “fit” bodies, really annoying.

Turmeric lattes or just any of those “healthy” lattes … No alcohol cocktails … Konjac noodles instead of pasta … Health trackers…fitbits etc

fad diet: still hearing about keto and intermittent fasting

Best influencer: Virgie Tovar.

Best is probably Jonah Hill going on insta to tell people to just stop talking about his body full stop. "Good or bad, I want to politely let you know it’s not helpful and doesn’t feel good. Much respect." Couldn't put it better myself.

Superfood : Himalayan pink salt. Why is it in everything?!

Palæo and HighFatLowCarb is dead in my feed.

*Intermittent fasting*- actually recommended to me by a doctor. Without checking whether there was history of disordered eating I might add - emboldened by this podcast and you both, i responded . 'Please don't give permission to someone with an eating disorder that it's ok to not eat'. Sigh - Can i say Pelaton? not a diet - but ffs. In Memoriam - kale

If I could never again see an ad for intermittent fasting, I will die happy.

best take: Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher not bathing their kids until they are dirty 🤣 I love the controversy and also the fact that it's probably good for the kids' immune systems (among other things!)

IN MEMORIAM: In Ireland it was definitely Cocount Oil... You couldn't get away from coconut oil in 2019...not a sign of it now.

I feel like Whole 30 has finally died??

Excuse my exhausted inpatient RN bias but the wellness trend I’m OVER is taking medical advice from representatives from political parties and wellness gurus and not the provider. If I have to listen to one more family demand a specific treatment regimen, I might lose my fucking mind.

Best celebrity take: Jonah Hill w/ just stop talking about my body

Gwyneth Paltrow promoting “intuitive fasting”. Kill me!

Does Peleton count as a fad diet people wouldn't stop talking about? Because two of my best friends got them this year and would not stop trying to get me to buy one for my tiny apartment and how great the music is and wow I got this cute tank top for beating my goals have you seen CODY'S ABS??

Superfood of the year: ivermectin

"Superfood" - fulvic acid Specifically from Canada's very own (sca)MLM, Black Oxygen Organics. Here! Eat dirt! We harvest it from a bog near a landfill!

Best wellness/influencer take: @carriebradshawlied interview with Dr. Fauci. Worst celebrity/influencer take: anything related to covid misinformation? anti-inflammatory foods for covid? Fad diet: intermittent fasting (stillllllllll) or fake intuitive eating. Griftiest grifter: Rachel Hollis' ex-husband LOL. IN MEMORIAM: Whole 30 (thx u Jesus).

Weirdest fad: that black organic dirt stuff

FAD DIET: Intermittent fasting ??? I literally heard about this everywhere and from everyone. It sounds like a recipe for disorder eating.

Ivermectin as a cure for Covid- worst wellness trend. Joe “I’m just asking questions” Rogan- griftiest grifter

WORST health & wellness take from a celebrity or influencer in 2021 Gwyneth Paltrow for Vogue just applying a dot of SPF to the top of her nose was

CAN WE COOL IT WITH THE CHARCOAL?

with his recent announcement about a senate run (from NOT HIS STATE), "Dr" Oz deserves Griftiest Grifter! *shudders in horror*

Best take: pretty much anything Dr. Jen Gunter says. My personal favorite is the episode of her podcast where she debunks the idea that you need to drink a certain amount of water every day or else you would be secretly dehydrated without realizing it 🤣

Gyllenhaal and other dirty celebs talked about not washing themselves as often and had woo-woo feelings about it.

Honestly I know that this is an unpopular opinion, but I actually think the celebrities (Mila Kunis mainly) who don't frequently bathe themselves or their children us a BEST health and wellness take. Literally doctors were like, yeah, don't shower/bathe every single day and yet everyone acted like these people have poor hygiene. I used to shower daily because I loathed my body, and was afraid to be a fat person who stunk. But it's awful for my skin. And I assure you I don't smell bad. Bathing less isn't poor hygiene.

Fad diet - if I have to hear another member of my extended family talk about how great intermittent fasting is, I may not make it through Christmas haha. I think my main issue with how they talk about it is that it is always coupled with negative body talk and that the family members currently doing it are serial dieters who are always cycling through something. It is exhausting to hear about and sad to watch when we are together as a family and I hear someone say, "Sorry, no [insert food here] for me, it's not within my window". The diet encourages deprivation for extended periods of time (I had a coworker who had done up to 48 hours at a time) and binging during your "window", something about it just doesn't sit right with me.

Weirdest "wellness" trend: antivaxers lol

I feel like all the keto bros have dropped off the grid now that they can't parade around the office acting smug.

RIP: Eating "clean" (I hope. I haven't heard much about it lately)

This probably transcends a couple of your categories, but the Black Oxygen Organics dirt-eating thing has got to be in there somewhere.

The fad "diet" my family/friends will NOT shut up about is Noom.

Griftiest grifter - Lularoe leadership, for obvious reasons. Bonus points for pressuring people to go to the doctor they have in their pocket for bariatric surgery, as portrayed in the documentary called LulaRich. Yuck.

Memoriam --- I think Kale died and was replaced by "Green Superfoods".

I'm tempted to say something about ivermectin or any of the other super real very science covid treatments

Dr. Oz as griftiest grifter for suddenly becoming a conservative republican and running for the US senate in Pennsylvania...

Worst influencer take could include all of the tiktoker girls posting pro-ana/body checking trends

In memoriam: Whole 30? Haven't heard anybody talking about that in awhile, including a couple friends who used to not shut up about it.

Best influencer: Jameela Jamil

Fad diets- Intermittent fasting and Keto for sure, people I know swear by these methods and obsessively cycle through them. Best influencer- thenutritiontea

Best influencer @foodsciencebabe for debunking all the othroexia bullshit and food myths

I think the use of coconut oil and ACV for everything is thankfully falling/fallen off the radar in 2021. Also, this is brilliant.

Worst fad diet: carnivore diet 🙄

"SUPERFOOD" of the year ---- Can they possibly make any further variations on Kombucha or "pre/post/anti/kitty/whateverthehoot"-biotic drink after 2021?

God damn intermittent fasting is the trend I still hear about the most in my office and I'm so done

I nominate Nicki Minaj's COVID-19 vaccine tweet for worst celebrity take.

Yoga really fell off this year. Without the ability to do it in person, I feel like I have not seen a new yoga trend at all in 2021.

Jameela Jamil for Best celebrity/influencer take. I can't think of a specific take off the top of my head but I find her approach to the issue of health/wellness/fad diets to be really constructive on her podcast and her social media. She also hosted these really laid back Instagram live workout sessions where the goal was just to get your body moving and not to loose weight or get jacked and she would eat snacks while she was doing the exercises

In Memoriam could be paleo or keto. I feel like I stopped hearing about those. But that could just be because i muted them on all social media lol.

Wellness trend that fell off the radar: kale. The pandemic seems to have emboldened a lot of people to admit 1) they don't actually like kale and 2) that there are plenty of other green veggies out there to eat. (Kale chips excepted. Those remain popular because Americans will eat anything in chip form)

Noom for sure! It pretends it's about healthy choices but really it wants you to eat under 1000 calories a day.

Noom for sure. Also, I don't know if not famous instagram nutritionists count, but there are a lot of anti-diet dieticians on the internet doing really good work teaching people to get over food hangups.

Griftiest Grifter ---- I'm not sure if this fits, or if maybe future episode potential on.... ANY Beachbody personality and/or the Beachbody MLM and/or those f***ing containers and/or any of their overpriced supplements etc etc etc.

Noom for fad diet & grifter!

Apple Cider Vinegar for recent trend. My all time eyebrow raise goes to the fermentation craze aka Kombucha