The Goop Lab (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - The Health-Span Plan - full transcript

When I started goop in 2008,
I was like,

"My calling is something else besides,
you know,

making out with Matt Damon onscreen
or whatever."

And now, it's this modern lifestyle brand.

To me, it's all laddering up to one thing,
which is optimization of self.

Like, we're here one time, one life...

How can we really, like,
milk the shit out of this?

You have a hundred needles
in your face, Elise.

Just another day at the office.

The opportunity that we have
with the goop lab

is that, as a company,
we can go out in different groups



and go on a much deeper dive
into some of these topics

that our readers are curious about.

This is gonna be my first experience

- with mushrooms.
- Oh!

You have to let go of your ego.

So, what happens in a workshop?

Everyone gets off.

What the fuck are you doing to people?

We get to explore, like,
is this real? Do we feel better?

And grapple with some topics
that are hard

and embarrassing or shameful.

Isn't that beautiful?

Relax.

That was, like, next level shit.



So, are you guys ready to go out
in the field and make a ruckus?

- Yeah.
- You can handle it, right?

Hi.

Hi.

- How are you doing?
- I feel terrible.

Daffo, do you wanna do the cleanse?

I had a burrito for dinner.

Believe me, I'm aware.

I was salivating over it.

I mean, you were salivating

when I was describing
to you my chia pudding,

what I'm gonna eat tomorrow, so...

- I'm dying for chia pudding.
- That's...

Nothing has ever sounded more decadent
or delicious to me.

Ready to show the world
what it looks to turn 50?

Oh, God.

What? This is not fair at all.

You can make yourself
younger on the inside.

You're probably gonna
look younger as well.

I'm upping the stakes.

It's my one chance trying to be younger.

What about these women who can,
like, run marathons at 80?

- Golden Girls.
- Yeah.

Blanche got laid more in her 70s
than I did in my 20s.

I guess you never knew this was gonna be
part of your job title, right?

Oh, my God.

- Hi.
- Nice to meet you,

- Valter Longo.
- Nice to meet you, Valter.

- Hi. I'm Morgan. Nice to meet you.
- Hi, Morgan, how are you?

I think people everywhere
are incredibly concerned

with their appearance
and how they're aging physically.

Yeah, absolutely.

The medical system worldwide
has really been stuck on this,

"Let's wait until somebody has a disease."
And then we start treating them.

And we've been saying,
"Treat aging, extend health span,

you know, extend youth."

The problem, I think, with nutrition
is being that

- it never came as a medicine.
- Mm-hmm

And really, this is what I worked
30 years almost for is...

what can a doctor actually give you

that allows the person to live longer,
healthier?

- Right.
- It's also gonna help in the long run.

So, if you can do stuff that we know

is going to decrease the risk
of different chronic diseases,

then people can kind of figure out
what interventions work for them,

postponing the incidence
of these different diseases longer.

Morgan, what's your background?

Mostly in, kind of, bio-statistics

and basically how can we actually
measure the aging process,

and it's a very complex process.

There's so many different things
going on in aging.

So, really, how can we understand

at the entire kind of person level

and within each cell.

We're finding that your biological age

is more predictive of your mortality risk,

your risk of developing cancer,
heart disease, diabetes,

than your chronological age.

How fascinating.

So, we each kind of went
through an experiment,

and we each had a blood test
before we did varying protocols.

- Oh, dear,
- Oh, dear.

- Oh, my. Hi.
- Hi.

Kim, this is Gwyneth.

- Hi, how are you?
- How are you?

- Good, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.

Just another day at the office.

This skirt is, like, inappropriately short

for someone who's old enough
to be testing their biological age.

Your dress code age is 18.

Whenever someone asks me how old I am,

I never think that the answer's
gonna contain a "4."

I feel like I was just used to being
in my 30s and...

Yeah.

'Cause in my mind,
I was 28 for a really long time.

I was really excited to be in my 30s.

30s are good, 40s are way better.

I don't know.
I think that idea that you're letting go

of being identified as, like,

a woman of childbearing age.

And, like, we live in a culture where
that's such a critical component, right?

What comes with a lot of that is,
I think we're in that game unconsciously.

And then, I don't know, something happens
when you turn 40.

You just sort of don't really give a fuck,

and for me, it was, like, increb...
incredibly liberating.

I'd better win.

You'd better because you're the youngest.

I hope I win, as the eldest.

Are you excited to be 50?

- Hmm. Not really.
- No? Why?

I... I'm torn.

Isn't it hard, like, until you get there
and then you're like,

"Oh, actually, this is kind of great"?
Like, I freaked out before I turned 40

and then I was like, "This is great."

Yeah, the lead up
is more anxiety provoking.

I basically have been running off
no sleep, coffee, and alcohol

for, like, two years.

I think my adrenals
are gonna explode after this.

You'll come to retake my biological age,

and I'll be deceased.

What are the factors
that determines somebody's biological age?

So, for biological age,
when we measure it,

we try and make sure that we're covering
a lot of different systems in the body,

so we can really get an idea
of the overall age of the person.

So, we have a measure
for inflammation, metabolism,

kidney and liver function,
cardiovascular health.

And it's really kind of how those combine

to create your overall health
or biological profile.

Well...

How old are we?

I want to know.

- Do you know? Because we...
- Okay. I do know, yeah.

I'm so scared.

You all were younger biologically
than chronologically.

- So, yeah.
- How much?

- So, Wendy,
- Yes.

you were 48.4 biologically.

Okay.

48.4?

Yes, and I don't know if you want
to reveal your chronological age.

- 49.
- Yeah, 49 and a half, right?

- Okay, thank you, I don't need that.
- I'll give you the half.

No, I mean, the decimals matter.

- Elise, you were 37.9.
- Whoo!

How old are you now?

Thirty-nine and a half?

And, Gwyneth, you were 44.2.

- 44.2, how old am I? 46.
- Yeah

Yum! Why didn't I get that one?

- I have never been vegan.
- I have never been vegan.

I've never been vegan, either.
People think I've been vegan.

- I know. Right.
- People still think I'm vegan.

I get the stinky one.

I'm going super Mediterranean,

so I think the idea is pescatarian,
primarily vegan.

But it's the same thing you eat anyway.

Well, normally, I try to eat some red meat
and I eat poultry.

Are you ready for your diet, oldie?

I'm ready.

Let's see what my life is gonna consist of
for five days.

Wow.

This is all the food?

- Yeah.
- You must be joking?

It's actually kind of nice.

'Cause you don't have to think about
what you're gonna eat

'cause it's all in a packet.
It's like astronaut food.

You guys put me through, like,
the craziest shit.

You know you love it.

All right, let's see.
I imag... Is this is breakfast?

Okay, I've got an L-Bar, a nut-based bar.

I got some kale crackers, people.

I've got the, of course,
the requisite NR-1 vegetable powder.

Spearmint-lemon tea. Great.

Olives, that's fun.
I'm already excited for that.

And two soups.

- So, I guess this would be lunch, yeah?
- Lunch and dinner, yeah.

- This should be okay.
- You're fine. You'll be fine.

- But then it gets less food every day?
- It's a little bit less food every day.

Well, I'll certainly be a cheap date.

My kids are gonna bum out.

Every time I do a cleanse,
they're like, "Oh, no."

You get all grumpy.

Not to make anyone jealous here,
but I have pasta.

Well, I've got algal oil, so...

Sorry, not to brag...

I think what we'll see
is you're gonna kick my ass.

I'm just worried about the no coffee part.

I have to have coffee,

otherwise you're not gonna want
to deal with me.

So I'm sitting
in the grocery store parking lot,

looking like a real weirdo,
video taping myself.

But what are you gonna do?

The key apparently to aging well
inside and out is exercise,

which I also believe.

And so I just killed myself
on the dance floor

at Tracy Anderson for an hour.

I am drenched with sweat.

My face is the color of my shirt.

But you know what? No pain, no gain.

I'm trying to figure out
what I can make tonight for dinner,

so I think I'm gonna do some salmon
and some brown rice.

But, man alive, 50 bucks.

It's crazy.

We came to Costco to get some things

and normally,
we would go to In-N-Out Burger

across the street from Costco
for a little treat.

But we can't go today.

So sad.

So sad.

Ty, it's killing me on day one!

This is what's wrong with this diet.

My husband's shoving a croissant
in his face.

It's so good.

Pizza.

It's a little vegan pizza.

It's actually, pretty good, right?

- Yummy.
- Yummy.

Mama likes it, too.

I'm eating some kind of reconstituted...

soup with, um, quinoa,

possibly zucchini.

I'm not entirely sure.

I don't understand.
How do you reconstitute it?

Like, what was it before?

So, they freeze-dry it...

and now, we've reconstituted it
with water, so...

How's it taste?

Hmm.

This one's not so bad.

My mushroom soup today at lunch was...

really brutal.

It didn't...
The mushrooms didn't get spongy again.

Oh,
didn't get reconstituted appropriately?

Wendy was vegan.

No animal protein whatsoever,

- no dairy, right?
- Right, yes.

- Was there alcohol in yours?
- A little bit, just wine.

And then you did... pescatarian vegan.

Yeah, more or less.
A little bit of alcohol.

You guys suck, man. That is like...

- We did it for three weeks,
- We're not as hardcore.

and you did five days.

- So there's that.
- Yeah, but I've done...

I've done cleanses for longer than that.

No one can compete with Gwyneth Paltrow,
GP, aka guinea pig. I mean...

I am the pet guinea pig, it's true.

So, how did you come to connect fasting
to longevity?

Yeah, so I was a student of Roy Walford

back in the '90s at UCLA.

And he was famous for something
called calorie restriction.

So it was very simple intervention,
just eat less

and it turns out that calorie restriction
is extremely powerful,

but extremely detrimental
at the same time.

It prevents completely diabetes

and cuts cancer
and cardiovascular disease in half,

but then, it makes you anorexic
and gives you lots of problems

that have to do with infectious diseases
and wound healing, etc.

So since then, the effort was,

how do we get these incredible benefits

without having the detrimental effects?

Right.

When you're fasting,
incredible things happen.

The body starts looking for things
that are not working properly.

And we know this to be there,

because during development
when we're first born,

there are very clear mechanisms
that get rid of bad cells,

keep the good ones and let those
stem cells generate organs, right?

So, during the fasting then,
now the normal cells

and the good cells are saved

and they go into a protective mode.

The ones that don't behave,

the cancer cells,
autoimmune cells, etc.,

those are the ones that are targeted

and seem to be dying
at a much faster pace.

- That's incredible.
- Yeah.

There's a reset button
that all organisms push.

And that reset button makes the organism

younger, healthier, longer living.

Is it going?

- Okay, it's...
- Hello...

it's day three. I feel...

How do I feel?

I feel oddly weak.

Hmm. It's not really oddly.

True. This cleanse has been interesting

because... I, uh...

Usually, if I do a real detox, like I...

and my liver my detoxes,

I get really, like, agitated
and angry and stuff and...

I never noticed.

- Where we going?
- This way.

Um, and I feel pretty good.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.

- Fantastic.
- I mean...

You seem pretty good.

Other than the fact that I feel terrible.

Yeah, but you seem pretty good,
and you seem to have plenty of energy,

even though you're...

I mean, if I was on 800 calories,
I would be on the floor.

- Yeah.
- You're doing pretty well.

So, we're working on a package
about aging.

And when it comes to aging,
what are you all afraid of?

I don't know, just body failure.

Like, starting to feel like
you can't move around

or starting to feel like
your mind is starting to go.

Like, I'm young, and I know
this is a far way away, but...

Like, my big fear is being a burden

and being, like,
more of an annoyance than...

I just feel like I wanna live
my best years and then when it...

I don't feel like I need
to be struggling

- or be a burden.
- Totally agree.

Do any of you guys fear aging, like,
on your faces?

- Horrified of it.
- You are?

- My God. Yeah.
- That's so honest. Really?

Yeah, I'm horrified.

I am constantly putting stuff
on my face throughout the day.

I'm always in the bathroom, like...

- It's... yeah.
- Really?

It freaks me out, you guys.

- Sorry.
- Why?

I feel like for a long time,
it was my currency for relationships,

for doing well in high school,
for getting great jobs.

I don't feel that now, by any means,

but it felt like it was currency, really,
for success.

The fear too I have right now is

I don't want to be trying to maintain
a face that I have now,

instead of just honoring
the face that I have every year

as it's changing.

That scares me, too.

I think so many women fear
coming out of doctor's office,

looking like they have that one face.

Um...

so I understand what you're saying,
not wanting to do something like that.

But then what are the alternatives?

Well, a few of us are gonna try
some facial treatments.

Ideally things... I refuse...

I'm not shooting filler into my face.

I don't think anyone will,

so I think we're gonna try
some facial treatments

that are a little bit more natural.

So, I'm gonna do 100 needles in your face,

- Okay.
- Yeah, I know.

People think, "Oh, my gosh."

I mean, the nice thing about this is
what's happening is

we're building collagen naturally.

So, there's nothing in the needles, right?

There's no fillers or anything,
and so what happens is

your body's actually producing
its own collagen.

You have 100 needles in your face, Elise.

- That's crazy.
- So I'm gonna let you lay a bit with them.

Having a big birthday this year
is a little intimidating.

- Oh.
- Anything we can do to help.

The concept of it is,
is these little cones,

they stimulate collagen formation,
in addition to holding the skin back.

These devices, in general,

- last about nine months in the body.
- Okay.

Okay, so, Wendy, our first step

is going to be a couple
of numbing injections here.

You should feel the effect
in just a moment.

That was fast.

Amber, I think we're ready to get going.

So, Wendy, we will start on this side.

You might hear some crunching sounds
kind of close to the ear.

- Bothersome?
- No.

Great.

How was that tolerability-wise?

- Oh. Completely tolerable.
- It was okay?

- Yeah.
- Good.

And next, we're gonna give you a mirror.
I just want to see your reaction.

- Oh, great.
- Great.

Yeah, so you do see the puckering.

- A little bit of Joker action.
- Okay.

- Little bit of puckering.
- Yeah.

That's temporary.

Before you know it, it loosens up,
and you wouldn't even know it's there.

- Great.
- But you can see along the jaw line.

- Yeah.
- Looking good.

- Thank you.
- Excellent, you're welcome.

Okay, so now I'm home.

Cleaned it up a little bit.

Do you see mommy's boo-boos?

Do they look crazy? Do I look crazy?

Oh! Can I have a kiss?

Be gentle.

My son was not terrified by me,
so that's a step in the right direction.

Now I'm gonna collect
your golden broth...

- Oh, my God.
- from your own body.

My golden broth.

That's what I'm gonna call it,
"Gwyneth's Golden Broth."

Oh, my gosh.

So, now I'm gonna apply
the numbing cream for you.

Mmm.

They actually use PRP for wound healing.

Interesting. How does it work?

So, what it's doing is
it's causing your skin to resurface

and shed the dead skin cells.

It has all these growth factors in it.

Growth factors are amazing
for pigmentation.

Jeez, I'm really numb.

Good, that's what we want.

We're filling up really nicely, Gwyneth.

Barf.

I do like that it's, uh...

it's my own material.

It's not a toxin, you know.

People shoot a lot of weird shit
into their face.

Is the blood getting spun?

Yeah, she's spinning your blood.

It's slightly nauseating

to think about, like,
blood going back into your blood.

I can see that,
but I get excited about it,

because we're seeing
plastic surgeons use this.

We're seeing dental surgeons use it.

- Wow.
- It's incredible.

The results are...

So, it's healing as well?

It's healing as well.

Beautiful.

Oh, God.

It's gorgeous.

It grosses me out.

Okay.

- Should I be scared?
- Not at all.

You put it on the forehead?

Yes, and then I just needle this in.

How does that feel?
Can you feel anything?

- Oh. No.
- Great.

I thought this was gonna be,
like, blood all over the place.

- Well, we're not done yet.
- Oh.

I think it is catching on now,

that people are less looking
to do Botox and fillers.

- They're looking at doing things that...
- Yeah, for sure.

I think we've just seen overuse
of that stuff.

Sometimes you would look at somebody

and couldn't tell if they were
25 or 55, you know?

People want a more natural way.

- Aging gracefully, right?
- Yeah.

So, I'm gonna show you
what your skin looks like.

No, I'm just kidding.

Oh, look at that.

So, it's a bit pink in some areas.

You'll be pink tomorrow,
probably for about three days.

Wow! Thank you.

So, we also externally worked
on ourselves.

What did you do?

You had the hardest diet.

I had the hardest external treatment.
I did the threading.

Did you notice a difference?

I noticed a difference.
I think now they say,

you'll notice a difference
in another three months.

I think you look amazing.

- I thought you looked amazing before, too.
- Thank you.

But you look completely like yourself.

- Your skin looks beautiful.
- What did you do?

I did an acupuncture facial.

I got off the easiest
because my treatment was...

In every way possible.

Essentially, I almost fell asleep.

It was deeply relaxing.

And you?

- I did the PRP facial.
- I thought you looked...

I thought I looked, yeah...

- Pretty, like, rosy and vibrant.
- It was good.

My, uh, baby daddy was like,
"You look five years younger."

I think they're Band-Aids, right?

- They're very similar to drugs.
- Right.

I think, uh, the effort would be better

to be in rejuvenation
of the entire system,

which is gonna include the face.

We actually find that the biological age

- is correlated with your facial age, so...
- Interesting.

If you can make yourself younger
on the inside,

you're probably gonna look younger
as well.

What are we on? I'm on day three.
I'm at the end of the day.

Hmm. You just had dinner.

I just had dinner,
which I was so hungry for,

that I forgot to film it.

You had 500 calories today.

I think so.

So, how many days do you have left?

Like, two more days.

- You got it,
- I think tomorrow I have more food.

- Let me go get the thing.
- All right.

- Let's look.
- Okay. Hi, Daffo.

Okay, so my whole food,
every day comes in a box like this.

Gorgeous.

So, tomorrow I have...

Ooh. I have this nut bar in the morning,
which is really good.

And I get a dessert tomorrow...

- Yes!
- ...which I didn't get today.

Now, for the really decadent part,

four bags of tea!

Yay!

Oh, my God,
my mouth is literally watering.

I have really perfected

my strawberry-banana
vegan ice cream recipe.

Put a little granola on at the end.

It's beautiful.

- More?
- Yeah.

- Yummy?
- Yeah.

Yeah! It's delicious.

Not bad.

Who needs dairy?

Second to last night
before the end of this challenge.

I'm having some veggie chili.

Not that excited about it.

I'm feeling a little depleted.

I think 'cause everyone in my house
is sick.

And I'm weirdly feeling like I need meat,
also because I have my period.

Um...

So, I'm just feeling like...

all right, maybe I need
a little more sustenance.

A little more protein.

Well, it's day five.

And I'm dying, and I'm hangry.

The fifth day today I actually
kind of feel...

the worst.

It's weird, 'cause yesterday
I had felt, like, kind of amazing.

Today, so far this morning,

I'm feeling like I might... fall down.

Um, but I'm gonna see it through.

Okay, so after we each
kind of went through an experiment.

- What is our biological age?
- Yes. Are we allowed to know?

Who wants to know first?

- Go in the same order.
- Okay.

So, Wendy, you actually did not decrease.

- Oh!
- You stayed almost exactly the same.

- Okay.
- Elise, your finishing was 36.8.

- Oh, that's great.
- So, you lost about a year.

That's amazing.

And you thought you were not going to win.

Well...

And Gwyneth lost the most.

Um, so, you started at 44.2,
and you went to 42.5.

- Wow!
- You lost one and three quarter years.

That's so great! That's so cool.

It's funny, I've done
a million different crazy fasts.

I've tried everything,
but this one was pretty incredible.

I mean, I had a really amazing experience
doing it.

You can throw vegan out the window..

No, you just need to add fish.
You just need to eat how I ate.

- Yeah?
- Yeah.

So the vegan diet, um,
is definitely a very good diet.

But very difficult to maintain
a normal intake of proteins,

so it's not that surprising.

You get lots of good and lots of bad.
In the end, they cancel each other out.

Now when you go to the pescatarian,

you're starting to see all the good
and very little of the bad.

So, it's very good to start with that
with the fast-mimicking periods.

The idea is to do it maybe,
you know, three times a year.

Is five days really the max
that you can do?

Well, yes. I mean, if you go longer,
then you start seeing the problems.

And also you see, eventually,
the slowing down of metabolism,

and that slow down can last
even when you return to normal diet.

- And you don't want that. So we see that.
- No, we don't want that.

Other than diet, what would you say
is the second most important?

Is it sleep, is it stress?

It's everything you kind of know.

- Right.
- Don't smoke, exercise,

get sleep,

and it seems like genetics
plays a little bit of a role in it,

so, you know.

It's like you say, the tenants
of wellness are typically free.

- Yeah.
- It's true.

- But I think exercise is as important.
- Yeah, absolutely.

The data suggests
about 150 minutes a week,

of which maybe 10% should be
fairly strenuous.

- That seems to be ideal.
- I do more than that.

Paying attention to

not doing damage to yourself
if you want to be healthy.

So, I think that we really need
to start teaching this in medical schools

and have doctors that are trained
in health span,

and what I call "youth span."

We keep somebody young
as long as possible,

and after that,
you keep this person healthy

as long as possible.

- Yeah.
- That is so cool.

But, Valter, we need to have
a soup discussion.

Well, you know,

there's certainly room for improvement.

If I could make my own soup,
I would do that, like, four times a year.

So, you can go back to your french fries.

Oh, I'm back to my french fries.