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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Special Edition: The "Star" Treatment
Aired July 24, 2004 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Checking some of the top stories right now, just two days from now, the road to the White House takes a big turn. The Democratic national convention gets underway in Boston. Preparations are already in full swing this weekend and security is a top concern for convention planners.
As Democrats gather in Boston, President Bush is at his ranch in Texas. In his weekly radio address, Mr. Bush focused on the war on terror. He says his administration has already put into place many of the 9/11 commission recommendations to make the U.S. safer. The commission's final report was released two days ago publicly. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
Up next, a special edition of Anderson Cooper 360 with a look at some of the perks and privileges of being a star.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How far will celebrities go to lose weight in the unbelievable skinny on celebrity diets? A facelift in an hour? $1200 moisturizing cream? Hollywood's beauty secrets. Should you spend the money? Cupping candle burning, rocks and magnets. Some claim they heal your body, mind and soul but do these celebrity trends really work.
And water everywhere but only certain brands get Madonna and Sting's approval. Find out what you don't know about h2o. This is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, ANDERSON COOPER 360: Hey there I'm Anderson Cooper. Welcome to the special edition of 360. Today a look at the star treatment or what some might call vanity insanity. Few people would argue that Hollywood sets the standard for beauty.
But you might be surprised how we follow suit. In the United States alone, 8.7 million cosmetic surgery procedures were performed last year that is a 32 percent increase over the previous year. The truth is most people don't just want to look like celebrities, they want to live like them, which means spending a lot of time and money obsessed with obtaining beauty and the beauty lifestyle.
But just how far are celebrities willing to go and what does it really feel like to get the star treatment? We begin today with celebrity diets. CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta sheds light on shedding pounds Hollywood style.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): So who cares how Hollywood keeps in shape? A lot of us apparently.
BONNIE TAOS IX, AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSN.: Someone says, oh, I drink milk everyday, and then all of a sudden it could become the milk diet. If it is someone who's you know really hot in the media.
GUPTA: A milk diet may be a stretch, but celebrities are usually the first to jump on the hottest weight loss craze. The latest on the bandwagon, colonics which flush several litters of water into the intestines, then draw it out along with waste. The We Care Spa in California says it treats droves of celebrity clients who indulge in detoxification regiment including daily colonics.
Colonic critics say you may lose too much water in the process and set your body chemistry off balance. How about a quick fix for fat called Mesotherapy? Dr. Marian Shapiro (ph) says mesotherapy can melt away fat cells and that her practice sees its own fair share of celebrities. A cocktail of herbs, vitamins and medications is injected into the middle layer of the skin where fat resides.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a noninvasive way of reducing their bodies without any obvious tell tale signs.
GUPTA: But many doctors are skeptical. There are no long-term studies suggesting Mesotherapy is safe or effective. Another hot trend, according to chef Sarmamellan Golless (ph), raw food with no meat, no dairy, no cooking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's something very sexy about it. So I think that is part of the appeal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a very fashionable crowd and very fashionable movement.
GUPTA: Model Carol Alt is writing a book advocating the raw food diet. Raw food has proclaimed benefits such as reducing allergies and extending life. They say cooking leaches vital nutrients but --
DIX: There could be a lack of vitamin B-12, vitamin D because we don't encourage dairy products.
GUPTA: But with so little research to support them, why do these weight loss plans have such celebrity appeal?
DIX: Celebrities are no different than the rest of us, and everybody basically wants a quick fix.
GUPTA: Most experts still agree moderation and not the latest celebrity craze is the better premise for your next diet.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Raw food, well so the question is, could celebrities really be on to something here? David Wolfe is considered a leading authority on this raw food nutrition. He wrote the book "Eating for Beauty." So David, what's the premise behind the raw food diet? I guess it's more of a lifestyle for you.
DAVID WOLFE, AUTHOR, "EATING FOR BEAUTY:" Yes, the basic idea is that when we showed up on the planet, we didn't have fire, we didn't have shoes, how did we live? Well it's easier to sneak up on lettuce than it is a rabbit so we probably ate mostly raw plants. And that is the basic idea or the premise behind the raw food.
COOPER: But fire and shoes are largely considered as progress. Isn't sort of cooking being able to cook things sort of progress?
WOLFE: Well that's an assumption, and I've been on a raw food diet ten years. I thought this makes sense. Every creature in nature it's raw food. Let me try this. Well I've been amazed and actually, the assumption that cooking makes food better or improves things is just that. It's an assumption and actually the scientific research in the area is actually proving otherwise. And...
COOPER: What's bad about cooking food in your opinion?
WOLFE: The major thing that's lost is water. This is why we have eight to ten glasses of water idea out there in the health world, because most people are dehydrated and that is because they're eating food that has no water in it. Other things that are involved are the loss of enzymes, and enzymes are catalytic factors that allow food to be digested easier and other things like fiber.
Fiber is much easier to accommodate in its raw form when we steam things or cook them, then we break down the fiber and we don't have that good peristaltic action moving through our intestines the way we should.
COOPER: Let me read you what the American Dietetic Association says about raw food diets. "The raw food diet may be high in fiber, low in cholesterol and calories. However because it restricts many important foods, it becomes a challenge to get all the nutrients the body needs. In your opinion what are some of the dangers of the raw food diet or are these converting to a complete raw food diet.
WOLFE: Yes, well this is a very important thing. I don't really recommend a complete raw food diet for most people. I think ADA is correct on that. I think what we need to do is get to raw organic food for 80 percent of our diet. Once we're there, that last 20 percent can be whatever we love. All those great foods we love.
And then you know what I found for myself doing that kind of a diet for about a year and a half, two years, I didn't even want that 20 percent anymore. I really enjoyed drinking vegetable juice and wheat grass juice more than having big dinners and I enjoyed being lighter. Because I think what's happening in our country is we eat way too much.
And when you eat raw organic food, then you have food that has minerals in it, your appetite is decreased substantially. This food is very cleansing. We call it sometimes -- "liquid plumber." Stuff moves through you very fast. And it may be unpleasant, because we've got to get through a workday and we have to have something that's fun too and we don't want to be in what we call this detoxification process too much. And we just start out slow. We start building in fruits and vegetables.
COOPER: Why do you think it is we hear so much about celebrities doing diets like this? They seem to be some would say in the forefront of these kinds of diets?
WOLFE: Well I work with a lot of celebrities behind the scenes and screenwriter in Hollywood and I think that's what is happening is there's a buzz in Hollywood about raw food. And why is that? Because your skin glows. You feel great, you feel light. You don't have all the intestinal discomfort.
That's really important when you're in Hollywood because you've got to have that edge. I met with Angela Bassett the other day. What a beautiful woman. She's been on a raw food diet now I think about two years. And I thought she looked 30 years younger than she is. I couldn't believe it; I was like that is you. It was incredible.
COOPER: And you say losing weight is quite easy on this.
WOLFE: I've had seminars that I have done; I've done about 700 seminars over the last ten years in America. And I've had seminars, like I was in Richmond, Virginia, and there were five women in the front row, each had lost over 100 pounds, two of whom had lost over 150 pounds eating raw food for 90 to 95 percent of their diet as much as they want.
Avocados, fruits and vegetables, having nuts and seeds, having herbs, wheat grass, different things we don't hear about often in the mainstream media but are very important. Things like spirulina and bee pollen, which are more, oriented toward the health food world but need to come out in mainstream society more.
COOPER: It is a fascinating subject. I didn't know anything about it, David Wolfe thanks.
WOLFE: Thank you so much.
COOPER: Coming up next on this special edition of 360, you won't believe what Hollywood is willing to pay and do to win the war against wrinkles and cellulite. Do the treatments actually work and would they work for you? A look at that. And they wear rocks for spiritual powers and indulge in cupping for physical well-being. Discover how Hollywood heels.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do it to me Morris, do it to me now. I need it. You're the only one who does it the way I like it. You're the king.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alyse (ph), if I give you any more collagen, your lips are going to look like they got stuck in a pool drain. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Goldie Hawn's character in the "First Wives Club" saw a youthful glowing face. Isn't everyone these days? Collagen injections, Botox facials are all the rage in Tinsel Town and even us mere mortals aren't afraid to shell out the cash for beauty. Researchers suggest that Americans spent a whopping $1.15 billion on anti-aging cosmetics.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen reveals some celebrity beauty secrets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): You may not recognize this woman. But in the celebrity world, she's a celebrity. Tracy Martin, facialist to the stars.
KERRY DIAMOND, HARPERS BAZAAR BEAUTY EDITOR: She's got clients like Liv Tyler, Susan Sarandon, the designer Diane Von Furstenberg, Iman and they all swear by her.
COHEN: For celebrities the sky's the limit when it comes to their faces.
DIAMOND: It's all about super high tech creams; it is about high tech treatments that you can get at the dermatologist. Because when you're a celebrity, your face is everything.
COHEN: And that's why celeb's dish out $387 for a one-hour Tracy Martin facial. Her claim?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very mild electrical current and it actually helps to reduce puffiness and to help redefine and contour the jaw line.
COHEN: For a celebrity, spending $300 for less than two ounces of skin cream is all in a day's work and how about this?
DR. FRANCESCA FUSCO, DERMATOLOGIST: When I turn this unit on, what's going to happen is 2,000 yellow tiny lights will start to flicker. And it will last for about 30 seconds.
COHEN: And those 30 seconds cost $150. So are flashing lights and electrical currents not to mention $1,200 skin creams better than the stuff the rest of us buy at the drugstore? We asked dermatologist Dr. Ron Shelton.
DR. RON SHELTON, AMER. ACADEMY OF DERMATOLOGY: The problem is that we don't have enough scientific evidence for many of these treatments.
COHEN: In fact, by and large, claims on non-prescription skin products and treatments are not regulated by the government. So manufacturers are free to say all sorts of things. Dr. Shelton's advice?
SHELTON: If you use a good old facial moisturizer in the average drugstores, I think they'll be fine.
COHEN: These products while maybe star quality are good enough for the rest of us. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: It's all about the packaging. I talked about today's Hollywood's beauty obsession with Paula Begoun. She wrote a book "Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me." What is in a $1,200 bottle of moisturizer?
PAULA BEGOUN, AUTHOR, "DON'T GO TO THE COSMETICS COUNTER WITHOUT ME:" Well it depends on the moisturizer. Sometimes really good stuff, I don't know that I would so much agree with what the doctor just said. I don't know that just any old moisturizer. There are some brilliant state-of-the-art ingredients out there very exciting and can do wonderful things. But expensive doesn't tell you that you're getting the great ingredients.
There's plenty of expensive products that are really containing nothing, just wax and water and then there's some inexpensive products that are brilliant and vice versa. In other words, expensive doesn't tell you, you are getting anything. Here's one of the more shocking things as I was looking at your video. These fancy products that these celebrities and any woman can buy often come in jar containers.
So all of these exotic ingredients end up being unstable in packaging that isn't airtight. A jar package isn't airtight. After a few openings all those sexy beautiful ingredients we hope are going to do something for our skin at $200, $300, $1,200 a pop in a jar is a waste of money. It's a burn. It would be ineffective after five days.
COOPER: Twelve hundred dollars evaporating before our eyes.
BEGOUN: There you go.
COOPER: So what do you reckon -- what's the big mistake people make when they go to the beauty counter?
BEGOUN: They don't walk home with a well-formulated sunscreen. I can't think of anything more bizarre given everything we know about sun damage, about the sun affects free radical damage, everything about anti-oxidants is a lot about sun damage and we go home without a sun screen, $500 skin care routine and not a sun screen in the group is bizarre and it's bad skin care.
The other thing is that we believe what the salespeople tell us so it's going to lift and fight gravity and this physician did this one, this celebrity is using it. It starts getting crazy. I mean, you know, after reviewing 30,000 products, there's a lot of great products out there, but there's also a lot of ones that waste money and wasting money ain't pretty.
COOPER: Well yes, I mean celebrities seem to enjoy it. For the rest of us, it's not a good thing. Celebrities have access to home Arnie Cline's (ph) home phone numbers; they can call up and get beauty tips whenever they want. What do you recommend for people, what products do you recommend for people who don't have the money, who don't have the dermatologist to the stars?
BEGOUN: Well actually I think there are some brilliant options out there. At the drugstore. I think for sunscreen, you can look at Olay Regenerist should be well under $20 bucks, for foundation with sunscreen you can look at Revlon. Well under $20 bucks. I think that for you know, fancy antioxidant kind of products, you could look at some Neutrogena healthy defense products.
There's so many options out there. A little bit higher end but definitely less expensive than that fancy stuff is Clinique's repair wear. By the way Estee Lauder, that $1200 product from Creme de la Mer that you were showing, owns Clinique Creme de la Mer is also owned by Lauder Corporation so you might as well walk over to the Clinique counter making the same claims as the Creme de la Mer stuff. And a lot for less money.
COOPER: All right, Paula Begoun, thanks very much.
BEGOUN: Thank you.
COOPER: And coming up, they use cups and rocks for healing. High profile celebrities try to unlock the secrets of health and spiritual well being. But do these remedies really work and would they work for you?
Plus, celebrities in the know about designer h2o. That is right, designer h2o, is it healthy for you or just the latest status symbol? Getting hip to the hydration hype.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: When it comes to healing the body, mind and soul, Hollywood doesn't take a chill pill as CNN's Adaora Udoji found out; celebrities go to unusual lengths to nurture inner beauty and peace.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Feeling good a full time job for celebrities, their passions for alternative therapies like the mysterious red circles on Gwyneth Paltrow's back curiosities. Paltrow was seeking pain relief from cupping, an ancient form of acupuncture said to heal. J-Lo and Courtney Cox have been given possession protectors made of stones meant to maintain good spirits.
At Susan Ciminelli's upscale New York City salon, she offers crystal therapy. Eighteen years ago a skeptic until she found they helped her painful skin condition.
SUSAN CIMINELLI, CRYSTAL THERAPIST: Crystals vibrate, they have a frequency and we can't see it, the human eye is not trained to see that, but they have a frequency that resonates with your body's own natural frequency. UDOJI: Richard Gere and Sharon Stone are said to believe. For Britney Spears, demands of the stage reportedly call for volcanic rock therapy or hot stone massage. Celebrity or not, a national institute for health survey found 36 percent of Americans use alternative therapies.
BETH LANDMAN, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: I think that people in general are drawn to a more holistic approach and if they don't have to pop an aspirin or if they can do something else that feels more natural.
UDOJI: There are few scientific studies on whether they work.
LANDMAN: Sting is supposed a body treatment junkie.
UDOJI: But many therapies like Reiki and equinox have thrived for centuries even if the famous are just discovering them now. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Next on this special edition of 360. Celebs paying big bucks for water, designer water. Does it really make them look younger, healthier and more beautiful or are they just swallowing marketing hype?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: So many different kinds of water. If all water makes you a little thirsty, listen to this. Americans drank over 6 billion gallons of bottled water last year, I fact bottled water consumption has surpassed beer, coffee, milk and the second only to soft drinks. And for celebrities, water can be a status symbol as CNN's Jason Bellini found out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Word leaked from Madonna's wedding, Voss water was served. Quickly the sleek Norwegian beauty, which boasts of its purity, went "a" list. It acquired "Sex in the City" sass" and MTV star power. Not to be outdone, Penta says it molecularly restructures tap water. It uses a seven-step reverse osmosis process and it claims to make its water more easily absorbed.
DIANE IRONS, AUTHOR, "AGE DEFYING BEAUTY SECRETS:" Ellen DeGeneres loves it and Sting says it's so good, it's like a finely tuned instrument.
BELLINI: Some establishments have become celebrations of designer waters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very gentle.
BELLINI: The Abigail Stoneman Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, offers more than 20 different waters from around the world. It's called a water bar. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, let's try that.
BELLINI: Do guests ever look at you funny when you tell them we have a water bar?
WM BAKER, OWNER, ABIGAIL STONEMAN INN: Yes they do sometimes and usually the reason they'll ask that is they will say the waters can't really be all that different. Are they? We'll say why don't you find out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's harsher.
BELLINI: Jason Rubin wants to make this a special occasion for his girlfriend.
JASON RUBIN: When we first started looking for places to come, you know this is probably the biggest selling point really.
BELLINI: The water?
RUBIN: Yes.
THEODORA POLLACK, ABIGAIL STONEMAN INN: She doesn't know it but is he asking her to marry him this evening.
RUBIN: Do you have just the right water for this occasion?
POLLACK: I think so. I think Voss is just the right water. One of our guests described it this way. He said Voss is just the right water. One of our guests described this way. He said Voss is like you're being enveloped in a cloud.
BELLINI: She said yes. There's such a thirst for sophisticated h2o there's even a Web site devoted to it. FineWaters.com offers advice on marrying appropriate stem wear and temperature, depending on food.
Bottled water is an $8.3 billion a year industry. Store shelves cascade with vitamin waters, fruit flavored waters, even smart waters infused with electrolytes.
BAKER: Even among distilled waters, you can only taste some of them have more mineral contents.
BELLINI: Do you distilled waters run deep?
BAKER: They do, not as deep as sparkling water.
BELLINI: Unless you know better even the very best taste like water. Jason Bellini, CNN, Newport, Rhode Island.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Talking more about water worship and celebrities with Robin Vitetia-Miller, contributor to "Health" magazine. All these different kinds of water. This has Voss water. A measly cool package. They call themselves, they say it's from a virgin aquifer; it is an Artesian water from Norway shielded for centuries in ice and rock. Isn't all water shielded for centuries?
ROBIN VITETIA-MILLER, "HEALTH" MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTOR: Exactly. All water is shielded for centuries in ice and rock. It is a beautiful package.
COOPER: Right, it is a great package.
MILLER: And if that is what it is going to take for you to drink water. Than that is the way it is.
COOPER: Is a lot of this stuff packaging?
MILLER: A lot of it is packaging. And hype you saw on the package that Madonna had it. It really is who's drinking what water, how is it packaged. But I will tell you what if it's going to help you stay hydrated, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
COOPER: There is another water Penta advertises a molecular, I can't even say it molecularly restructured water with smaller molecular clusters. Is it really possible, and B, does that really matter?
MILLER: Well it is possible. And what they did, the reason they did it is so these little molecular clusters can enter your cells more quickly. Do we need that? Our bodies are pretty smart. We're 90 percent water anyway. The water kind of gets in and out of the cells on its own. However --
COOPER: You drink enough, you're going to be hydrated.
MILLER: Your going to be hydrated. But that is their claim is that it gets into your cells more quickly so you get hydrated faster which is better for your looks and your athletic performance and your smarts. So that's the hype.
COOPER: All right so packaging aside, I mean is drinking tap water so much worse than drinking some of this expensive bottle water.
MILLER: I will you what there are some pros and cons, I mean tap water is certainly with the EPA regulations, tap water is great. And there are minerals in tap water like fluoride for example that your kid's need that you don't find in a lot of these bottled waters. However tap water is not portable. So if you need to drink the six to eight glasses that we are suppose to get every day, eight-ounce glasses and you are going to carry a bottle around to get that, that's a plus.
COOPER: Or could you take the cool package and just fill it up with tap water.
MILLER: Right use the package once and then nobody will know you're drinking out of your tap. COOPER: Water has never been advertised on this show ever. After this. Let me ask you this, I mean it can be pretty pricy, this Voss thing is apparently is $4 in stores, but can be like $10, $15 bucks in hotels and stuff.
MILLER: Yes, absolutely in hotels for sure. It's very expensive. And I will tell you what, I think it's a good plan is to buy and you know you pay sometimes for the vitamins and the minerals and the nutrients that are added which is not necessarily a bad thing either. Some of these that we mentioned the vitamin waters and the smart waters is not bad, you're paying for some of that. However you don't need it as your sole source of water. Tap water is certainly fine.
COOPER: All right, good message your sending. Robin Vitetia- Miller thanks very much.
MILLER: Thanks.
COOPER: Well thanks for joining us for this special edition of 360. The star treatment, I will see you Monday through Friday, 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired July 24, 2004 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Checking some of the top stories right now, just two days from now, the road to the White House takes a big turn. The Democratic national convention gets underway in Boston. Preparations are already in full swing this weekend and security is a top concern for convention planners.
As Democrats gather in Boston, President Bush is at his ranch in Texas. In his weekly radio address, Mr. Bush focused on the war on terror. He says his administration has already put into place many of the 9/11 commission recommendations to make the U.S. safer. The commission's final report was released two days ago publicly. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
Up next, a special edition of Anderson Cooper 360 with a look at some of the perks and privileges of being a star.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How far will celebrities go to lose weight in the unbelievable skinny on celebrity diets? A facelift in an hour? $1200 moisturizing cream? Hollywood's beauty secrets. Should you spend the money? Cupping candle burning, rocks and magnets. Some claim they heal your body, mind and soul but do these celebrity trends really work.
And water everywhere but only certain brands get Madonna and Sting's approval. Find out what you don't know about h2o. This is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, ANDERSON COOPER 360: Hey there I'm Anderson Cooper. Welcome to the special edition of 360. Today a look at the star treatment or what some might call vanity insanity. Few people would argue that Hollywood sets the standard for beauty.
But you might be surprised how we follow suit. In the United States alone, 8.7 million cosmetic surgery procedures were performed last year that is a 32 percent increase over the previous year. The truth is most people don't just want to look like celebrities, they want to live like them, which means spending a lot of time and money obsessed with obtaining beauty and the beauty lifestyle.
But just how far are celebrities willing to go and what does it really feel like to get the star treatment? We begin today with celebrity diets. CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta sheds light on shedding pounds Hollywood style.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): So who cares how Hollywood keeps in shape? A lot of us apparently.
BONNIE TAOS IX, AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSN.: Someone says, oh, I drink milk everyday, and then all of a sudden it could become the milk diet. If it is someone who's you know really hot in the media.
GUPTA: A milk diet may be a stretch, but celebrities are usually the first to jump on the hottest weight loss craze. The latest on the bandwagon, colonics which flush several litters of water into the intestines, then draw it out along with waste. The We Care Spa in California says it treats droves of celebrity clients who indulge in detoxification regiment including daily colonics.
Colonic critics say you may lose too much water in the process and set your body chemistry off balance. How about a quick fix for fat called Mesotherapy? Dr. Marian Shapiro (ph) says mesotherapy can melt away fat cells and that her practice sees its own fair share of celebrities. A cocktail of herbs, vitamins and medications is injected into the middle layer of the skin where fat resides.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a noninvasive way of reducing their bodies without any obvious tell tale signs.
GUPTA: But many doctors are skeptical. There are no long-term studies suggesting Mesotherapy is safe or effective. Another hot trend, according to chef Sarmamellan Golless (ph), raw food with no meat, no dairy, no cooking.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's something very sexy about it. So I think that is part of the appeal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a very fashionable crowd and very fashionable movement.
GUPTA: Model Carol Alt is writing a book advocating the raw food diet. Raw food has proclaimed benefits such as reducing allergies and extending life. They say cooking leaches vital nutrients but --
DIX: There could be a lack of vitamin B-12, vitamin D because we don't encourage dairy products.
GUPTA: But with so little research to support them, why do these weight loss plans have such celebrity appeal?
DIX: Celebrities are no different than the rest of us, and everybody basically wants a quick fix.
GUPTA: Most experts still agree moderation and not the latest celebrity craze is the better premise for your next diet.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Raw food, well so the question is, could celebrities really be on to something here? David Wolfe is considered a leading authority on this raw food nutrition. He wrote the book "Eating for Beauty." So David, what's the premise behind the raw food diet? I guess it's more of a lifestyle for you.
DAVID WOLFE, AUTHOR, "EATING FOR BEAUTY:" Yes, the basic idea is that when we showed up on the planet, we didn't have fire, we didn't have shoes, how did we live? Well it's easier to sneak up on lettuce than it is a rabbit so we probably ate mostly raw plants. And that is the basic idea or the premise behind the raw food.
COOPER: But fire and shoes are largely considered as progress. Isn't sort of cooking being able to cook things sort of progress?
WOLFE: Well that's an assumption, and I've been on a raw food diet ten years. I thought this makes sense. Every creature in nature it's raw food. Let me try this. Well I've been amazed and actually, the assumption that cooking makes food better or improves things is just that. It's an assumption and actually the scientific research in the area is actually proving otherwise. And...
COOPER: What's bad about cooking food in your opinion?
WOLFE: The major thing that's lost is water. This is why we have eight to ten glasses of water idea out there in the health world, because most people are dehydrated and that is because they're eating food that has no water in it. Other things that are involved are the loss of enzymes, and enzymes are catalytic factors that allow food to be digested easier and other things like fiber.
Fiber is much easier to accommodate in its raw form when we steam things or cook them, then we break down the fiber and we don't have that good peristaltic action moving through our intestines the way we should.
COOPER: Let me read you what the American Dietetic Association says about raw food diets. "The raw food diet may be high in fiber, low in cholesterol and calories. However because it restricts many important foods, it becomes a challenge to get all the nutrients the body needs. In your opinion what are some of the dangers of the raw food diet or are these converting to a complete raw food diet.
WOLFE: Yes, well this is a very important thing. I don't really recommend a complete raw food diet for most people. I think ADA is correct on that. I think what we need to do is get to raw organic food for 80 percent of our diet. Once we're there, that last 20 percent can be whatever we love. All those great foods we love.
And then you know what I found for myself doing that kind of a diet for about a year and a half, two years, I didn't even want that 20 percent anymore. I really enjoyed drinking vegetable juice and wheat grass juice more than having big dinners and I enjoyed being lighter. Because I think what's happening in our country is we eat way too much.
And when you eat raw organic food, then you have food that has minerals in it, your appetite is decreased substantially. This food is very cleansing. We call it sometimes -- "liquid plumber." Stuff moves through you very fast. And it may be unpleasant, because we've got to get through a workday and we have to have something that's fun too and we don't want to be in what we call this detoxification process too much. And we just start out slow. We start building in fruits and vegetables.
COOPER: Why do you think it is we hear so much about celebrities doing diets like this? They seem to be some would say in the forefront of these kinds of diets?
WOLFE: Well I work with a lot of celebrities behind the scenes and screenwriter in Hollywood and I think that's what is happening is there's a buzz in Hollywood about raw food. And why is that? Because your skin glows. You feel great, you feel light. You don't have all the intestinal discomfort.
That's really important when you're in Hollywood because you've got to have that edge. I met with Angela Bassett the other day. What a beautiful woman. She's been on a raw food diet now I think about two years. And I thought she looked 30 years younger than she is. I couldn't believe it; I was like that is you. It was incredible.
COOPER: And you say losing weight is quite easy on this.
WOLFE: I've had seminars that I have done; I've done about 700 seminars over the last ten years in America. And I've had seminars, like I was in Richmond, Virginia, and there were five women in the front row, each had lost over 100 pounds, two of whom had lost over 150 pounds eating raw food for 90 to 95 percent of their diet as much as they want.
Avocados, fruits and vegetables, having nuts and seeds, having herbs, wheat grass, different things we don't hear about often in the mainstream media but are very important. Things like spirulina and bee pollen, which are more, oriented toward the health food world but need to come out in mainstream society more.
COOPER: It is a fascinating subject. I didn't know anything about it, David Wolfe thanks.
WOLFE: Thank you so much.
COOPER: Coming up next on this special edition of 360, you won't believe what Hollywood is willing to pay and do to win the war against wrinkles and cellulite. Do the treatments actually work and would they work for you? A look at that. And they wear rocks for spiritual powers and indulge in cupping for physical well-being. Discover how Hollywood heels.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do it to me Morris, do it to me now. I need it. You're the only one who does it the way I like it. You're the king.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alyse (ph), if I give you any more collagen, your lips are going to look like they got stuck in a pool drain. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Goldie Hawn's character in the "First Wives Club" saw a youthful glowing face. Isn't everyone these days? Collagen injections, Botox facials are all the rage in Tinsel Town and even us mere mortals aren't afraid to shell out the cash for beauty. Researchers suggest that Americans spent a whopping $1.15 billion on anti-aging cosmetics.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen reveals some celebrity beauty secrets.
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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): You may not recognize this woman. But in the celebrity world, she's a celebrity. Tracy Martin, facialist to the stars.
KERRY DIAMOND, HARPERS BAZAAR BEAUTY EDITOR: She's got clients like Liv Tyler, Susan Sarandon, the designer Diane Von Furstenberg, Iman and they all swear by her.
COHEN: For celebrities the sky's the limit when it comes to their faces.
DIAMOND: It's all about super high tech creams; it is about high tech treatments that you can get at the dermatologist. Because when you're a celebrity, your face is everything.
COHEN: And that's why celeb's dish out $387 for a one-hour Tracy Martin facial. Her claim?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very mild electrical current and it actually helps to reduce puffiness and to help redefine and contour the jaw line.
COHEN: For a celebrity, spending $300 for less than two ounces of skin cream is all in a day's work and how about this?
DR. FRANCESCA FUSCO, DERMATOLOGIST: When I turn this unit on, what's going to happen is 2,000 yellow tiny lights will start to flicker. And it will last for about 30 seconds.
COHEN: And those 30 seconds cost $150. So are flashing lights and electrical currents not to mention $1,200 skin creams better than the stuff the rest of us buy at the drugstore? We asked dermatologist Dr. Ron Shelton.
DR. RON SHELTON, AMER. ACADEMY OF DERMATOLOGY: The problem is that we don't have enough scientific evidence for many of these treatments.
COHEN: In fact, by and large, claims on non-prescription skin products and treatments are not regulated by the government. So manufacturers are free to say all sorts of things. Dr. Shelton's advice?
SHELTON: If you use a good old facial moisturizer in the average drugstores, I think they'll be fine.
COHEN: These products while maybe star quality are good enough for the rest of us. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: It's all about the packaging. I talked about today's Hollywood's beauty obsession with Paula Begoun. She wrote a book "Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me." What is in a $1,200 bottle of moisturizer?
PAULA BEGOUN, AUTHOR, "DON'T GO TO THE COSMETICS COUNTER WITHOUT ME:" Well it depends on the moisturizer. Sometimes really good stuff, I don't know that I would so much agree with what the doctor just said. I don't know that just any old moisturizer. There are some brilliant state-of-the-art ingredients out there very exciting and can do wonderful things. But expensive doesn't tell you that you're getting the great ingredients.
There's plenty of expensive products that are really containing nothing, just wax and water and then there's some inexpensive products that are brilliant and vice versa. In other words, expensive doesn't tell you, you are getting anything. Here's one of the more shocking things as I was looking at your video. These fancy products that these celebrities and any woman can buy often come in jar containers.
So all of these exotic ingredients end up being unstable in packaging that isn't airtight. A jar package isn't airtight. After a few openings all those sexy beautiful ingredients we hope are going to do something for our skin at $200, $300, $1,200 a pop in a jar is a waste of money. It's a burn. It would be ineffective after five days.
COOPER: Twelve hundred dollars evaporating before our eyes.
BEGOUN: There you go.
COOPER: So what do you reckon -- what's the big mistake people make when they go to the beauty counter?
BEGOUN: They don't walk home with a well-formulated sunscreen. I can't think of anything more bizarre given everything we know about sun damage, about the sun affects free radical damage, everything about anti-oxidants is a lot about sun damage and we go home without a sun screen, $500 skin care routine and not a sun screen in the group is bizarre and it's bad skin care.
The other thing is that we believe what the salespeople tell us so it's going to lift and fight gravity and this physician did this one, this celebrity is using it. It starts getting crazy. I mean, you know, after reviewing 30,000 products, there's a lot of great products out there, but there's also a lot of ones that waste money and wasting money ain't pretty.
COOPER: Well yes, I mean celebrities seem to enjoy it. For the rest of us, it's not a good thing. Celebrities have access to home Arnie Cline's (ph) home phone numbers; they can call up and get beauty tips whenever they want. What do you recommend for people, what products do you recommend for people who don't have the money, who don't have the dermatologist to the stars?
BEGOUN: Well actually I think there are some brilliant options out there. At the drugstore. I think for sunscreen, you can look at Olay Regenerist should be well under $20 bucks, for foundation with sunscreen you can look at Revlon. Well under $20 bucks. I think that for you know, fancy antioxidant kind of products, you could look at some Neutrogena healthy defense products.
There's so many options out there. A little bit higher end but definitely less expensive than that fancy stuff is Clinique's repair wear. By the way Estee Lauder, that $1200 product from Creme de la Mer that you were showing, owns Clinique Creme de la Mer is also owned by Lauder Corporation so you might as well walk over to the Clinique counter making the same claims as the Creme de la Mer stuff. And a lot for less money.
COOPER: All right, Paula Begoun, thanks very much.
BEGOUN: Thank you.
COOPER: And coming up, they use cups and rocks for healing. High profile celebrities try to unlock the secrets of health and spiritual well being. But do these remedies really work and would they work for you?
Plus, celebrities in the know about designer h2o. That is right, designer h2o, is it healthy for you or just the latest status symbol? Getting hip to the hydration hype.
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COOPER: When it comes to healing the body, mind and soul, Hollywood doesn't take a chill pill as CNN's Adaora Udoji found out; celebrities go to unusual lengths to nurture inner beauty and peace.
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ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Feeling good a full time job for celebrities, their passions for alternative therapies like the mysterious red circles on Gwyneth Paltrow's back curiosities. Paltrow was seeking pain relief from cupping, an ancient form of acupuncture said to heal. J-Lo and Courtney Cox have been given possession protectors made of stones meant to maintain good spirits.
At Susan Ciminelli's upscale New York City salon, she offers crystal therapy. Eighteen years ago a skeptic until she found they helped her painful skin condition.
SUSAN CIMINELLI, CRYSTAL THERAPIST: Crystals vibrate, they have a frequency and we can't see it, the human eye is not trained to see that, but they have a frequency that resonates with your body's own natural frequency. UDOJI: Richard Gere and Sharon Stone are said to believe. For Britney Spears, demands of the stage reportedly call for volcanic rock therapy or hot stone massage. Celebrity or not, a national institute for health survey found 36 percent of Americans use alternative therapies.
BETH LANDMAN, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: I think that people in general are drawn to a more holistic approach and if they don't have to pop an aspirin or if they can do something else that feels more natural.
UDOJI: There are few scientific studies on whether they work.
LANDMAN: Sting is supposed a body treatment junkie.
UDOJI: But many therapies like Reiki and equinox have thrived for centuries even if the famous are just discovering them now. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Next on this special edition of 360. Celebs paying big bucks for water, designer water. Does it really make them look younger, healthier and more beautiful or are they just swallowing marketing hype?
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COOPER: So many different kinds of water. If all water makes you a little thirsty, listen to this. Americans drank over 6 billion gallons of bottled water last year, I fact bottled water consumption has surpassed beer, coffee, milk and the second only to soft drinks. And for celebrities, water can be a status symbol as CNN's Jason Bellini found out.
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JASON BELLINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Word leaked from Madonna's wedding, Voss water was served. Quickly the sleek Norwegian beauty, which boasts of its purity, went "a" list. It acquired "Sex in the City" sass" and MTV star power. Not to be outdone, Penta says it molecularly restructures tap water. It uses a seven-step reverse osmosis process and it claims to make its water more easily absorbed.
DIANE IRONS, AUTHOR, "AGE DEFYING BEAUTY SECRETS:" Ellen DeGeneres loves it and Sting says it's so good, it's like a finely tuned instrument.
BELLINI: Some establishments have become celebrations of designer waters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very gentle.
BELLINI: The Abigail Stoneman Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, offers more than 20 different waters from around the world. It's called a water bar. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, let's try that.
BELLINI: Do guests ever look at you funny when you tell them we have a water bar?
WM BAKER, OWNER, ABIGAIL STONEMAN INN: Yes they do sometimes and usually the reason they'll ask that is they will say the waters can't really be all that different. Are they? We'll say why don't you find out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's harsher.
BELLINI: Jason Rubin wants to make this a special occasion for his girlfriend.
JASON RUBIN: When we first started looking for places to come, you know this is probably the biggest selling point really.
BELLINI: The water?
RUBIN: Yes.
THEODORA POLLACK, ABIGAIL STONEMAN INN: She doesn't know it but is he asking her to marry him this evening.
RUBIN: Do you have just the right water for this occasion?
POLLACK: I think so. I think Voss is just the right water. One of our guests described it this way. He said Voss is just the right water. One of our guests described this way. He said Voss is like you're being enveloped in a cloud.
BELLINI: She said yes. There's such a thirst for sophisticated h2o there's even a Web site devoted to it. FineWaters.com offers advice on marrying appropriate stem wear and temperature, depending on food.
Bottled water is an $8.3 billion a year industry. Store shelves cascade with vitamin waters, fruit flavored waters, even smart waters infused with electrolytes.
BAKER: Even among distilled waters, you can only taste some of them have more mineral contents.
BELLINI: Do you distilled waters run deep?
BAKER: They do, not as deep as sparkling water.
BELLINI: Unless you know better even the very best taste like water. Jason Bellini, CNN, Newport, Rhode Island.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Talking more about water worship and celebrities with Robin Vitetia-Miller, contributor to "Health" magazine. All these different kinds of water. This has Voss water. A measly cool package. They call themselves, they say it's from a virgin aquifer; it is an Artesian water from Norway shielded for centuries in ice and rock. Isn't all water shielded for centuries?
ROBIN VITETIA-MILLER, "HEALTH" MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTOR: Exactly. All water is shielded for centuries in ice and rock. It is a beautiful package.
COOPER: Right, it is a great package.
MILLER: And if that is what it is going to take for you to drink water. Than that is the way it is.
COOPER: Is a lot of this stuff packaging?
MILLER: A lot of it is packaging. And hype you saw on the package that Madonna had it. It really is who's drinking what water, how is it packaged. But I will tell you what if it's going to help you stay hydrated, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
COOPER: There is another water Penta advertises a molecular, I can't even say it molecularly restructured water with smaller molecular clusters. Is it really possible, and B, does that really matter?
MILLER: Well it is possible. And what they did, the reason they did it is so these little molecular clusters can enter your cells more quickly. Do we need that? Our bodies are pretty smart. We're 90 percent water anyway. The water kind of gets in and out of the cells on its own. However --
COOPER: You drink enough, you're going to be hydrated.
MILLER: Your going to be hydrated. But that is their claim is that it gets into your cells more quickly so you get hydrated faster which is better for your looks and your athletic performance and your smarts. So that's the hype.
COOPER: All right so packaging aside, I mean is drinking tap water so much worse than drinking some of this expensive bottle water.
MILLER: I will you what there are some pros and cons, I mean tap water is certainly with the EPA regulations, tap water is great. And there are minerals in tap water like fluoride for example that your kid's need that you don't find in a lot of these bottled waters. However tap water is not portable. So if you need to drink the six to eight glasses that we are suppose to get every day, eight-ounce glasses and you are going to carry a bottle around to get that, that's a plus.
COOPER: Or could you take the cool package and just fill it up with tap water.
MILLER: Right use the package once and then nobody will know you're drinking out of your tap. COOPER: Water has never been advertised on this show ever. After this. Let me ask you this, I mean it can be pretty pricy, this Voss thing is apparently is $4 in stores, but can be like $10, $15 bucks in hotels and stuff.
MILLER: Yes, absolutely in hotels for sure. It's very expensive. And I will tell you what, I think it's a good plan is to buy and you know you pay sometimes for the vitamins and the minerals and the nutrients that are added which is not necessarily a bad thing either. Some of these that we mentioned the vitamin waters and the smart waters is not bad, you're paying for some of that. However you don't need it as your sole source of water. Tap water is certainly fine.
COOPER: All right, good message your sending. Robin Vitetia- Miller thanks very much.
MILLER: Thanks.
COOPER: Well thanks for joining us for this special edition of 360. The star treatment, I will see you Monday through Friday, 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
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