The author of the bestselling diet book The Weigh Down, Gwen Shamblin, appeared on the national TV talk shows and sold her weight loss philosophy to people across America. Especially churchgoers. By 1999, she had essentially started her own Tennessee church (or cult depending on your point of view). Her background as a nutritionist brought some actual common sense to the diet, but when she put herself forward as a prophet who equated devotion to diet as devotion to God she stepped into dangerous and manipulative territory.
We take a close look at part one of the five-part HBO Max docu-series about this religious diet cult and discuss how elements of popular diet movements leave participants open to being controlled and taken advantage of. Why are people so eager to believe? Why do some diet gurus make a heel turn into being cult leaders? And what qualifies as a cult anyway?
Watch the trailer for The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin here.
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Hosted by Mike Farr (@silentmikke) and Jim McDonald (@thejimmcd).
Produced by Jim McDonald
Production assistance by Sam McDonald.
