The wellness industry is selling you the myth that a healthy life is expensive

[SidDithers]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/02/wellness-industry-selling-healthy-life-expensive

Ignore the wild claims for seaweed wraps and spin classes. Real wellbeing is about fun, fairness and relationships

“Wellbeing” as a modern concept causes me existential pain. “Holistically upgraded” hotels (including enemas and “medi-spas”) offer “wellbeing weekends”. Employers can buy corporate packages for “workplace wellness”, which will apparently increase productivity and reduce rates of sick leave. You can take spin classes in London that cost more than £20 a time (you could buy an actual bike for the same price as five of those) where you get offered wellness vitamin shots and earplugs as standard to help drown out the pounding music.

The modern iteration of “wellness” – defined, at least in part, by the need to purchase something to have it – piggybacks on the multibillion-dollar diet, supplement and fitness industry. A report from the Sports Think Tank claims that one in seven Brits are members of a gym, with the industry now worth more than £5bn. Some gyms take wellness to surreal levels – some offer cryotherapy, which involves standing in a space cooled to extremely low temperatures (to prevent signs of ageing and improve recovery, apparently), others have treadmills complete with oxygen vaporisers (to supposedly increase endurance.) Meanwhile, the diet book phenomenon has reached epic proportions.

Rather than wellbeing being straightforward (don’t smoke, don’t drink too much, do exercise you like, eat a variety of foods, with lots of vegetables and little processed stuff, see people and do things) the industry has created its own mythology. Wellbeing is presented as complicated, complex, difficult to achieve correctly and best when purchased – all while requiring gurus to access it. This entanglement of industries makes what should be straightforward – a healthy lifestyle – into a complicated consumerist mess.

snip

A review published recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine concluded: “Any amount of running, even just once a week, is better than no running, but higher doses of running may not necessarily be associated with greater mortality benefits.” Obsession isn’t necessary – some space, a pair of trainers and a bit of time may be all you need. If you are spending money you don’t have on kit, or neglecting your family or work because of the need to do it, that doesn’t sound like wellbeing.

The same goes for the diet industry. Weight loss is certainly a mainstay of treatment for some conditions, and the evidence points to wholegrains, fruit and vegetables, variety and olive oil as associated with better health. Yet the media onslaught of “experts” arguing for their diet over another is liable to make onlookers believe there is no broad agreement in food science about anything. Many dietitians are standing up for evidence-based advice, but much of the media concoct the illusion that a healthy diet is obtainable only via a particular belief system. Here, the very idea of pleasurable eating is immoral.

"don’t smoke, don’t drink too much, do exercise you like, eat a variety of foods, with lots of vegetables and little processed stuff, see people and do things"

That's advice we should all take.

Sid

[theaocp]

1. Simplification itself

DU Rec

[The Genealogist]

2. I try to follow what two of my grandparents who flirted with 90 did

Both were physically and mentally active people their whole lives. They ate what they wanted, but always sensibly.

[mcar]

3. Add get regular screenings as recommended

Both my parents died at age 62 of cancer, one after the other. Neither had a family history that we know of. They had a sedentary lifestyle, ate meat and potatoes and enjoyed their cocktails.

My siblings and I also enjoy our cocktails but exercise regularly and eat a much healthier diet - and get screened regularly. I had my ovaries removed at age 53 (mother died of ovarian cancer); my sister in her 40s.

My older brother and sis both broke the curse (he's 65, she's 63). I have 2 years to go and younger brother 5.

[FM123]

4. Yep!

"don’t smoke, don’t drink too much, do exercise you like, eat a variety of foods, with lots of vegetables and little processed stuff, see people and do things"

add a good night's sleep to that list and it's pretty much all you need...

[hunter]

5. The consumer economy works by heaping on the stress...

... and convincing people that spending money is the only way to alleviate that stress.

That's as true of the "wellness" industry as it is the car industry.

Everyone needs to chill out and go for a walk.

[Warpy]

6. People are suckers for this stuff because they don't want to die.

They think if they do everything exactly right, they'll live to 120 or more and anyone who doesn't agree with them is a heretic and most be shouted down, banished, or otherwise aggressed upon.

Talk sense to the keto people or the FitBit people at your peril.