'I got swept up in a vision of wellness that relied heavily on restrictive eating.' ➡️
But in reality, food and exercise are far less important for collective well-being than they’re made out to be. Several studies have shown that, apart from genetics, what primarily determines the health of a population are social factors. About 70% of health outcomes are attributable to socioeconomic factors, access to and quality of healthcare, and the physical environment. Only 10% of population health outcomes are attributable to diet and exercise combined.
“When someone is struggling with basic survival what good are juice cleanses or fitness classes or skin care?” In other words, the vast majority of factors affecting our collective well-being have nothing to do with food and exercise – or with individual behaviours at all — and everything to do with the conditions in which we live.
Living in wellness culture, it’s understandable that many people believe the reverse — that the only things that really matter are nutrition, physical activity, and perhaps other pursuits like meditation or taking supplements, and that social and economic factors play a small role. But that simply isn’t true, and wellness culture puts our well-being at risk by encouraging supposedly health-optimising behaviours that have little benefit and great potential for harm.
When someone is struggling with basic survival what good are juice cleanses or fitness classes or skin care? These things are wildly inaccessible for anyone in that situation, but even if they were within reach financially, spending time and energy on the pursuit of so-called wellness just isn’t a long- term solution when the problem is deeper, rooted in systems beyond individual control.
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