Smash the Wellness Industry
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/08/opinion/sunday/women-dieting-wellness.htmlsnip
The diet industry is a virus, and viruses are smart. It has survived all these decades by adapting, but it’s as dangerous as ever. In 2019, dieting presents itself as wellness and clean eating, duping modern feminists to participate under the guise of health. Wellness influencers attract sponsorships and hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram by tying before and after selfies to inspiring narratives. Go from sluggish to vibrant, insecure to confident, foggy-brained to cleareyed. But when you have to deprive, punish and isolate yourself to look “good,” it is impossible to feel good. I was my sickest and loneliest when I appeared my healthiest.
If these wellness influencers really cared about health, they might tell you that yo-yo dieting in women may increase their risk for heart disease, according to a recent preliminary study presented to the American Heart Association. They might also promote behaviors that increase community and connection, like going out to a meal with a friend or joining a book club. These activities are sustainable and have been scientifically linked to improved health, yet are often at odds with the solitary, draining work of trying to micromanage every bite of food that goes into your mouth.
The wellness industry is the diet industry, and the diet industry is a function of the patriarchal beauty standard under which women either punish themselves to become smaller or are punished for failing to comply, and the stress of this hurts our health too. I am a thin white woman, and the shame and derision I have experienced for failing to be even thinner is nothing compared with what women in less compliant bodies bear. Wellness is a largely white, privileged enterprise catering to largely white, privileged, already thin and able-bodied women, promoting exercise only they have the time to do and Tuscan kale only they have the resources to buy.
Finally, wellness also contributes to the insulting cultural subtext that women cannot be trusted to make decisions when it comes to our own bodies, even when it comes to nourishing them. We must adhere to some sort of “program” or we will go off the rails.
Sid
= new reply since forum marked as read
there are a few programs that can assist with changing habits and getting healthier, one I found is out of Canada (
) I lost quite a bit of weight and created some better habits but not having ever been a dieter, and actually having a science background I had a lot of trouble with the discussion/support groups they set up on line. my god, women are fucked up by the exact kind of bullshit discussed in that piece. virtually everybody has stupid advice for fad eating, it was shocking. the program and most of the coaches were fine, it was the other participants that got on my nerves.
Notion a woman needs to remain f-able (I'm looking at you, Paltrow) Into her 70's.
Yes, indeed. Nothing else passes my lips. I'm off everything except things that someone calls a superfood. 
As God is my witness, I'll never eat kale again.
Poor moms - always trying to foist that stuff on their children and never knowing that it tastes terrible to them.
I promise not to offer any to you should you be here for dinner! Actually, I never serve any of the cabbage family veggies to guests, unless I have asked them if they like them.
Interestingly enough, the current most popular way to serve brussel sprouts is roasting them. That makes them even more bitter-tasting, and even less palatable to folks like you. I love 'em that way, but recognized that it's just my genes.
Fad diets have been with us forever, but lumping them together with a sincere desire to be healthy is really short-sighted.
The wellness culture has indeed swept the nation, but a lot of it is because our healthcare system, pharmaceutical companies, and food manufacturers have let us down. Some people have no choice but to seek alternatives to the norm. I would guess that the "wannabbe Ivankas" are a small percentage of people who are genuinely looking for more a more healthy lifestyle for themselves and their children.
Good to see you!
compared to all the rest. Thank goodness. This author was clearly one and hasn't completely shaken her insular "privileged white is the norm" notions, but at least became somewhat "woke" by years of immersion by her participation in exploitative business culture. She's making that old assumption that lower-income POC must be degraded by poverty, not lots of perfectly competent people have lower incomes because of institutionalized racism.
Whatever. Plenty of blame to go around, but my orientation is first to thinking we let ourselves down by sliding into new, wonderfully convenient and comfortable norms, then witnessed and lived the adverse effects over decades, and are reacting to the horrific by slowly lifting ourselves back up with new norms. And industry follows demand.
At least some of us somewhat. I noticed the other day that elevated washers and dryers are still the new "norm." Not one old-style, good-folding-height set in the store. Apparently no one wants to bend, not just those in a niche market of people with disabilities.
carefully with that in mind, but...no.
Happy holidays to you also. Our kids can't come down after all, sickness, so it'll be corned beef and cabbage for Christmas dinner and save the traditional chicken and dumplings for when those who crave it do get here and limitations of healthful eating would be sadly inappropriate.
