Photo courtesy of Marco Verch Professional Photographer via Flickr. Multiple studies have shown links between toxic parts of wellness culture and disordered eating.
By Silas Gemma ’26
Staff Writer
Content warning: This article discusses eating disorders and mentions fatphobia.
Wellness is an elusive concept because it is subjective and individualized. According to Pfizer, “Wellness is the act of practicing healthy habits on a daily basis to attain better physical and mental health outcomes.” Wellness has become even more complicated with the aid of questionable claims and products in recent times.
The pursuit of wellness in the 21st century has coalesced into a massive, profit-focused industry. In an opinion article for The Guardian, Margaret McCartney states that “the modern iteration of ‘wellness’ — defined, at least in part, by the need to purchase something to [attain] it — piggybacks on the multi-billion dollar diet, supplement and fitness industry.”
As she points out, the commercialization of wellness has created a sense of exclusivity. The purchase and usage of these “multi-billion dollar” products has become privatized and separated from common, free methods of maintaining wellness, such as activities that can be engaged in with no monetary requirement. McCartney expresses the impression that products, such as “seaweed wraps” or “wellness vitamin shots,” are needed in order to achieve wellness, whereas previously, “street play” and other simpler social ways of achieving wellness were deemed sufficient.
Companies selling wellness products tout groundless claims that their products will help to prevent, treat or cure certain ailments due to specially formulated ingredients or naturally derived compounds. Rhetoric surrounding the purity and benefit of wellness products has emerged as companies are taking advantage of the affectability of consumers to market their products.
This is demonstrated by the compilation of cases reported by the Federal Trade Commission, one of which involved the corporation Bionatrol Health and the case brought against them in 2021 for forwarding unfounded claims about the efficacy of their cannabidiol, or CBD, products in treating serious health conditions. This ultimately led to a $20,000 fine for the company and a mandate to notify its consumers of the charge, demonstrating the tangible ramifications of prioritizing profit over the health of consumers. Following the guidance of this constantly shifting modern wellness culture can lead someone down a circuitous path that only takes them further away from well-being.
A study by the Centre for the Promotion of Imports Ministry of Foreign Affairs illustrates the ballooning demand in Europe for cosmetic products derived from natural ingredients. The annex to this study details the array of natural cosmetic products commonly used in cosmetics and care products, including artemisia, apple water, yarrow and ginkgo extract. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these ingredients, their usage in accordance with the modern wellness industry’s preference for natural over artificial has given them moral value.
People consequently judge their worth based on whether they adhere to these standards. Through social media posts from friends and acquaintances, I have gleaned that it is more acceptable to share images of naturally-derived food items, such as smoothies that contain natural ingredients and require preparation, than artificially-derived food items such as frozen dinners. The former is seen as evidence of effort and proactivity to maintain health, while the latter is seen as a product of idleness or a lack of incentive to prepare something healthier.
The popularity of organic-food firms further demonstrates the consumerist belief that naturally derived products are superior or more morally upright to provide for families. An article by USA Today captures this by recording the comments of a mother from Connecticut, “It’s [organic food] produced in a healthier way, without pesticides, without any bad things that contaminate the growth of the food and the growth of my kids,” she said.
A Time opinion article additionally displays this through its promotion of organic products for children and its covert disdain for parents who do not adhere to natural diet regimens for their children. Co-written by a mother, Anna Lappé and a father, Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician, the article cements how natural food rhetoric has permeated the media, the health care sector and everyday life. Citing their authority as parents, along with Greene’s profession, they proceed to lay out why organic food is superior to artificially derived food. Drawing from various studies, they mention the perceived risk of cancer, exposure to pesticides, or exposure “to endocrine-disrupting chemicals.”
The usage of this kind of a hackneyed fear-mongering tactic, accompanied with citing various studies from reputed sources in order to bolster their claims, attracts more people to their doctrines. This testifies to the fact that producers take advantage of the impressionability of consumers such as parents by promoting ideas that artificial ingredients are harmful to a child’s health. Yet, impressionability is not equivalent to gullibility.
The desire of parents to provide organic products stems from external factors, such as marketing, that draw on their interests to protect their children. Firms have profited off of this by forwarding enticing, although at times false, claims. Parents will purchase products in order to circumvent the guilt associated with purchasing socially unacceptable products. The current wellness industry is leading parents to feel as if they are failing if they do not adhere to the guidelines prescribed by the media, colleagues, doctors or other parents. This can have a negative influence on children and, in some cases, lead them to develop an unhealthy relationship with food.
Inextricable ties exist between the wellness industry and the diet industry. According to the National Eating Disorders Association , “the term ‘orthorexia’ was coined in 1998 and means an obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating.” The NEDA article discusses that this may include preoccupation with what future meals will look like or adopting a more regimented diet by eliminating certain types of food. The article points out that quantifying the number of people struggling with orthorexia is difficult, especially because it can mimic or be a part of other eating disorders.
Per my own experiences, orthorexia can often manifest as excessive preoccupation with eating natural food, or food without artificially derived ingredients such as preservatives, colorings, pesticides or bioengineered ingredients. The NEDA article also states that orthorexia can present itself through the “obsessive following of food and ‘healthy lifestyle’ blogs on Twitter and Instagram.” This is a condition that can exhibit itself in various ways, requiring the consultation of an expert for treatment.
The link between the wellness industry and the development of critical eating disorders is strong, indicating the danger of allowing the modern wellness industry to disseminate false information. A National Public Radio article demonstrates the connection between the wellness and diet industries by referencing the words of Nadia Craddock, a body image researcher. Craddock states that “there’s [a] very common error of equating health and thinness as one in the same.”
In other words, the pursuit of thinness is justified as necessary for health and well-being, however those concepts may be defined by an individual or wellness firm. It is crucial to note that not all eating disorders include the pursuit of thinness or result in weight loss. It is the misdirected promotion of health via wellness products — which may include weight loss products — that solidifies the connection between the diet and wellness industries.
The propagation of modern wellness culture has tangible ramifications for consumers and ultimately does not lead to the improved health of individuals or collective society. Looking critically at wellness information opens up the possibility of truly achieving a more liberated and open way of living. Questioning news sources and personal beliefs, as well as considering the implications of diet culture — such as fatphobia — will lead to a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of wellness culture.
The development of eating disorders and the time lost worrying about a product’s purity outweigh the possible gains of subscribing to this culture.
Ultimately, it is a profit-driven and homogenized scheme to make individuals question if or how they are achieving wellness. In reality, wellness is a nebulous concept that is individualized and cannot be achieved by consuming elderberry extract each morning.