Wellness is defined as “the state of being in good health, as an actively pursued goal.” As a child, the rules to being healthy seemed pretty straightforward. They consisted of eating a well-rounded diet that included plenty of fruits and vegetables and getting enough exercise. However, as we get older, the quest to be in good shape becomes more and more complicated. The wellness industry prides itself on being focused on one’s entire well-being, however the methods used to achieve these goals can end up making things worse.
Over the past few years, the wellness industry has been thriving. Organic superfoods have become more and more popular in part due to bloggers advocating exercise and food ‘that nourishes your body.’ Social media has also made it a lot easier to promote the idea of a healthier mind and body with influencers and skinny models posting pictures of smoothie bowls on far-away islands. What is being advocated isn’t a diet, it’s a lifestyle in which you’re fuelling your body with ingredients that are supposed to make you feel good. However, this can be very toxic when influenceable teenagers are searching for ways to lose weight. Wellness provides solutions that make you feel that you are doing the very best for your body, by focusing on natural and healthy ingredients and shunning processed foods. Whilst the mantra of the wellness movement is to feel good in your body, its fundamentals can help to fuel eating disorders and further obsessive compulsive behaviour. It is very easy to hide behind these false ideas of a healthy lifestyle to justify what can become disordered eating.
Unfortunately, this has become increasingly common. We live in a society in which losing weight and paying attention to nutrition is praised. People pay excessive amounts of money for juice cleanses and raw foods all in the hopes that this will make them feel good. However its effects have negative consequences. Using the premise of wellness as a means to justify an obsession with food or trying to lose weight definitely isn’t healthy, but it becoming more and more normalized. Unconsciously, we envy those who pay attention to what they’re consuming, even if this can become excessive. This is why many mental illnesses have been increased since the rise of the wellness trend. Orthorexia is a disorder where one is obsessed with eating ‘pure’ or ‘clean’ foods. This leads to developing feelings of guilt and anxiousness when consuming foods that are deemed ‘dirty.’ The solution to being healthy isn’t obsessing over what to eat and when to exercise. On the contrary, this is actually extremely damaging to your mental health.
It seems so contradictory to think that wellness, which is supposed to promote the ideal goal of being healthy, can actually wind up impacting your mental wellbeing. It’s important to remember that mental health is just as important, if not more important, than your physical health. Food and exercise should not be a source of anxiety in your life. There is nothing wrong with eating a bag of chips or skipping the gym, if you feel like it. Nevertheless, the information provided by the multitude of wellness gurus on the internet can often lead us to thinking it is. Being healthy means being more than just someone who watches what they eat and exercises. It’s about being happy and energetic and knowing what makes you feel good. So sometimes, eating that chocolate bar is the healthiest thing you can do.
For more information on eating disorders and mental health visit https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/