What even is wellness now?

“Top 10 hacks for optimizing your wellness today”. “Five reasons you NEED to take [insert supplement of your choice]”. Why you must start including [insert nutrient] in your diet.]”  I can sense the eye-rolls from many of you reading this (if indeed you have got past the title) and even I admit to wincing slightly, despite living and breathing this type of thing for the past five years. Why is this? Why has “wellness” become simultaneously fetishised and ridiculed? We have become so drenched in the digital deluge of aspirational social media, that wellness is now a dirty word to many of those who, in truth, may need to invest in their health most. At its best, the wellness world on Instagram is a warm, friendly and positive place in which to hang out with decent and knowledgeable folk who wish to be of service to others. This is my jam as a consumer and, I hope, as a content creator, coach and nutritional therapist in training. If curated mindfully, it’s a place where one can come across an inspirational quote to get the day off to a positive start, find a gut-healthy rainbow bowl recipe for lunch and finish the day off with a sleep-inducing meditation practice. All helpful and harmless stuff, if admittedly somewhat baffling in its sheer volume. 

At its worst, however, the darker truth is that a corner of the wellness web has become a cynical and sinister environment. A murky misinformation swamp in which vulnerable people can fall prey to extreme and dangerous lifestyles and products. Fairly recently The Washington Post ran a story on how #BigFood lobbyists are paying dietician influencers on Tik Tok to promote diet sodas and other ultra-processed “foods”. Shocking? Not so much unfortunately. And don’t get me started on junk food marketing to kids. Anyway, I digress; the current food environment is a whole other mess on an epic scale of its own.

Back to social. Somewhere in the Instagram middle-ground there are underqualified but well meaning virtual advisors who peddle questionable products and protocols with little to back them up. But hey, we are all learning, nutrition science is ever-evolving and everyone needs to make a living don’t they?  One just has to hope that the people that consume this content use some discernment to separate the somewhat helpful, from the just bonkers to the downright dangerous. Wishful thinking?  Since I qualified as a health coach in 2019 during my own struggles with chronic illness, I have gone back and forth on what “wellness” means to me as my own has evolved. Of course it means different things to different people and circumstances and there is never one health solution, supplement or protocol for everyone. We should be suspicious of anyone online suggesting that there might be. Personally, I would never trust the advice of someone who seems to suggest that they have all the answers. No one does. Of course one of the many difficulties of using social media to disseminate information on health and wellness is that there just isn’t the space to explore the nuances or to caveat everything appropriately. We are all beings with unique biochemistries and genetics who need a personalised approach and this is why I am passionate about pursuing a career in functional nutrition. 

The somewhat tedious truth is that there is no wonderous elixir, superfood or hack that will give you health. Whether your goal is improving your gut health, weight management, recovering from burnout or managing a chronic illness effectively, there are no shortcuts; just consistent and sensible lifestyle and nutrition changes over a period of time. There are lots of really great organisations and people with Instagram accounts who are sharing some fabulous and useful stuff in the wellness space. Just choose where to spend your energy wisely.