2565: The Wellness Paradox: The Stress of Being Healthy by Cameron Gordon with Psych Alive on Mental Health

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Health Daily Episode 2565.

[00:01:04] The Wellness Paradox.

[00:01:05] The Stress of Being Healthy by Cameron Gordon with psychalive.org.

[00:01:10] And I'm Dr. Neil, your host and narrator.

[00:01:13] Hey there, happy Saturday.

[00:01:14] I hope your weekend is off to a great start and welcome back to Optimal Health Daily or

[00:01:19] OHD where I act as your narrator of popular health and fitness blogs and always provide

[00:01:25] my commentary at the end.

[00:01:27] And don't forget we have a bunch of shows covering different topics.

[00:01:30] Just search for Optimal Living Daily in your podcast app to find all of them.

[00:01:35] Now I'm going to keep this intro nice and short so let's get right to it and start

[00:01:39] optimizing your life.

[00:01:45] The Wellness Paradox.

[00:01:47] The Stress of Being Healthy by Cameron Gordon with psychalive.org.

[00:01:52] With one quick scroll through my Instagram explore page, I've already found one post

[00:01:57] telling me the caloric content of 20 different types of breads, another with the top 15 foods

[00:02:03] with the least amount of pesticides, and a third with the benefits of celery juice, presented

[00:02:09] with a photo of a thin woman holding a glass with a smile so wide you'd think she'd

[00:02:13] just won the lottery.

[00:02:15] It seems today that one cannot escape hearing of someone's new diet or how going vegan

[00:02:20] is not just a diet but a lifestyle or how they feel like a new person after a month

[00:02:26] of eating Whole30.

[00:02:27] The stress induced from the judgment of what's going on your plate and even how it got there

[00:02:32] sparks anxiety among many of us in a new epidemic disguised by the title of

[00:02:37] Wellness.

[00:02:39] One of the biggest platforms for America's new fad diet of wellness is social media,

[00:02:44] and the influencers who occupy this stage present themselves with convincing authority

[00:02:49] to its susceptible audiences.

[00:02:51] Yet research shows that the majority of these influential health and wellness bloggers hold

[00:02:57] no grounds for factuality or legitimacy.

[00:03:00] An important 2018 study by the University of Glasgow found that only one out of nine bloggers

[00:03:06] who provide nutritional advice on social media meet the national guidelines of transparency,

[00:03:12] evidence-based claims, or compliance to nutritional standards.

[00:03:17] Researchers have declared these findings potentially harmful due to the effects on

[00:03:21] self-esteem, misconceptions of health, and unrealistic lifestyles promoted to the large

[00:03:27] audience that these influencers extend to.

[00:03:30] While the wellness movement promotes the concept of complete health, incorporating both physical

[00:03:35] and mental aspects, there is an underlying sense of a goal to achieve thinness and weight loss.

[00:03:41] The convincing rhetoric and personal testimony behind the secrets of turmeric powder, hot

[00:03:46] lemon water, or intermittent fasting have grounded themselves in the content of countless

[00:03:51] social media accounts.

[00:03:53] However, the swarming amount of opinions on how to live our best life don't come without a cost.

[00:04:01] As a society, there is a problematic equation of being skinny to being healthy,

[00:04:06] and the wholesome lifestyle promoted by many of these influencers is not only misleading

[00:04:11] but dangerous to our mental health.

[00:04:14] Another study found that, quote,

[00:04:16] the best-known environmental contributor to the development of eating disorders

[00:04:21] is the sociocultural idealization of thinness.

[00:04:24] End quote.

[00:04:26] While this good-intentioned idea of wellness claims to pave the way to a healthy life,

[00:04:31] the underlying motivation of achieving this lifestyle through weight loss can have costly

[00:04:36] effects on our mental state in pursuing an unattainable lifestyle.

[00:04:40] Additional research found that, out of seven influencers investigated,

[00:04:45] five of them did not supply evidence to their weight loss claims.

[00:04:49] Furthermore, a startling 90% of social media influencers were providing misleading and

[00:04:56] non-factual information on health in general.

[00:04:59] Now, not only are we faced with the stress of adhering to this new trend of wellness,

[00:05:04] we are also faced with the stress of not knowing what information to trust

[00:05:09] in a world where the amount of available information is unyielding.

[00:05:13] We can rid ourselves from the stress invoked by this new trend

[00:05:17] by being mindful of how this trend affects our mental health.

[00:05:20] A healthy body includes a healthy mind,

[00:05:23] and while stressing to maintain the former,

[00:05:25] we can't forget the importance of the latter.

[00:05:28] Here are some tips to remember in times of existential worry about achieving a,

[00:05:33] quote-unquote, healthy lifestyle.

[00:05:36] 1. Be aware of the misconceptions of health that fill our feeds.

[00:05:41] There are currently no required standards influencers must maintain

[00:05:45] in order to present themselves as credible on social media.

[00:05:49] As a society, we must uphold these standards ourselves,

[00:05:52] as well as hold ourselves accountable for buying into what we see online.

[00:05:57] 2. Only take health advice from licensed professionals.

[00:06:02] An Instagram or Twitter verification doesn't equate to a nutrition degree.

[00:06:07] It's important to remain objective when reading about someone's miracle transformation

[00:06:11] without factual evidence supporting their claims.

[00:06:15] And 3. Remember to take everything from social media with a grain of salt.

[00:06:20] Influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers get paid to promote certain products,

[00:06:25] detox teas and miscellaneous supplements,

[00:06:28] simply something to keep in mind before coughing up $50 on everything but food at Whole Foods.

[00:06:33] This is not to discredit the success some have found through

[00:06:36] keto nor the virtuous efforts to save our environment by eating vegan.

[00:06:41] It's simply calling awareness to the lack of fact-based claims on health provided by influencers,

[00:06:47] and how the incongruity of these claims with scientific data affects our mental health.

[00:06:53] By spreading awareness of the discrepancies of the health information

[00:06:57] fed to us by seemingly verified sources,

[00:07:00] we can avoid unnecessary stress in an aspect of our lives that is meant to spark joy – eating.

[00:07:07] Though this concept of wellness seems benign,

[00:07:10] the subtle effect of every post, false nutrition claim,

[00:07:14] and the idealization of thinness all impact the mental health of those who scroll.

[00:07:19] True wellness comes from the stability of our mental health

[00:07:23] and the stress invoked by the focus of our physical health should not chip away at that.

[00:07:29] The bottom line is that it's important to focus on yourself and find what works for you,

[00:07:34] uninfluenced by self-proclaimed wellness experts on social media.

[00:07:42] You just listened to the post titled,

[00:07:44] The Wellness Paradox – The Stress of Being Healthy by Cameron Gordon with psychalive.org

[00:07:50] and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:09:03] Dr. Neil here for my commentary.

[00:09:05] So, you know how during the first Friday Q&A episode of this podcast every month,

[00:09:11] I talk about my credentials?

[00:09:13] And remember, I don't list my credentials to brag,

[00:09:16] but instead do it for all the reasons today's author, Cameron, mentioned in today's article?

[00:09:22] Cameron said that we can experience stress when we don't know which information to trust,

[00:09:27] especially when we're bombarded by so much health-related information all the time.

[00:09:32] So again, I hope that this podcast helps reduce that stress

[00:09:36] and that you feel confident that the information I share with you

[00:09:40] is based on the latest scientific evidence.

[00:09:43] Because remember, I want this to be a place where you feel you can trust

[00:09:47] the information that I share with you.

[00:09:50] Alright, that'll do it for today.

[00:09:52] I hope you're having a great weekend and I'll see you back here tomorrow as usual,

[00:09:56] where your optimal life awaits.