Episode 126: Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS- The Dangers of Wellness Culture

Impossible Beauty

“Whole,” “natural,” and “clean” are just some of wellness culture’s buzzwords. On the surface, wellness culture can be so enticing, perhaps seen as the pathway to optimal health and wellbeing.
In today’s episode, however, Christy Harrison unpacks some of the dynamics and potential dangers of wellness culture; helping us see why we should think twice before investing in a product or plan that seems too good to be true.
Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS is a journalist, registered dietitian, and certified intuitive eating counselor. She’s the author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating and her most recent book, The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses and Find Your True Well-Being. Christy is the producer and host of two podcasts, Rethinking Wellness and Food Psych, which help listeners think critically about diet and wellness culture and develop more peaceful relationships with food. Christy has written for publications including The New York Times, SELF, The Food Network, and many others. Her work has been covered in numerous outlets including The Washington Post, Health, and TODAY.
In our time together, Christy describes wellness culture as “a set of values that equates wellness with moral goodness and holds up certain behaviors and a certain type of body as the path to achieving that supposed goodness.” Along with describing wellness culture, Christy helps us see how wellness culture is the new guise of diet culture and how it differs from true wellbeing; including leading some people to disordered eating, unhelpful fixations, and potentially harmful behaviors. She also explains how “beauty” is used to sell wellness and gives us some ideas on how we can think critically about the ploys and products associated with wellness culture.