I have a fraught relationship with the word 'health'. I cringe every time I hear it. I hate writing it or saying it out loud.
Of course, it's not the actual 6-letter word that annoys me. It's the way we use it:
As a weapon against people who don't have the 'right' bodies
To persuade us to buy things we don't really need.
To deny people access to resources and care
The demand to relentlessly pursue optimal health is all around us. At times, it is impossible to escape.
Health is directly or indirectly described as the desired (natural) state of being human when we eat the right food, do the right exercise, don't smoke or drink too much, and keep our stress levels low. A quick Google search of “healthy lifestyle” brings up hits that consistently list these factors as research-proven, important factors for attaining, and maintaining optimal health.
I have a big problem with that as the definition and approach to health. While these factors can contribute to prevention of disease, this is not the case for everyone. On it's face, it assumes that a person has immediate and abundant access to the "right food' and spaces to exercise. It assumes that we all have the ability to move our bodies on a regular basis without causing pain or discomfort. It assumes that we're all having the same experience in our bodies and in our lives and that is just NOT true.
One of my biggest issues with the way we talk about health is that it's usually focused on our individual behavior. We've been made to believe that you, the individual, are in total control and are solely responsible for your well-being every day of your life.
And to that end, wellness experts, gurus, and health marketers offer us solutions on how to change our habits and behaviors so that optimal health becomes within reach. They tell us that this is the way to change everything for everybody.
But they usually leave out some of the most important factors that actually determine our health, like:
genetics
social environment
physical environment
access to health services
As a culture, we continue to ignore these factors and choose to perpetuate a sanitized, one-dimensional definition of health. The definition that so many of us adhere to is not easily accessible (or accessible at all) to millions of people.
So why, then, do we deem those people unworthy for not being able to achieve it when our definition didn't even consider them in the first place??
I believe that we are not telling the truth when we speak about health. And our reluctance to say what’s true has been harming us and will continue to harm us.
I suspect that one of the reasons we are not honest about health because it’s messy. It implicates oppressive systems (and the people who uphold those systems) that can’t be eliminated with a kale smoothie and 3 to 5 trips to the gym every week. We hide behind the myth of absolute personal responsibility because tackling larger oppressive systems feels impossible.
But if we were honest, we would understand that telling people to bootstrap their way to ‘optimal’ health in an inequitable world is unrealistic.
If we were genuine, we wouldn’t say we care about people's health, when we really just want them to be thin so we can feel comfortable.
The truth is not as easily digestable as what we’re currently being fed.
The truth reminds us that we won’t be here forever and we don’t have absolute control over what happens to us.
And that can be hard to accept.
But I still have hope that more of us will begin to see the lies we've been sold about health, and start being honest.
