Wellness culture has us training for pregnancy
Overzealous women are preparing for motherhood like it’s a marathon. The wellness girlies have become wellness mothers. Our societal love-affair with anything self-optimising, be it an overpriced supplement or a cyborg-adjacent beauty tool, has infiltrated the minefield of motherhood – particularly for first-time parents. Social media is window dressing for the global...
Current in Wellness
A definitive guide to surviving January
Spoiler alert: it doesn’t involve resolutions. It’s that time of year again: the start of a new one. A fresh twelve months lie before us, promising nothing except the unexpected. If there’s one thing I’ve learned after twenty-nine Januarys, it’s that you can make plans all you like. The universe...
Opinion – the rise of carnivorous women says plenty about diet culture
Women joining the carnivore trend might look like a rebellion against diet culture, but the motivations, the messaging, and the results people chase still fall along familiar gender lines. In his New York Times piece about ‘the Men Who Eat Meat’, Steven Kurutz prefaces his exploration into the carnivorous...
Should ‘work-life harmony’ replace ‘work-life balance’ as a lifestyle goal?
A modern twist on work-life balance encourages a more ‘realistic’ and fluid approach to juggling our daily commitments. From the moment we start working, the question of balancing that work with our personal commitments becomes a lifelong fixation. And as modern capitalism demands more labour, time, and skills for comparatively...
Feeling low? Here’s how to tackle the winter blues
From getting outside to tweaking your routine, these small changes make a big difference. Every year, winter rolls around and smacks me in the face. I know it’s coming – and yet I remain naive to its impact on my mental state. I’ll be half way through December before I realise the...
Venting may not actually be good for reducing anger
A study involving 10,189 participants of a variety of ages, genders, cultures, and ethnicities showed that the key to curbing anger is reducing physiological arousal – not indulging in it by venting. From time to time, we all feel the urge to vent about a problem that’s been weighing heavy...
The internet wants to convince you that you’re unwell
Thanks to health conscious Gen Z and their elder Millennial comrades, the wellness industry is booming like never before. But could this obsessive fixation on optimizing our health be making us sick in the long run? I recently came across a video by an fitness creator that left me pretty perplexed, to say the least. The creator was a few weeks into following a new diet as part of her...
Is it possible to detach from your phone?
The growing dependency on tech is driving us apart. But there are ways to prevent being swallowed by your phone. ‘84% of Americans say they are online either several times a day or ‘almost constantly,’ writes Christina Caron. I must amidst I didn’t even bat an eyelid at that statistic – which says it all, really. I’ve used 2025 as a sort of ‘health kick’ year. Newly single and determined to...
Is our obsession with the gym making us boring?
Wellness culture has turned exercise into a personality, as young people trade in joy, spontaneity, and a social life for punishing self-optimisation. We’re living through a fitness fever dream. Scroll any social feed and you’ll see it: a never-ending carousel of cold plunges and step counts. For many young people, the gym has become a temple where workouts are both religious rituals and social performances. We might be physically fitter...
Ultra-processed foods sabotage weight loss on even ‘healthy’ diets
When ready meals nick scraps of time, they may also rob us of fat‑loss – according to a groundbreaking new study, at least. The other evening I found myself perched on my kitchen floor, surrounded by grated parmesan, a pot of burnt chickpeas, and more dishes than I care to admit. I’d committed myself to a homemade Ottolenghi feast, not because I love washing-up, but because I wanted to wow the friends...
