Why the industry should be careful about turning health into identity
There’s a slightly puritanical streak creeping into parts of wellness.
At the extreme end of the spectrum, you see messaging that suggests in a few years we’ll look down on people who don’t prioritise their health. In certain corners of the industry, we’re probably already there.
The issue is not whether health matters. It obviously does.
The issue is what happens when health becomes a moral hierarchy. That’s where things get awkward.
Self-care versus narcissism
There’s a fine line between self-care and narcissism. Self-care is important. Training, eating well, sleeping properly – that’s all sensible. But once it becomes entirely “me, me, me”, you’re no longer serving anyone else. You’re serving your own identity.
As an industry, we have to be careful. When someone says, “The new flex isn’t a flash car, it’s a great body,” I’m not entirely sure whether that’s progress or just a rebrand of status signalling. Is it a flex? Or is it simply something you’ve chosen to prioritise?
Where it becomes problematic is when that starts to imply superiority.
When fitness becomes identity
There’s definitely an undertone in parts of fitness that says: if I’m in shape, I’m better than you. That’s not new. Personal trainers walking around like they’ve solved life because they can deadlift has been around for years but it’s becoming more explicit.
The idea that a fit body automatically signals a fit mind is lazy thinking. It’s also alienating.
It reinforces the stereotype of “fitness guy”, the humourless, one-dimensional operator who only talks about macros and training splits.
The more concerning shift for me is when fitness stops being something you do and becomes who you are. If all you do is train, attend fitness events, talk about training, optimise sleep, optimise hydration and have no other hobbies or interests, you become quite dull.
Fitness is a component of a holistic life. It’s not the entirety of it. When it becomes identity, you start defending it. You start moralising it. You become less flexible and less interesting.
There’s a reason humour disappears in those environments. Everything becomes serious. And seriousness without perspective isn’t particularly attractive.
Alcohol, abstinence and social trade-offs
Younger generations are drinking less. From a pure physical health standpoint, that’s probably positive. From a social standpoint, I’m less convinced.
Alcohol is a social lubricant. Sitting around a table, having a pint, sharing stories, there’s value in that. Not in 10 pints of Stella in Wetherspoons, but in moderate, social settings.
The benefits of red wine aren’t coming from the alcohol molecule itself.
They’re coming from the wraparound: the conversation and the connection.
If eliminating alcohol also eliminates those experiences, I’m not sure the trade-off is worth it when you consider rising anxiety, isolation and mental health issues.
Optimisation without becoming joyless
All things being equal, you wouldn’t drink alcohol. There isn’t a magic safe dose that improves your liver.
But life isn’t lived in a lab. Reasonable optimisation, to me, is understanding trade-offs. You can be fit and healthy and occasionally have a drink. You can do a couple of months a year where you dial it back. I do that myself. It’s sensible to reset.
What I find odd is when abstinence becomes identity.
“I’m not drinking tonight”. Fine. Order a sparkling water and get on with it. Nobody cares. It’s when it becomes theatrical; “I can’t go out, I can’t socialise, I can’t be around it”, that it starts to feel extreme.
We’re very all-or-nothing as a culture. Once people make a decision, they cling to it. It’s simpler psychologically. There’s also peer pressure. It doesn’t take much for someone to say, “Go on, have a beer”, and suddenly you either cave or remove yourself from the environment entirely. That’s why moderation requires more resilience than extremism.
Where this goes next
I don’t think health culture will permanently harden. Technology will blur the lines anyway. There will be interventions for everything and the ability to outsource discipline will increase.
Culturally, though, these things tend to move in cycles. We may have reached peak anti-alcohol for now. I suspect it will soften and settle somewhere in the middle.
The industry’s job is not to become the morality police.
It’s to support people in building stronger, healthier versions of themselves without turning that into a hierarchy or a personality.
For me, wellness can still include a pint of Guinness and a bag of pork scratchings in the pub. That’s not contrarian. It’s honest. Life doesn’t have to be one long exercise in abstinence.