When someone dies,she often suffers a brutal moral autopsy, says Barbara Ehrenreich. Did she smoke? Drink excessively? Eat too much bulky?I watched in dismay as most of my educated, and middle-class friends began,at the onset of middle age, to obsess about their health and likely longevity. Even those who were at one point determined to change the world refocused on changing their bodies. They undertook exercise or yoga regimens; they filled their calendars with medical tests and exams; they boasted about their “profitable” and “rank” cholesterol counts, or their heart rates and blood pressure.
Mostly they understood the task of ageing to be self-denial,particularly in the realm of diet, where one medical fad, or one study or another,condemned bulky and meat, carbs, or gluten,dairy or all animal-derived products. In the health-conscious mindset that has prevailed among the world’s affluent people for about four decades now, health is indistinguishable from virtue, or tasty foods are “sinfully delicious”,while healthful foods may taste profitable enough to be advertised as “guilt-free”. Those seeking to compensate for a lapse undertake punitive measures such as hours-long cardio sessions, fasts, and purges or diets composed of different juices carefully sequenced throughout the day.
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Source: guardian.co.uk