The Gospel of Wellness author Rina Raphael claimed that the wellness sector can entice women into making unneeded purchases. Although there is no evidence to support the higher health benefits of organic fruit, some moms feel under pressure to buy it. Women who are gaslighted by healthcare professionals can turn to natural therapies, which carry significant health hazards. Morning Brew is read by more than 3 million people; you should too! Thank you for registering! The COVID-19 pandemic assisted in transforming the wellness sector into a trillion-dollar business, but part of that achievement is based on a well-known scam issue that tempts plenty of women into purchasing needless, expensive goods.

According to Rina Raphael, a veteran wellness and women’s health reporter, who recently published “The Gospel of Wellness,” this is the case.
According to Raphael, living a healthy lifestyle has become aspirational.
Raphael describes in her book how wellness firms take advantage of women’s fears to increase sales while ostensibly encouraging health and happiness.

Raphael remarked, alluding to the actor Gwyneth Paltrow, who launched Goop, “We assume if we buy the supplements Gwyneth buys, we will look and become like her.” She went on to say that many times, techniques and goods “are more rooted in fearmongering that’s alarming customers about specific ‘dangerous compounds’ without really understanding the subtlety there.”

Here are three ways that Raphael claims the wellness sector unfairly pushes women to make unnecessary and occasionally dangerous purchases.

MARKETING TO WOMEN WHO THINK THEIR DOCTORS HAVE DISMISSED THEM Raphael claimed that women may turn to alternative therapies as a result of their valid concerns about the healthcare system. When professionals downplay a patient’s symptoms or engage in medical gaslighting, women are more likely to report experiencing this.

According to Raphael in her book, “For many women, traditional Western medicine seems built to earn a money, not to significantly care for their needs.”
However, many alternative medicine businesses are also profitable since they sell goods without any supporting data from science.

Consider Paltrow’s popular wellness and lifestyle company, Goop. Raphael stated that on its first day, Goop’s supplement division sold $100,000 worth of pricey items with scant evidence of benefit. Paltrow was fined $145,000 in civil penalties in 2018 for using unreliable scientific information in product promotions.

Raphael claimed that due to the potential for major health consequences, the surge in supplement consumption may be the most dangerous of all wellness trends.

Due to inadequate research and the lack of a premarket Food and Drug Administration approval requirement for supplements, there is no agreement among physicians regarding safe dosage or recognized adverse effects for non-traditional therapies. According to cardiologists interviewed by Insider, the use of herbal supplements has caused an increase in young people’s cardiac problems.

According to her, “a lot of alternative medicine can be quite dangerous since it deprives patients of effective therapeutic procedures that could truly help them.”

PUBLISHING “NATURAL” PRODUCTS THAT COULD DUE MORE DAMAGE THAN SYNTHETIC PRODUCTS Raphael claimed that as more women started to reject substances created in labs, the natural beauty movement exploded in the last ten years.

Along with it, Jessica Alba’s Honest Beauty and the cult hit Supergoop gained popularity. These products, among others, promoted themselves as being free of the artificial compounds used as preservatives in cosmetics, such as parabens and phthalates. Disease has been related to long-term exposure to certain substances in high concentrations.

However, the FDA hasn’t discovered any conclusive evidence that the amounts of preservatives phthalates or parabens in cosmetics pose serious health hazards. Cosmetic toxicologist and host of the “ The Eco Well ” podcast Jen Novakovich told Insider that unlike the supplement business, the federal government regulates cosmetics and forbids items with dangerous substances.

According to Raphael in “The Gospel of Wellness,” bacterial contamination can result from substituting these nutrients for less potent natural equivalents. According to Reuters , specialists have observed a rise in itchy rashes, pimples, and other allergic responses related to botanical or natural substances in cosmetics.

Raphael observed, “I’m seeing a lot more doubt when it comes to clean beauty.” We are now witnessing a lot more nuanced conversations about what constitutes clean beauty and whether or not we should be forced to be so afraid of our body wash. “A lot of the early reporting on clean beauty wasn’t vetted with toxicologists or medical specialists,” says the author.

Organic food businesses prey on anxious mothers. According to “The Gospel of Wellness,” women spend more time taking care of the home, which means they make more decisions about what groceries to buy.

Companies that cultivate food with less synthetic pesticides, such as organic food producers, are aware of this and capitalize on a mother’s concern for the safety of her children. They also do it to make money: According to Consumer Reports , the cost of organic food is 47% more than that of nonorganic alternatives.

There is no proof that organic foods are healthier for consumers. Since the majority of foods sprayed with these chemicals have pesticide residue substantially below safety guidelines, the FDA has rated it as doesn’t pose a public-health concern . Furthermore, there is no evidence to support the claim that eating organic foods improves nutrition or health outcomes.

According to Raphael in her book, “The organic sector is counting on customers associating cultivation standards with potential health benefits.” More precisely, they rely on mothers who are concerned about feeding their kids appropriately and who have been made afraid of overstated pesticide risk.

Update: October 20, 2022. The way the US regulates the dietary supplement industry was inaccurate in a previous version of this article. The Food and Drug Administration can take legal action if businesses adulterate or misbrand their products, but it cannot aa7 them before they are put on the market. No, the sector is not uncontrolled.