The rise of the Healthy eating Guru

isulo_kura

Nice article in today's Guardian

They’re young, photogenic, big on Instagram and top bestseller lists around the world – but how much do the new breed of wellness bloggers know about food?

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/27/new-wellness-bloggers-food-drink-hadley-freeman?CMP=fb_gu

pollypocket1021

The author is overestimating the target market and overall impact.

In my experience, a disproportionate number of white, upper-middle class women are eager to embrace rejection of science for more primitive approaches to things:

1. The unmedicated child birth trend is largely supported and encouraged by white women with no medical background
2. The homebirth trend is entirely supported by white women with no medical background
3. The prolonged exclusive breastfeeding trend: white women
4. Anti-vaccination: largely white women
5. Homeschooling
6. Amber necklaces for "teething pain" (choking hazard!): again primarily white women.

So these "healthy eating gurus" have a captive audience who, for whatever reason, distrust science.

The other need this fills is giving these women a sense of superiority. That's why green shakes are a status symbol. (As is homebirth, breastfeeding, not eating gluten for no good reason, etc).