BLUF

Margaret McCartney—a medical doctor—argues that you do not need to spend a lot of money to enjoy real wellbeing.

Summary

Dr McCartney argues that ‘Wellbeing’  can be straight forward:  ‘don’t smoke, don’t drink too much, do exercise you like, eat a variety of foods, with lots of vegetables and little processed stuff, see people and do things’. However, she notes that the  ‘Wellness Industry’ presents  ‘Wellbeing’ as being complex, and one involving difficult and expensive processes. She also notes that physical exercise is important, but you don’t need a gym to keep fit—walking can work just as well as an expensive gym membership. She is critical of the diet industry that promotes the idea that a healthy diet can only be obtained by following a particular— usually very expensive—diet program. She notes that real wellbeing is, among other things, about having economic security, a decent place to live, and affordable health care—it is not about buying expensive wellness products. Think about whether real  ‘Wellbeing’, does need to cost a lot of money.

Read more about why wellbeing does not have to be expensive

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