Redefining the 21st Century Health Nut

Good afternoon readers!!

This series contains critical reviews of contemporary fads, trends and in some cases myths surrounding the 21st century health industry. Just as important as these scientific analyses this series also proposes philosophical and thought provoking ideas to grapple with the ideologies and infrastructure supporting the current system.

The definition of a '21st century Health Nut' has already been given in the original post of this series 'The 21st Century Health Nuts.' However, I feel this definition falls short of what needs to be conveyed. The definition as it currently stands is 'typically (but not necessarily) relatively young and is obsessed with the prolonging of life through healthy habits, whether this include diet, exercise, mindfulness the health nut covers a wide range of people.' However, after the publication of 'Is the health industry exploiting your desire to live forever?' it became apparent that we are all obsessed with prolonging our lives, it is this innate and sub-conscious 'will to immortality' that creates an existential struggle whilst projecting ourselves into the future. The defining characteristic in the previous definition is the methods by which a person attempts to extend their life; 'healthy habits, whether this include diet, exercise, mindfulness'. Yet, this is a crude method of measurement as the subtlety and sensitivity is near non-existent. Either the subject does partake in one of these methods or the subject does not. As with all things in life a parsimonious model (approach) should be selected over competing models including more assumption (Occam's razor), but this does not justify dramatic reduction excluding vital components. So what are these vital components that contribute to a 21st century health nut? (In no particular order)

Life extension

A health nut wishes and actively seeks out methods of extending the life of themselves and others around them. After all, isn't this why we decide to eat healthy, do exercise and persevere through hardship? However, this quality alone encompasses life as a whole, not just humans. The snake who strikes to defend himself is doing just this, the virus who alters the immediate environment to increase survival percentage cannot be classed as a health nut. The previous defining factor of method as previously mentioned holds no subtlety and so we must look elsewhere to create a holistic definition of a health nut.

Acquirement of knowledge

Knowledge is the engine behind a health nut, without knowledge the subjects survival is less promising than the virus and s/he is more gullible to false information resulting in hapless and inept venture at life extension. It is this procedure of seeking out information that begins to add a certain dynamic to the health nut definition. However, the source of information must be considered and therefore it is the quality of information that highlights a key trait, that is that information is gathered from multiple, high quality sources. Although, this offers no clarity on the processing of information, and could result in  blindly submitting to the conclusions of others. Hence the requirement for 'critique of knowledge.'

Critique of knowledge

There are a myriad of benefits to be had by constantly critiquing the world around you, such as increased self-confidence, motivation, understanding, and rationality. By critiquing information a person separates themselves from subjects being told what to eat and how to train to one capable of wholly understanding what is being suggested and generating their own perspective and fully-informed decision.

Spirituality

Spirituality is vital to the healthy existence of humans, on an individual and global level. Gaia theory suggests that the Earth is a single organism that we partake in. Healthy spirituality can not only aid in the attempt of 'life extension' but also creates harmony and congruence between yourself and your surroundings. In the 21st century it is all too easy to spend your time in your head dwelling in the past or projecting into the future, the now is forgotten (a soon-coming post will look deeper into the need for living in the now and spirituality). After all, the previous components have resulted in you gathering and assessing knowledge to generate your own perspective and lead yourself to the healthy life you dream of. How can this be completed without a true understanding of yourself, your world, and what it is exactly you want, not what you should want.

To Conclude

The absolute grey-ness of the world is difficult to encapsulate with the use of our limited vocabulary but these key components of a successful health nut definitely provide the scaffolding for future definitions to be framed and people to get a grasp of. These traits are not exclusive to the health aspect of your life, to take and appropriately apply certain or all of these will lead to an improved understanding of yourself fostering a better perception and expression of politics, science, literature and even your social life. The capacity for these vital components to spread throughout our lives accentuates our personal responsibility to arm ourselves with correct information and resist the temptation to believe and submit to the large corporations that send messages down the pipelines to get us to partake in the newest method of improving your life (and typically spending money). As suggested in 'The 21st Century Health Nuts' the exponential increase information exposure has resulted in our need to evolve. This revolution is personal and internal before it can become anything greater. And so take it upon yourself to question what you are told, think before you act and spend time getting to grips with yourself and what your goals are, not the goals you are expected to have.

Your very own health nut,

Chris

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