I'm a dietitian who hates the word healthy

There are a few words that give me a bit of ick, and healthy is one of them.

"To the extent that healthism shapes popular beliefs, we will continue to have a non-political, and therefore, ultimately ineffective conception and strategy of health promotion."

- Robert Crawford

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My name is Shana, and I’m a dietitian, and I hate the word healthy. Okay, maybe I don’t hate the word because I know that hate is a strong word. So I will say that I strongly dislike the word. And I bet you’re wondering why that is, because as a dietitian, shouldn’t I love the word? Shouldn't that word not only be in my regular vocabulary but also one of my daily affirmation words of the day? Yes and no.

Let me start off by saying that there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the word healthy, and technically, there isn’t. I also do still use it in my day to day, but I still have some feelings about it. I see how the word is used against so many people and is used as a barometer for how people are treated, which doesn’t make me the biggest fan. It’s sort of like the word moist. You know how some bakers are really proud of their moist baked goods? I’ll bet some of you had zero response to the reading that previous sentence, and some of you just felt the hairs on your arms rise. Certain words give us the ick. It is what it is.

And I want to be super clear here that you are, of course, allowed to say whatever you want. This is my personal opinion only, and an explanation as to why you might see the word healthy in quotes from time to time. Depending on the creator, of course, but I do notice that some of my fellow anti-diet colleagues will have the word as “healthy”. So, what works for me and others might not work for you. There is no right or wrong here, but you have to remember context and individuality. Oftentimes, the context of health is weaponized, meaning that we as a society have a very narrow definition of what it looks like.

We think of perfect health as having no ailments, illnesses, or conditions. What we fail to remember and recognize is that not everyone can achieve the level of health that is promoted in society. Many conditions are genetic and can develop over time in seemingly healthy individuals. The idea of perfection can also be traced to eugenics and the idea of creating the ideal human. “Eugenicists worldwide believed that they could perfect human beings and eliminate so-called social ills through genetics and heredity. They believed the use of methods such as involuntary sterilization, segregation and social exclusion would rid society of individuals deemed by them to be unfit.” Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, or as I like to refer to him as the “founder of BMI” (body mass index), centered his work on measuring human characteristics in order to determine the ideal l'homme moyen ("the average man"), which was in part, the foundation of eugenics.

*Shameless plug - I wrote a whole chapter on the creation of BMI and the eugenics involved, in my book Live Nourished: Make Peace with Food, Banish Body Shame, and Reclaim Joy. It is available now! Shameless plug over.*

I know that the word eugenics makes some people uncomfortable, but unfortunately, it’s a historic truth. We can even look at not only how people of color are being treated currently, but also people with disabilities, the poor, the elderly, and people with chronic and mental illnesses. Think of all the policies that are put in place or the barriers in order for everyone to receive equitable and equal treatment. Lack of access to food and healthcare, dismantling of food assistance programs, and the blatant disregard of science that is causing fatal results. We can’t continue to sugarcoat things because this is indeed a form of eugenics. Eugenics which seems to have a