Saying ‘Health Is Not A Moral Obligation’ Embeds Lifestylism So It Obscures the Reality of Racism

Image of curly kale close up. Photo by Char Beck on Unsplash

Mainstream approaches to health rely on healthism. Ideas like ‘eating kale makes you a good person’ and ‘it’s wrong to eat cake or zone out on the sofa’ embed a core message of healthism which states: you have a moral obligation to be healthy and if you’re not healthy you’re Bad.