bioe:

“ A fit, healthy body - that is the best fashion statement” - Jess C. Scott #health #healthtip #organic #quote

#food #fitness #weightloss #run #yoga #exercise #gym #vegetarian #vegetables #organicfarming #herbalremedy #fruit #motivation #digestion #foodporn #eat #diet #vegan #herbs #gut #guthealth #probiotics #quote #biogenicsmd (at LeisureFit Melville)

What does being healthy have to do with fashion?

Always remember that health and fitness aren’t visible. You cannot look at a person and determine what their health is like. This woman could easily have any number of illnesses or invisible disabilities. She could have depression, IBS, cataracts, osteoporosis, epilepsy and so on. But by just looking at her appearance, we don’t know.

In order to determine health, we need to step away from the aesthetic elements and instead begin to look at the actual determinants of health. Resting heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood glucose levels, energy levels, quality of sleep, etc. These are the measurements that will determine whether or not you are fit, because they are the measurements that show how your body is really functioning.

By inherently linking appearance and fashion with health, we’re setting impossible standards and perpetuating a culture that values thinness over health itself. Because that’s what we’re focusing on here - This woman is relatively thin (with visible muscles), therefore many people are assuming that she’s healthy. This is a problem, especially since this body type is so often praised at the expense of other body shapes.

Focusing on appearance shows that the only thing we value is appearance. If we’re going to talk about “health,” then it’s important to stop using a woman’s photo as our evidence and standard of judgement.