Most people want to be as healthy as they can be so they can reach old age. Perhaps we’re not as devoted as tech millionaire biohacker Bryan Johnson, but we make do with what we have. We try to eat healthier, exercise more, and cultivate healthy relationships.
Indeed, 59% of Americans say they’re worried about their health. That sometimes leads us down rabbit holes about detox smoothies, intermittent fasting, HIIT workouts, and many more. The thing is, not all of them work. At least not for everybody.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach in life in general, but it’s especially true for health, and more and more people are becoming aware of that. We’ve rounded up the health trends most people think are unnecessary or straight-up bogus from two recent threads on Reddit.
“What’s the most overrated ‘healthy’ habit that people push on everyone, but you think is total BS and why?” the netizens asked. Turns out, people have lots of opinions about what a healthy lifestyle really looks like!
#1
Forcing everyone to be morning people.
I am a morning person. I love getting up early and getting a lot done.
I do not like non-morning people being forced to be up and doing stuff during that time. It’s not fair to them and it’s annoying to me and my fellow morning people.
It is absurd to assume people are irresponsible if they aren’t up and functional early in the morning.
Porkins_2:
My parents equate being a morning person with being successful, so they assume everyone who isn’t a morning person is a deadbeat loser. It has been a lovely life of being a night owl, constantly chastised for my nightly ways.
Image source: dumbinternetstuff, GeorgeRudy / Envato
#2
Eating breakfast. People act like I’m insane for not being able to eat before noon, I’ve never needed to. Eating that early upsets my stomach.
AnonymousMayday:
The motto of breakfast is the most important meal of the day is what Kellogg’s came up with to sell more cereal around the war period.
Image source: Revolutionary-Yak-47, davidpereiras / Envato
#3
One thing I didn’t see on any of the comments, MSG. Everyone says to stay away from msg, but it’s literally found in most of the produce and foods we have. All it is is a flavor enhancer. I’ll take any down votes please.
eldritchelder:
Myself and my wife are with you. People will say it gives em a headache, then you tell them all the foods on our grocery store shelves that contain it and they look wide-eyed.
Image source: anon, ckstockphoto / Envato
#4
Detox anything. Your liver and kidneys do that, the powder you’re dumping into a smoothie is essentially just a laxative.
joeniebc:
The real detox is taking d**gs and alcohol out of your diet and doing nothing.
Image source: String_Peens, prathanchorruangsak / Envato
#5
Something is good for you just because it’s all natural or organic. Snake venom is natural but I’m not going to ingest them.
AgHammer:
Raw sewage is organic, too. Don’t eat it.
lowrads:
The big thing now is “clean” food. This can mean almost anything, but usually includes salt that isn’t treated with iodine. This will often include pink salt, or sea salt, which ironically contain more elemental substitutions in the mineral.
There’s going to be a lot more goiters showing up under neofeudalism.
Image source: Upset_Confection_317, ThamKC / Envato
#6
The whole 10,000 steps thing
It can discourage people from sticking with their walking goals
Newer research shows that even 7-8000 is enough movement for serious positive health changes, and the benefits of doing 10,000 is not remarkably higher than 8000.
Even doing 5000 a day can be hugely beneficial to cardio
I think the 10K came from the Fitbit marketing.
bigfatpisces:
Oh this is one of my favorite random facts! The 10000 step number came from a Japanese pedometer that was marketed right before Olympics in Tokyo in the 1960s! The marketing department decided on 10000 steps because the character for it looks like someone walking: 万
Image source: InjuryOnly4775, wayhomestudioo / Envato
#7
Positive thinking. Can even beat cancer.
Until it can’t. But then it’s your own fault. You didn’t think positive enough.
TineNae:
Oof yeah toxic positivity is a pest. There’s even those kinds of people who will blame people being sick on a former life where you did bad stuff, so basically they believe if you’re really sick it’s your own fault.
And I guess there’s people like that even without the previous life bs, but just ”well if you were a little bit more positive / energetic you wouldn’t feel bad all the time!” And it’s like… no, I don’t have energy because I’m sick lmao. (not saying that a healthy lifestyle can’t improve certain things over time, but you should still never ever BLAME a person for their condition)
Image source: AlexTMcgn, mimagephotography / Envato
#8
Assigning moral worth to literally everything. “Oh I’ll be good today and skip dessert”, “I did a spin class this morning, so I can be bad at dinner tonight”, “I’ve been so bad this week, I haven’t counted any calories!”
We are on a floating rock hurling through the vacuum of space at 140 miles per second. Eat what tastes good, move in a way you find enjoyable, and stop pretending that everything is so black and white.
Image source: Peaches5893, tabitha turner
#9
Eating gluten-free, unless you are gluten sensitive/intolerant, is no healthier than arbitrarily removing foods from your diet that start with a certain letter.
InannasPocket:
I noticed a bunch of friends/colleagues going gluten free (for diet fad reasons, not an actual intolerance or medical reason), and claiming they felt so much better!
Yeah, you started reading food labels, cooking from scratch a lot more, and not drinking as much … pretty much everyone is going to notice feeling better switching from a steady diet of “frozen packaged dinner/fast food and 8 beers” to “homemade chilli and a cocktail”.
Image source: Jmersh, garetsworkshop / Envato
#10
Being proud of your body isn’t good if you’re heavily overweight or obese.
Tons of influencers advocate for this.
Zealousideal-Rent-77:
I think you have fundamental misunderstanding about what fat positivity means. It’s not about being proud of being fat. It’s about not being ashamed of being fat. It’s about not letting other people make you think you’re a bad person because you’re fat.
Not being ashamed of your body is the first step in having a healthy relationship with your body and food. People who are ashamed and can’t stand having people look at them, who haven’t built up a resistance to other people’s judgement and stares, do not go out and exercise. They stay home and feel bad and eat poorly.
People who accept their body as is and then work to become healthier by getting more activity and a better diet, rather than trying to punish themselves for being fat the way society wants them to, those are the people who successfully become more fit and improve their quality of life.
Most of those influencers are just trying to normalize seeing fat people do physical things in public.
Image source: Azur0007, setofotografias / Envato
#11
“Low fat” diets. Fat isn’t bad for you. Fat is actually good for you, in the correct quantities, with the correct amount of physical activity.
Image source: D3moknight, reddit
#12
Raw milk. Humans figured out how to boil things for a reason. If we won’t drink water that hasn’t been either filtered or purified/and or distilled, then we shouldn’t be drinking straight milk that could be contaminated. Unless you raised the cow yourself and know it’s healthy. Even then there’s still risk. Unless the world goes down and the zombie apocalypse happens where I can’t buy milk from the store, count me out of the drinking raw milk trends.
BoozeIsTherapyRigh:
Even if you raised the cow yourself, and you know she’s healthy, don’t drink raw milk. Bacteria can enter the udder through the teat or be in the milk without making the cow sick and make you sick and the cow’s health has nothing to do with it.
I grew up on a dairy farm. My father has a degree in microbiology and we never drank milk we produced. We bought pasteurized milk from the store even though we had a bulk tank filled with thousands of gallons of fresh milk right there. Dad always said that pasteurization was one of the greatest public health discoveries of all time.
My then-boyfriend wanted to try milk straight from the cow. I told him the risks, he didn’t care. I pulled him some milk straight from the teat from my favorite cow. I’d sanitized her udder myself. He said it was the best milk he’d ever tasted.
He also s**t himself for six days.
Image source: Prestigious_Offer412, reddit
#13
Whatever ‘superfruit’ is currently popular – acai, mangosteen, etc.
Just eat your local produce ffs
ETA: to clarify, I’m talking about fruit selections for health reasons, not eating something just for the love of it!
Perllitte:
I was in affiliate marketing a long time ago and made so much money on Acai.
The real reason this stuff becomes “super” is because some bro was able to get a freeze dryer or an industrial blender near enough some low-cost fruit the average American has never heard of.
Honestly, it was so much fun. We had like six distinct brands making different claims for different demographics of woo woo. We’d get wild reviews saying X-brand was so much better than Y-brand because of some nonsense. It was all shipped from the same sketchy warehouse in Alabama.
Image source: Wrong-Pineapple-4905, Art Rachen
#14
Apple cider vinegar for everything.
InvestigatorGo:
There is actually scientific evidence for it in diabetes but I imagine it is in conjunction with dietary changes.
Image source: butterballartemis, anionos / Reddit
#15
Eating “natural” sugars. I see so many recipes on Pinterest that are self proclaimed as sugar free and then contain 1/2 cup of Maple syrup…
I hate that people still try to insist that they feel better/healthier etc when you tell them that their agave, rice, maple or whatever syrup won’t help them with the downsides of sugar.
(Dates in small doses dont trigger blood sugar spikes though, contain antioxidants, but even here we talk about 3-4 daily not a whole box).
Natural sugars have only a Very slight decrease in blood sugar spikes compared to refined sugar, but it’s not worth mentioning tbh.
Also: I do believe that people who consume natural sugars make more health conscious choices in their diet in general which makes them feel better, but not the replaced sugar.
MessyMaple:
Ok so hear me out. I think eating natural sugars is better, BECAUSE…I need less of it for better flavor. Straight up sugar has almost no taste, so to make a difference, you need quite a bit of it. But maple syrup and honey give a richer and more complex taste, so I just put a tiny bit! That’s my take.
Image source: Arukida, Curated Lifestyle / Unsplash
#16
The 7 product skincare routines, before red light therapy, needling, guasha-ing etc. Skin can only absorb so much product, but companies have done such a good job with social media that now 11 year olds are using retinoids. It’s landfillcore.
West-Season-2713:
I have such a gripe with skincare in general. The only things you need to do are to use gentle soap and moisturiser and to wear sunscreen every day, drink enough water and eat a healthy diet. That’s it, unless you have a specific skin condition, in which case a dermatologist will advise on extra products and diet/lifestyle changes.
Dragons_and_things:
Absolutely. My mum is 61 and doesn’t look over 40. People ask her her skin care routine, she washes her face with soap every day and wears very little make up. Part of it is genetic, part of it is just being gentle on your skin aka, doing nothing to it.
I’m 27 and people have started asking me the same question (I look a lot younger). My answer is always, no make up, wash my face with face soap once a day, a gentle moisturiser before bed, sleeping well, and drinking a lot of water. People are always miffed that they waste so much time and money on their skin care when the answer is just be gentle with yourself.
Breaks my heart that children have been manipulated into this skincare routine nonsense. 😭
Image source: PentulantPantalones, reddit
#17
Probably an unpopular opinion, but running. Obviously not total BS, It is great for cardio, but out of all of my friends who regularly go running, most of them have suffered at least a semi-serious injury from it and one just can’t do it any more from a shattered ankle that never healed properly. Swimming is far better imo, if that’s an option.
captainporcupine3:
Dont disagree that swimming is the better option overall, but its also very expensive compared to running around your neighborhood, not to mention much more time consuming. I get my full jogging workout in 30 minutes flat including prep and cool down. As an adult with kids that’s the only way I’m getting exercise into my day.
Image source: Majestic-Pea1982, Fellipe Ditadi
#18
Eating more protein than your body can process. Stop it y’all.
RandomChance:
Started weight training and I’m struggling to hit the MINUMIM without crossing 1700 calories a day. There is only so much greek yogurt, cottage cheese, tofu, grilled chicken, egg whites, and protein powder you can consume in one day.
There are many independent papers, funded before crazies took over control of funding science, that all all recommend “protein intake should be significantly higher than the standard Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of 0.8 g per kilogram of body weight. For healthy older adults, a recommended intake of 1.0–1.2 g/kg/day”
That means a minimum of 90g per day… even if they are not working out. Just to not lose muscle to aging.
That would be 16 eggs…
Image source: BrumRuggat, stockimagefactory / Envato
#19
I always laugh about the the people that convince themselves they are ‘creating a healthy gut environment’ because they gag down a few spoonfuls of sugary yogurt every day.
Image source: Speakinmymind96, Curated Lifestyle
#20
The idea that you need three meals a day.
Meal consumption should be based on activity. Chances are if you’re eating three a day, snacks, and are heavy, you’re eating too many meals.
It’s a *very* convoluted topic, and this little blurb barely even scratches the surface. Like an ice cube to an iceberg.
userhwon:
I’ve eaten 3, 1, 6, 5, and 2, each over extended periods. The best are 2 and 5.
2 means you don’t have to fuck with it so often, and can have a bigger dinner, when you want that feeling. But don’t expect to get health benefits from doing this.
5 is for when you’re exercising and trying to get healthy. You eat 10-15% more calories than you need when you want to gain more muscle than fat, and between 10% and 900 calories less than you need when you want to lose more fat than muscle. The large number of meals spreads them out evenly and keeps your insulin system from driving calories into adipose tissue so hard; food comas are the worst thing for your plans. (The hard limit at -900 calories avoids starvation mode in which your body shifts to a higher muscle/fat loss ratio to spare fat because it thinks you’re in a famine and less muscle lowers your metabolism and lets you live off the fat longer.)
Image source: Mary_Ellen_Katz, s_kawee / Envato
#21
Collagen powder.
awnawreally:
Those powdered collagen supplements are just everywhere right now and are total horses**t. The topical collagen creams and most other anti wrinkle lotions are grifts as well.
When I was a teen, I watched a news segment where a dermatologist said most beauty creams were useless because nothing can penetrate beyond the outer layer of skin. The purpose of skin is to protect your body from outside irritants.
Anything that claims to do more than resurface the outer layer of your skin is just snake oil. That stuff never works but people will believe in and buy anything that promises to prevent death or slow aging. That’s why the beauty industry is so massively profitable.
Water, nutrition, and sun protection are the only things that can make any difference internally but I guess there’s not enough money in that.
How do they even synthesize collagen and turn it into powder anyway? Since supplements aren’t regulated, I always wonder if the people ingesting powdered collagen aren’t just drinking ground plastic or something lol.
Image source: DryDiet6051, reddit
#22
Cold showers.
I have the luxury of being able to have hot showers. They are also extremely enjoyable.
No way on gods green earth am I giving that up 😂.
Image source: Sitdownfam123
#23
Insisting on fresh/refusing to eat canned and frozen vegetables and fruits. Studies have found similar if not superior nutrition retention in shelf stable and frozen produce vs fresh, especially during off-seasons.
TLDR: Disregarding taste as a factor, canned and frozen options are equally healthy as its fresh counterpart.
Image source: CraizinCitizen
#24
Juicing, just eat the fruit and get the fiber??
Effective-Arm9099:
On the note of juicing, can I mention a pet peeve? People referring to a smoothie as juice. I got the whole fiber in my smoothie because it’s just blended fruits. I did not juice them and remove any fiber. That’s all. I’m a smoothie lover so I get offended when smoothies get looped into the juice category.
Image source: Logical_Order, DC_Studio / Envato
#25
Pretty much any autism “cure”.
Pur1wise:
I’m so sick of people telling me they know someone who can cure it for me. Who says I want to be cured anyway. I like my operating system. It has some downsides but the upsides are pretty awesome.
Image source: -StapleYourTongue-, Microstock_Growth / Envato
#26
It’s more of an extreme, but a lot of health bloggers push the idea of “If you can’t pronounce it you shouldn’t eat it”. Obviously aimed at “chemicals”, but still stupid. Water is a chemical
But as far as the “If you can’t pronounce it…” BS. My wife can’t/won’t pronounce celery correctly, so she should *not eat it?
Image source: MOS95B, Getty Images
#27
The idea of “guilt free” receipes for things.
Using Greek yogurt in your tuna salad and then a bell pepper for the bread doesn’t magically extend your life by decades. Chill. A regular tuna sandwich is already a healthy choice.
Eat the ice cream every once in a while. Don’t eat the protein ice cream that tastes like cardboard. Ice cream is a treat. You’re allowed to eat things for fun.
Sugar is fine. Eat the fruit. Put 1 sugar in your coffee instead of 5 stevias.
Food isn’t just to keep you alive. It’s also something to enjoy.
Image source: basketofleaves
#28
Kale. Yeah, it’s fine, but it’s not a miracle. Stop pretending.
Image source: Dangerous_Finger_679
#29
I’ll start: drinking a gallon of water a day — super hyped, not needed for everyone.
Image source: DryDraw4673
#30
The idea people have that hormone free milk is hormone free. By its very nature milk is full of hormones. You don’t get milk from any species without hormones.
Guess what- the human body does not accept binding in its receptors to react to bovine hormones.
But hey- get on your soapbox about wanting animal derived milk products to be hormone free! 🤷🏼♀️.
Secretary-Visual:
I usually see hormone free milk touted more as an animal welfare issue than a human health one. The use of hormones to stimulate excessive dairy production can cause mastitis in cows. That can also increase the amount of pus in the dairy milk, which may be where the human health perspective comes in. But the allowable amount of pus in dairy milk is legally regulated.
Image source: chartreuse_avocado, imagesourcecurated / Envato
#31
Avoiding carbohydrates. ‘Healthy’ carbs are vital for energy, focus, mood, etc. and can come packed with other valuable nutrition. They are not evil. Also, fiber (a carb) is the single most consistently associated nutrient with reduced mortality risk across diverse populations.
Image source: Squatch_orNarwhal
#32
Making your bed every morning. Apparently, all highly successful people make their bed every freaking day. I don’t think I’ve ever made my bed. I’m a very successful person who runs a very successful company and pays their employees well above a fair wage. I just do not care about my bed.
Image source: cupcakefighter1
#33
Carnivore diet because it seems like a sure fire way to skyrocket your cholesterol.
Image source: bigapple33
#34
“Body hacking.” I have a colleague that spends an ungodly amount of money annually on quack doctors to help him improve his metabolic age, and he now has a whole cult of other people we work with following the same things. Good lord it’s bs.
Image source: Finnegan_Murphy, Getty Images
#35
Intermittent Fasting.
What works for some, doesn’t work for all.
Intermittent Fasting impairs my judgement.
Image source: LadyWalks
#36
Marathon running. It’s touted like it’s this goal that we should all ideally be working towards and yes, running is healthy, but at a certain point you are actually causing damage to your body. We have somehow equated maximizing physical discomfort with maximizing health outcomes but there is definitely downsides to pushing yourself too hard.
Image source: xdonutx
#37
Very restrictive diets don’t work in the long run. It’s better to just make small changes you can stick with.
I’m seeing videos insisting that you cut out all sugar, all carbs etc.
the best is when these fitness gurus finally come out and say they lied – Liverking for example.
Image source: loritree
#38
Cold plunge. It’s not total BS if you’re an athelete that works out multiple times a day and needs to recover fast asf for training. But otherwise I think that one is more about expressing discipline.
Image source: motownmods
#39
Over hydrating your body.
It was never medically recommended to drink six glasses of water a day. It was recommended to consume six cups, as in a measuring cup. But because the word cup and glass was used interchangeably, and the standard size drinking glass was 16 oz, it was thought that we had to drink almost 3 liters of water per day. When in reality it was originally recommended that we drink closer to 1.5 L per day. And as long as the liquid you’re consuming is not full of sugars or unnatural ingredients, that counts towards your daily liquid intake. So in conclusion you do not have to drink almost 3 L of water per day, you need to drink approximately 1.6 L of almost any freaking liquid you want.
Image source: Reasonable_Zebra_174
#40
Don’t eat anything before going to bed to lose weight. Weight loss is related to caloric deficits and not (directly) to when you eat.
Image source: Fickle-Fart-783
#41
You have to exercise to lose weight. Yes exercise is healthy it’s best to stay in shape but if there’s issues and you still need to lose weight you can. I was 275 I have chronic pain. I did start out with slow short walks on the treadmill until my back pain got to be too much. I had only consistently exercised around a month. Then I had to figure out how to lose weight without exercise. I mainly focused on how much I was eating I used moderation ate smaller portions and did high protein low carb and sugar. I changed all my eating habits and made them routine I eat at the same times everyday to stay consistent. I lost 115 pounds just changing eating habits and I overcame binging issues.
Image source: mjh8212
#42
Ik I will be downvoted to hell but honestly imo BMI. I think weight may not be as personal as a wake up time or whether breakfast makes you sick or energized but I still very much so believe there are certain weights where some ppl will be at their maximum. And for people that are curvier there will always be that extra weight that clings to certain body parts just based on genetic instructions than some other ppl that will easily get that weight otherwise. I think it’s still good to be around those weights just not married to them. They’ve already said that healthy habits aren’t just bc you are skinny. Then ofc ppl who weigh more due to muscles ofc are their own example too. Either way I ignore BMI. Am I healthy (blood work, energy, etc) and do I like how I look.
Image source: Safe_Resort_8992
#43
Many “sleep hygiene” tips. If watching tv or scrolling your phone before bed are part of your routine, then stopping can make it harder to fall asleep. .
Image source: NoOpportunity4608
#44
Women who have a multitude of responsibilities and who have mental health problems are sold heaps of solutions and told to ‘manage your stress”.
It is complete nonsense. People are not designed to be responsible for caring for a number of other people, managing a household and bringing money in.
Honestly we’ve been sold an absolute pipe dream, and the only reason I know is that my elders left me a bunch of money and my kids grew up. In a relatively short period of time most of my responsibilities disappeared and so did my mental health problems.
Image source: New-Cup-3069
#45
Tracking every calorie. It makes people obsess over numbers instead of actually enjoying food.
Image source: uwuvxdh
#46
To grind no matter what. Resting is important too.
Image source: garden-baker, Dwayne joe
#47
Diet of the month mentality … gluten- free this, keto that, etc. in reality, very few people * need* specialty diets.
Image source: No-Type119
#48
I have a friend that thinks coconut oil is the cure-all for everything. He’s also anti-vax/medicine.
Image source: Apprehensive-Mood853
#49
I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with seed oils.
Image source: totally-normal
#50
Exercise to the point of burnout. You have people trying to mimic the routines of fitness influencers/athletes who are clearly on PEDs in an attempt to get a physique like theirs, only to end up injured because the body can’t sustain that amount of volume without chemical assistance.
The “no days off the grind!” mentality is damaging. Rest and recovery are extremely important and underemphasized.
Image source: Replicant28
#51
“No pain, no gain”. Nah dawg. Pain is pain lol.
Image source: J-Daito
#52
Therapy is great, therapy is good, I’m glad it’s available and it can be a lifesaver, please don’t throw tomatoes…but it’s usually a condescending insult if a person is *pushing* it on someone.
Image source: Critical-Pirate-2665
#53
Chiropracty there is virtually no scholarly evidence for its benefits.
Image source: hemanstarfox
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