The Future of the Business of Wellness
By: Dr Nandita Shah
The world is changing fast, and right now, while more and more people are getting sick, a few enlightened people are preventing and reversing diseases through whole plant-based lifestyles, and are showing the rest of the world how it’s done.
In the world of health, things have been changing very fast. Because there is more sickness than ever before in the history of mankind, there is also more interest in wellness. In order to gauge the future, we must first understand the current situation.
The food industry is quickly changing. More and more packaged foods are available, and less people are eating real food. Takeaways, fast food, restaurants have become the norm. People are overfed, and undernourished by an industry whose only motive is money. Lifestyle diseases are seen in younger age groups than ever before.
Autoimmune diseases, cancers, autism, disabilities and dementia, which were relatively rare just 30 years ago, are becoming increasingly common. Most people above the age of 35 are on some medication, at least occasionally, and many are on daily doses that need to be continued lifelong. More and more tests, medications and interventions are available to diagnose and treat these diseases.
Hospitals and clinics are being managed by corporates. Doctors and hospital staff are being given goals and targets. Unnecessary tests and interventions are the norm. Hormonal problems like diabetes, hypothyroidism, PCOD, infertility, women’s ailments, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers are becoming increasingly common. Diseases caused by environmental pollutants are becoming a problem too.
The incidence of psychological problems is growing at an alarming rate, and most people don’t like to talk about it. Patients are slowly understanding the trends, and making choices away from the conventional treatments.
To keep pace with the changes there is an alternative wellness industry that’s booming. Weight loss, healthy eating, or alternative treatments like chiropractory, reiki, accupuncture, Ayurveda etc are on offer, and these add to the confusion. At the same time, more people are realising that in order to get rid of a problem, one has to get to the root cause of the problem.
The cause of hormonal problems is not lack of medicines, acupuncture or another treatment. Hormones are imbalanced because of hormones in our foods, hormonal medications, and chemicals in food, personal care and home care products, which are hormonal disruptors. If we work at the level of cause we can get rid of this new genre of diseases. There are a growing number of visionaries who have understood the root cause of today’s health problems and are investing in meaningful solutions.
This is the future of wellness. They understand that – The body knows how to heal. Nutrients are the spare parts for healing. Food should be nutrient dense in order to prevent and reverse the lifestyle diseases. The nutritional requirements for every species is different and that humans require more fruits and vegetables, since these are foods that we can eat whole and in the natural form. Lifestyle diseases are just a result of lifestyles. Despite years of conditioning, it’s possible to change lifestyles quite quickly and even reverse lifestyle diseases.
Medicines never cure lifestyle diseases and can at best keep symptoms at bay. They have their own side effects and eventually, these and the complications catch up.
Like all other species, we too know how to heal ourselves but we have forgotten thanks to the messaging of the profit-driven medical industry. Because animals produces the same hormones as we do, all animal products are naturally full of hormones. Animals in our food chain are further pumped with hormones for faster growth and higher production. Eating animal products is harmful to our species.
No matter how much we are told that humans are omnivores, the fact remains we cannot attack and kill the animals we call food, nor we can eat them raw. By design we are herbivores. The biggest cause of environmental pollutants is animal agriculture. Animals in our food chain account for more than 70% of all the species on the planet. They take up land, need food, water and pollute the environment. The future of food is plants, not just for health but also for environmental reasons.
Many psychological problems are directly linked to stress hormones inherent in animal products because of the way these sentient beings are raised and commodified.
Alternative treatments are less important than alternate lifestyles since these are all lifestyle diseases that we are dealing with today. Knowing that humans are unlikely to change their tastes for meat, fish, poultry, dairy and eggs in a hurry business Moguls like Bill Gates and Richard Branson have invested in plant-based alternatives to these industries and these businesses are literally booming in the first world. Go to London, New York or LA and plant-based options are literally everywhere.
The rest of Europe and America and even Australia are not far behind. India is fast catching up as a quick internet search for the word ‘vegan’ will show. Plant-based nutrition doctors conferences are gaining momentum and innumerable books have been written by eminent doctors on the subject. The world is changing fast, and right now, while more and more people are getting sick, a few enlightened people are preventing and reversing diseases through whole plant-based lifestyles, and are showing the rest of the world how it’s done.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors’ and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house. Unless otherwise noted, the author is writing in his/her personal capacity. They are not intended and should not be thought to represent official ideas, attitudes, or policies of any agency or institution.
