Sugar-Free Fries & Other Lies
STOP PROMOTING UR SUGAR-FREE FRIES AND KETO YOGURTS.
The wellness craze in Lebanon is out of control. Around summer 2024 with an absolute PEAK in spring 2025, collagen smoothie places and random pilates studios hatched at every street corner of Beirut.
I am not talking about Backburner; that place was always around, even if it turned into an overpriced "to-be-seen" hub overnight. I mean places like The Glow Paradise. There are dozens like it now, but it's their toxic marketing feeding young girls lies about wellness that specifically pisses me.
I won't even question their ingredient quality. At those prices, I pray to GOD it's top tier (though I’d love to know the actual farm names for this supposed local "grass-fed beef" in Lebanon, because IT IS THOSE farmers who deserve real recognition after the crisis). No, what gets me is the 3-digit label right next to every marvelously named food item on their menu: the calorie count.
How MANY TIMES have I stumbled on videos of influencers my age trying the Glow matcha that "only has 120 kcal guys"!!!!! It exasperates me.
One, because these influencers usually have absolutely no clue what the hell they are talking about. They scan their meals every day with an AI calorie counter app, then complain to their followers about having a crumb of sponge cake.
I am not attacking those influencers. But as someone who has suffered with an eating disorder, I can't sit and watch people PROMOTING that kind of stuff to others. If someone is struggling, I hope from the bottom of my heart that they have the support they need, but please save that for tumblr thinspo and not the FYP of a random tween who has never even heard of calories before.
Also, it is incredibly interesting that "healthful" foods are systematically marketed to women. Look at The Glow Paradise's posts: women in bikinis or tight little Alo Yoga sets posing with a "protein papa" juice. It’s alarming how seamlessly Western activewear branding is pushing Eurocentric body standards onto Arab women. Or simply look at the captions: "youthful face," "rejuvenation," "game changer for skin health"... They are selling anti-aging to a clientele made of teens and young adults.
Helloo???? What about ESSENTIAL health?
It blows my mind how our society continuously mistakes a woman’s physical appearance for actual "health" instead of her internal organ function.
Obviously one follows the other: if your body is operating right internally, the rest shows. But when young girls end up chronically undereating because they are terrified of calories, believe me it will completely wreck their fertility, bone density, and actual hair health. No amount of collagen powder saves your endocrine system when you are running a massive calorie deficit lol.
Posting those HYPER-curated bodies sets impossibly toxic expectations, especially for Arab girls. I am not generalizing, but from actual experience, observation, and like basic scientific facts, Arab female physiognomy (fat distribution, bone structures…) is BIOLOGICALLY, different from that of ultra-lean Western French sticks!
To make matters worse, they are hypocritically flooding their Insta feed with words like "nourish, nourish, nourish." Like they even have weight loss plans. I have no clue how they interact with their clients, but I really hope they inform them properly instead of throwing them into a giant orthorexia pit.
(Uhm, so side note: I realized I keep saying "they." When I say "they," I mean The Glow Paradise. But let's be real this predatory pattern exists everywhere in the world, not just Beirut)
ALSO, I am not saying people should be completely oblivious to the energetic values of what they ingest! I would be a crazy person and healthcare worker if I discouraged basic nutritional literacy. Take the US or Canada, if there was no nutritional info on menus, people would spend their whole daily energy expenditure on one peameal bacon bagel. So we need to educate people in a realistic and scientific way!
Yes, whole foods are best for our bodies. Yes, everything is processed nowadays. But surprise surprise, whole foods today are ALSO processed. So when you spend $11 on four pieces of organic chicken nuggets, each the size of my thumb, or a sad little omelette, you are 1. wasting money and 2. missing the actual experience of going out to eat. You can make all of that at home for a quarter of the price. Stop being so gullible to aesthetic pastel colored pretty plates and the vibe of a place just to avoid looking at what you are actually ingesting. (If you want an example of a spot actually doing healthful food right, look at places like Honest Greens).
The best thing in my and EXPERTS' opinion (it should be standard advice, really) is to eat healthy at home. And by HEALTHY, I mean eat the rainbow, avoid processed dairy products or heavy store-bought dressings, ditch the zero-sugar carbonated drinks (the chemical additives damage ur gut microbiome)… Then, when you TREAT yourself by going out, have something you CANNOT cook at home. We have normalized eating out so much today when it used to be a luxury!
All this to say: before getting sucked into the goop-flavored black hole of wellness aesthetic, please educate yourself, and please please please be careful with what you consume online. If you are ever in need of support, please reach out to your loved ones. I never want anyone to feel like they aren't good enough. Love yourself and be kind to others.