Healthwasher: (health’-wah-sher)
Misrepresenter. A person or company that purports to care about health, but sells/promotes food/products/services that lead to poor health.
Healthwashing is a term I co-coined with a client in 2009 used to describe the activities of companies and groups that position themselves as leaders in the crusade forward to good health while engaging in practices that may be contributing to our poor health, collectively and as a society. It was created as a take on “greenwashing” and I have also written about “philanthropywashing” and “farmersmarketwashing”, and so on.
Healthwashing is rampant and causes outrage …. but more importantly, offers me even more clarity since I have learned to pay attention and question everything.
The Wellness Intelligence Collective is now a place and space where we share a weekly lesson in Empathy Economics, which will help you be a better consumer … one with Wellness Intelligence. Please feel free to express and share your questions (or outrage), as well as any photos and/or examples of Healthwashing as you encounter them. It might be a sign on a restaurant, an online campaign, an ad, an actual product … anything that you feel misrepresents the healthy claim. Please include the Healthwasher’s contact information (company) so as members we can kindly send the “offenders” our questions, solutions and honest, kind, thoughts … this is how we can, together, bring more transparency to the wellness “industry”.
A good product, campaign or service stands on their own goodness, not on a claim and offers FULL DISCLOSURE of all ingredients and activity.
Join us in TWIC here.
Listen to Lisa talk about Healthwashing with The Holistic Bitch here.
