Women’s Health – On friends who are health snobs
Healthy Living Or Health Snobbery?
Ever feel judged when you reach for a sweet treat or skip a workout? Or maybe it’s you who has turned into a pushy perfectionist
By Jessica Pressler
December 18, 2010
…Health snobs don’t just (over)share their views on the right way to live, they proselytize in a way that can leave you feeling a lot like a stripped car. So the real question is, are they driven by pure concern or something less altruistic?
“People often project onto others how they feel about themselves,” says clinical psychotherapist Leslie Seppinni, Psy.D. “If they’ve struggled with something, they can be more likely to judge, or even become outraged, by the choices of others. A formerly obese patient came into counseling to talk about how overweight people make her sick. It was out of fear that she might go backward.”
Other preachy health elitists are simply rigid, says Irene S. Levine, Ph.D., a psychiatrist at New York University School of Medicine. “They see the world in absolutes: Either you follow the program or you don’t.”
Click here to read the entire article.
Category: IN THE MEDIA
I am a vegan because I don’t want to hurt the animals. These are moral beliefs for me. That is the best I can explain it. I don’t expect you to be one, and I won’t explain my reasons for my diet unless you keep asking me why I won’t eat what you eat, which you apparently think I should. And if you invite me to dinner and you know I’m a vegan, please put stuff like salad, a vegan bread like a French, and a vegetable and potatoes out so I have something to eat. I’m not a snob. I just don’t want to kill and eat sentient creatures. That’s my personal choice in accordance with my beliefs about what is right and wrong. It is not cool to serve me pork chops or a slab of beef and then argue with me about why I should eat it and then say I’m a snob or rigid because I won’t eat it or say that I am proselytizing for defending against your attack. I won’t proselytize to you if you won’t proselytize to me. Live and let live.
It depends on whether you look down on those who don’t follow your lifestyle. Not everyone wants to be a vegetarian or drive a Prius. There’s a funny video on YouTube that pokes fun at health snobs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iIFpTwcaak. I have to admit it made me laugh because nearly everything in it was poking fun at me!