The Gospel of Wellness by Rina Raphael
Overall 5

• History connections
• Wellness vs Consumerism
• Wellness vs Health
• Hustle Culture vs Balance
• Toxic Positivity & Toxic Wellness
• Facets of Wellness Social Health
• Historical Perspective

Big thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for and ARC audiobook edition of The Gospel of Wellness by Rina Raphael
Love the flashback that shows wellness in a more all-encompassing light while also reminding us that none of this is a “new” problem is an old problem with a new spin. Narrated by the author was a perfect choice it brought both the humanity and entertainment factor to a nonfiction book. Artfully and kindly exploring our social connections and meaningful work-life balance and how our social constructs like the church and the book club are now being replaced by the wellness communities (the Pelton group and the fitness studio) this book shows both sides of wellness the needed health benefit and advocacy paired with the wanton consumerism we see every day. A must-read for anyone who has ever brought a yoga mat or tried the green juice.

I heard recently that coverage of the wellness industry tends to read as someone's observations of what's going on. Although I believe Raphael's account of the current state of the wellness industry is thorough, it still falls into this trap for me. Each introduction into a new avenue of the wellness system began in a repetitive way, a detailed description of outfits, sponsors, and every exaggerated claim that would meet your eye. The book is meant to highlight the enormous and fairly new prevalence of "wellness" and how the market has shifted to meet a demand with pseudoscience and snake oil. It's fascinating and incredibly well-researched. However, the first 75% of this book left me overwhelmed by the industry and navigating it, in the same way that marketers capitalize on. Although this is quite the meta-effect, I wish I had finished the book feeling a little more hope for the businesses and mindset on the correct/true side of wellness.

An imperfect book about the pros and cons of the wellness industry and the reasons why women are drawn to it, written by a journalist previously immersed within the industry. There are so many gaps in the medical establishment for women and the wellness industry has jumped to the tune of billions of dollars to provide and often an unearned sense of control. Anyone who has jumped into a health craze (guilty) will find familiarity in the examples of wellness gone too far. Ultimately the unifying theme of the book is wellness is great, as long as it is based on actual evidence, so buyer beware.

Although the subject matter is interesting and engaging the writing was scattered. The final chapter should have been at the front of the book. Many of the points highlighted there would have been beneficial to contextualize the rest of the book.

I reviewed the content of the book in another review, so for this review I will simply rate on the narration. I found the audiobook attention grabbing and enjoyable. The author’s voice is very expressive.

With "The Gospel of Wellness" Rina Raphael has delivered the takedown of Goop, the Environmental Working Group and pseudoscience that I've craved for years. Raphael writes with empathy towards people desperately seeking a cure, and instead falling down the rabbit hole of wellness, often taking in fake, sometimes harmful, treatments.

I think anyone who enjoyed the section in Cultish on cult fitness, is going to love this deep dive into the wellness industry and the ways it has come to take over some the space religion traditionally held. From fitness to crystals, the book talks about how the Wellness industry has become what it is both the good and the bad.

Trigger warning for discussions of eating disorders.

The Gospel of Wellness is exactly the book I've been looking for! I loved the way Rina Raphael breaks down every aspect of the privilege involved in modern wellness, especially when it comes to food choice and time for rest or exercise.

Raphael is a journalist who specializes in health and women's issues, and in this book, she investigates the wellness and self-care movement.

Wellness calls with a stronger, more alluring message than health, concealed under layers of brilliant marketing.
It promises women control.

The Gospel of Wellness shows how women feel ignored, disrespected, and overwhelmed, leading to this preoccupation. Women are advised to eat healthy, exercise, meditate, and then purchase or do this things to control their mess. Wellness may have started with noble intentions, but we're now swamped with opportunistic services, dubious concepts, and rising pressure to stay loyal to it. When the remedy is worse than the sickness, what happens?

The premise of this book is great, the research is thorough and the author is dedicated to the message she wants to send.

Unfortunately, this book jumps all over the place, from discussing the downsides of exercise to the downsides of focusing on nutrition to the downsides of focusing on positive thinking. While there are some valid points made in this book, it's incredibly disjointed and difficult to follow. There are some good ideas here, but they're buried under poor organization and what sounds like a judgemental author to me.

While Raphael's criticisms of the industry are certainly valid, I found her tone to be deeply misogynistic and judgmental against ''privileged white women''Additionally, her lack of empathy is quite striking, particularly given that doctors do often fail to take women's concerns seriously. In my opinion, Raphael's book could have been much stronger if she had adopted a more balanced perspective and shown more empathy for the women who are often let down by the medical system.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced version of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Please note I edited my review after I listened to the audiobook a second time as I felt my initial assessment may have been unfair.

I felt like author did not know what she wanted this book to be. She seemed to both condescend to people engaging in the wellness industry while also talking about the shortcomings of our medical system that lead them to the wellness industry in the first place. I also felt like she grouped a lot of things together that didn’t belong together. I fully understand the criticisms of Goop and their strange cleanses and exorbitantly priced products, but I think lumping that in with acupuncture and peloton didn’t really make sense to me. If she wanted to talk about all those things, I feel like she should have separated them differently.
The book wasn’t organized well and jumped from one topic to the next all within the same chapter. I think if the author had a really clear point of view and broke down different aspects of the wellness industry more cohesively, the book might’ve been okay.
The narration was fine, no real notes on that.
I have two degrees, one in science and one in health, and I still found this book to be very boring.

I loved the concept of this book: an exploration of what "wellness" has come to mean in our culture, the pros and cons. The book itself felt overly long to me, but the author did a wonderful job reading it on the audio version.

A really good overview of the pitfalls of the wellness industry. This book doesn't go very far in depth into any particular topic, and rather gives a bunch of stories and anecdotes about different trends. The author is a magazine writer - and you can tell. It's a very surface endeavor, with writer-as-subject sprinkled throughout. This would have made a fantastic series for a magazine. As a book it suffers from a lack of mission.

Someone who knows very little about the wellness industry would probably get a lot out of it. Anyone who is a frequent listener of Maintenance Phase will likely find the content repetitive.

🧖🏻‍♀️ The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self Care by Rina Raphael, available 9/20 🧖🏻‍♀️

Big thanks to the publisher @henryholtbooks for providing an advanced audiobook via @netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

🧖🏻‍♀️ Synopsis 🧖🏻‍♀️

Women are pursuing their health like never before. Whether it’s juicing, biohacking, clutching crystals, or sipping collagen, today there is something for everyone, as the wellness industry has grown from modest roots into a $4.4 trillion entity and a full-blown movement promising health and vitality in the most fashionable package. But why suddenly are we all feeling so unwell?

The truth is that deep within the underbelly of self-care—hidden beneath layers of clever marketing—wellness beckons with a far stronger, more seductive message than health alone. It promises women the one thing they desperately desire: control.

Vividly told and deeply reported, The Gospel of Wellness reveals how this obsession is a direct result of women feeling dismissed, mistreated, and overburdened. Women are told they can manage the chaos ruling their life by following a laid-out plan: eat right, exercise, meditate, then buy or do all this stuff. And while wellness may have sprung from good intentions, we are now relentlessly flooded with exploitative offerings, questionable ideas, and a mounting pressure to stay devoted to the divine doctrine of wellness.

🧖🏻‍♀️ My Thoughts 🧖🏻‍♀️

Aside from a few editing issues (for example, 40 proof alcohol means 20% ABV not 40% ABV), I really enjoyed this critical exploration of women and the wellness industry. Through her thorough research the author uncovers the ways in which American society fails women, from Big Pharma to fiet culture to spirituality. She discusses how milennial women, in particular, have been misled by ideas of self-care and manifestation and how the wellness industry excludes intersectional experiences.

I will note that this book is extremely cynical in tone and it won't work for some readers. That being said, I think it is a crucial study of how every aspect of women's lives have been marketed and monetized.

4/5⭐️

This was fantastic. It's a really important cultural critique and one of those books everyone should read. Also, it was just a lot of fun.


Review copy provided by publisher.

This is an entertaining investigation of the merits and limitations of the wellness industry. I’d recommend this to any woman who’s ever felt like there aren’t enough products in the world to solve the problems society has made for them.

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this ALC!

Content Warnings: Body Image, Eating Disorders

The Gospel of Wellness by Rina Raphael is a look at the pros and cons (mostly cons) of the wellness industry. Raphael covers many different segments of the wellness industry from Bulletproof coffee and Lululemon to Manifestation and Astrology.

The wellness industry developed partially to fill in the gaps that the medical establishment has left behind. Many people feel like doctors don’t listen to them, especially if they’re women, so they search for their own answers. While there is nothing wrong with looking for answers, the problem comes when there is money to be made. The wellness industry presents itself as an answer to problems, when in fact they are often offering pseudo-science packaged as answers - for a price.

This book provided an extensive overview of the many facets of the wellness industry. That being said, the book often felt scattered. I would have preferred her to zoom in on a few facets of the wellness industry and go in-depth. In addition, the author’s tone often comes across as condescending and pejorative. The main message of the book seems to be that everyone is trying to sell you something and anything you do for your health is just the illusion of control when in fact you have none. Well Rina, I’ll keep my lovely illusion of control, thank you very much.

I absolutely loved this book! It is everything I have been wanting over the last few years. We have all been stuck in this social media boom where now more than ever people are getting their wellness and even (gulp) medical advice from strangers online.
This book takes a deep dive into the world of wellness. Why are people seeking advice from the internet? The diet and exercise industry. Diet culture in America including so many new trends. Goop, the Kardashians, pesticides, GMO, crystals, astrology, essential oils, peloton, and much more!
The author, Rina Raphael, does spend a lot of time acknowledging and exploring our healthcare system and the reasons people are seeking alternative options. People are rushed through appointments and are left still in pain with no solution. Something she said that completely resonated with me was the following, I am paraphrasing because I listened to the audiobook. "If you believe in magic carpets that's totally cool, but if you are on a desert island and turn a lifesaving ship away because you're waiting for a magic carpet to come save your life that's not cool." It was something along those lines. This is the issue I have with wellness and healthcare right now. It's great to use crystals and look into alternative wellness avenues, but when I when I hear people saying they aren't going to listen to medical advice and instead believe an essential oil will cure their cancer, well that becomes a much bigger issue.

This book was fantastic! Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for letting me listen to an advanced copy of the audiobook!

This was a really interesting exploration of our wellness habits, and how easy it is to be sucked in by alternative healing practices. It left the reader up to decide if these were good or bad.

What an enlightening, necessary book. A++. I was rapt the whole time. I’m definitely wellness curious and this talked about things I’m familiar with in a new way, but also taught me a lot. I am going to recommend this book to so many people. I absolutely loved it. It deserves to be read by all women.

Rina Raphael was at one time as obsessed with wellness as the women she studies in her book. She is not a scientist but a journalist, so her take on this market takes into account not only the valid scientific principles, but also the motivations that push a woman to try anything peddled by “gurus.” She doesn’t put anyone down, nor does she side with one particular viewpoint, she remains as neutral as it’s possible to be. Now, when I say “woman” instead of “person” it’s because we are the main targets of the wellness gospel. Personally, I live rurally and my stress management-fitness regime involves splitting wood by hand, so my interest in this book was purely anthropological. As such, it’s fascinating, there were so many concepts that I had never heard of. I’m sure readers who personally pursue their best Goop life will also find it helpful. The audiobook is narrated by the author, and she does a great job (sadly, not all writers are good at it), sounding amenable and relatable and not preachy at all. Very informative.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Macmillan Audio!

I suspect this book will generate lots of buzz because it unpacks the culture of wellness. I would recommend this book to anyone because it was informative yet balanced. The author isn't trying to dismiss wellness culture but explores the "why." As someone interested in pop culture, this book kept me interested. I particularly loved it in an audiobook format as the narrator had the perfect audiobook voice. Thanks for the advance review copy. I'll be recommending this book far and wide.