Nate Armbruster
Humans have come a long way in terms of health and wellness. We’ve learned so much about what’s actually healthy for us and what isn’t. However, there are many things considered healthy today that likely won’t be in the future. Only time will tell.
People are sharing things we consider healthy that won’t be in the future in this AskReddit thread. See how many of these you agree with.
What’s something most people think is healthy today that future people will shake their heads at?
1.
Storing food and drinks in plastic
2.
The amount of our lives we share with strangers online thinking we’re anonymous
3.
Constant notifications and other distractions.
— ExaBrain
4.
I already believe that the majority of fitness influencers would benefit from counseling rather than advising followers on Instagram, so that’s undoubtedly the case.
5.
40-hour work week with generally unfulfilling jobs. Source: I’m a clinical psychologist.
6.
All those weird trending diets.
7.
Cooking things in plastic, eating and drinking things out of plastic
— AriesAsF
8.
The notion that “natural” automatically means healthier.
— Moo2400
9.
Social media. I’m being super hypocritical, but we’re gonna look back on social media today the same way our parents looked back on the time they smoked and said “yeah, everybody smoked back then, it really wasn’t a big deal. Yeah, we knew it wasn’t good for you, but we still did it anyway. No, we didn’t think of it as some sort of addiction; we just did it because that’s what people did back then.”
– ei283
10.
Slimming drinks and supplements
11.
It’s not that people find it healthy, but I think that screen time today is definitely much more dangerous during our lifetime than we already think it is.
12.
Cooking with Teflon pans.
13.
People thinking they’re “getting” something out of social media and that it’s not affecting them. The addiction hopefully will sometime be recognized at the same level of cigarettes
14.
Very short video formats (TikTok, Instagram stories, YouTube shorts) and their impact on our attention span
15.
The hustle culture. Not everything you do needs to make money. You should be able to have hobbies that stay just that: hobbies.
16.
“low fat” products which predominantly were filled with high fructose corn syrup (high sugar diets) and other things that lead to metabolic syndrome (partially hydrogenated oils). Some have recognized the dangers in this already but in 40 years maybe we’ll see people look back and go “they made all of this money at the expense of ordinary citizens health”.
17.
Lack of access/time in nature.
18.
Letting children play american football.
19.
Breakfast Cereal.
20.
Children going to class and sitting in school all day 5 days a week for 12 years.
21.
Not vaccinating their damn kids
22.
Porn. It seems that (like most things) we’ve swung from conservatism far too quickly into the opposite end of the spectrum without time to measure the effects.
Porn is a dopamine shortcut for your brain. It can be highly addictive because of this. And whats worse is that it conditions you to expect the things you see in porn. IE i can have everything, I can have the most beautiful person in the world do whatever I please without considering them, their enjoyment, or safety or even consent at all.
Bored of the porn you are watching? Switch immediately to something else. You can’t do that in real life. How can an actual real live person ever compete? Its incredibly damaging to relationships.
I’m not saying porn cant be used healthily, just that there are some very damaging properties of porn and we haven’t seen the worst of it yet.
– lorl3ss
23.
living in highly insulated homes without ventilation
This is something you can measure your way out of. You can buy meters for your home that measure formaldehyde, VOCs, CO2, and particles under 2.5 microns. You can get a blower door test to see how many air changes per hour (ACH) your home has under -50Pa pressure. Obviously have a radon test done and have a CO alarm.
Also change your HVAC filters when they are dirty (both for your health and your HVAC system’s health). Also, I’m sorry to say, there is a convincing link between gas stoves and asthma (especially childhood asthma), so you should go electric (induction is great).
I do or have done all of this and I’m confident in my indoor air quality. Living in an insulated house with 3.5 ACH saves a lot of money in heating/cooling which also lowers your carbon footprint.
Edit: Most gas appliances are okay because they vent the combustion products outside (hot water heaters, clothes dryers, furnaces). Gas ranges are an exception because they have imperfect venting (vent several feet above the stove doesn’t work that well) and most people don’t use them very often.
Edit 2: Keep your humidity below 65% to keep molds from forming. This includes running the exhaust fan in your bathroom while taking a shower.
– tvtb
24.
Giving babies, toddlers, and small children unlimited access to tablets, phones, and screens in general. Even those that have limits, kids and babies on tablets is unhealthy for brain development.
25.
Orange juice – the amount of sugar they put in smoothies and orange juice is insane. It’s almost the same amount as a can of coke.
