What is this movement called ?

Intellectuals and the Media
1

I have started observing and personally experiencing a movement whose specific instances are as follows :-

  1. It condemns food items that are processed in factory, leading to bans on products based on standards that are arbitrary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggi#Food_safety

  1. It condemns people who are fat and focus more on intellectual activities.

The deep discussions around technology, philosophy, and politics suddenly break, and people start asking “why are you fat?”

P.S. It was a conscious decision to focus more on intellectual well-being rather than physical well-being, because I think in this day former is more important. Of course, I can say this to people who ask this in discussion, but it still breaks the momentum of intellectual discussion. But many a times these discussions do not even take off because even relatively better people start commenting on looks as soon as we meet, rather than intellectual and other interests we share.

  1. Most objectivists know that root cause of quality of medicine going down is massive government intervention. But in mainstream discussions, the decline in quality is associated with inferior nature of Modern Medicine as such. As a result people are moving towards more primitive forms of medicines like Homeopathy, Ayurvedic, and exercises like Yoga.

As an example, from the book of Steve Jobs I came to know about the delay of 10 months in surgery after tumor was first discovered in his body. He explored more primitive methods for 10 months before reluctantly confirming surgery.

  1. During facebook discussions I came across few references(unable to locate now) in US, which publish fake studies to discredit Western food habits.

  2. There is a program in my office where HR is providing equipment to employees, and online accounts, to measure their steps. There are teams allocated, and there is competition as to which team walks most. It is associated to the following movement 

https://www.stepathlon.com/

Now discussions in office are increasingly moving from work related to how much people have walked etc.

Rather than seek instant answers, I am more interested in understanding the nature of this movement right now. So my question is as follows :-

Ques.) It is clearly similar to Environmentalist movement by New Left. It condemns elements of industrial civilization like processed food and Modern Medicine. But rather than sacrificing these for environment, it asks for sacrificing them for one’s own body. There is an element of selfishness, but the reasons given are arbitrary most of the times, and do show anti-mind bias.

So what is the name of this movement, and who are its dominant advocates?

2

People from a wide variety of philosophical movements, including Objectivism, are in agreement that obesity is unhealthy, and that western eating habits are contributing to obesity.

That seems more of a generally accepted statement of fact to me, than part of any specific movement.

3

So what is the name of this movement, and who are its dominant advocates?

You bring up a mix of things. If one takes up each point, one could argue that some are not negatives (as Nicky pointed out regarding obesity). But, granting your premise on the facts, and classifying it from that perspective, what’s common in #1 (“processed foods”), #3 (“homeopathy”) and #4 (“food habits”) is a suspicion of modern/“western” practices and a preference for the old. I don’t think this is a “movement”. One can make a rational case on both sides: criticizing all that’s wrong with the modern or pointing out the good. [For instance, a lot of Objectivists avoid what they consider to be “processed foods” and are suspicious of various mainstream medical recommendations.]

I can’t see how #2 (“anti fat”) fits into the same pattern.

#5 is different too: it could be that people are caught up in a modern fad, or just the opposite: glad to increase a type of exercise humans have always done: walking.

 

 

4

Another thing that I’d like to add is that, for me at least, being physically active actually stimulates my brain, and if I fall into a routine that doesn’t involve daily exercise, I notice myself becoming more sluggish mentally, as well.

Obesity is also a leading cause for sleep disorders and depression, which, again, negatively affect a person’s capacity for intellectual effort.

So this dichotomy you’re implying, between physical and intellectual well being, is quite false. Physical exercise and physical health are very important for intellectual well being, and working on physical health does not prevent one from also engaging in intellectual effort.

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