Why I’m not buying into the cult of all or nothing anymore

Photo by Leti Kugler on Unsplash

One of the red flags I’ve always clocked as a journalist – especially when it comes to health – is when people speak in absolutes. You know the type: ‘You have to do it this way. All the time. Or it won’t work.’

The first time this got me was years ago, with the rise of veganism. Vegans always insisted you had to eat vegan all the time. Then, of course, we had Meatless Mondays and Vegan January and now vegan-ish is a totally acceptable thing. Raw food, intermittent fasting or the new protein and lift-heavy obsessions, it’s always the same thing. And I always want to ask: Do we really have to go all in? Or isn’t it better if people just try most of the time? And

Because what I’ve known the entire time, even if I wasn’t aware of it, is that barely anyone can do anything 100 percent of the time. So what are we even doing here?

This came up for me again recently when I came across a study from the UK Biobank. Researchers looked at 90,000 people and found that…