A Kirkus Best Book of 2025 A deeply researched lively and personal exploration of the
multibillion-dollar wellness industry -- about why women are feeling so un-well and how this
trend has shaped our thinking about health and self-care Peloton. Pilates. Biohacking.
Colonics. Ashwagandha. Today the wellness industry is a $3.7 trillion behemoth that touches us
all. In this timely and clear-eyed book journalist Amy Larocca peels back the layers behind
the wellness movement and reckons with its promises and profits. How did we get here and how
did the idea of wellness become integrated with women's lives? And how did we end up spending
so much money on products that may not work at all? Amy Larocca takes readers into the
communities that swear by their activated charcoal toothpaste and green juice enemas
explaining what each of these practices really is—and what the science says. Larocca holds a
magnifying glass to alternative medicine and nouveau lifestyle prescriptions -- and tries a lot
herself along the way -- ultimately delivering an assessment of how the wellness industry
embodies our (gendered class-based racialized) perceptions of care and self-improvement and
how it preys on our unshakable fear of the unknown. She traces the history of how the beauty
and fashion industries have peddled snake oil to women for decades—and why we keep coming back
for more. A clear-eyed and honest portrait of the weird world of wellness How to Be Well lays
bare the ways in which the simple notion of caring for oneself has become a seriously big
business.
