Hello, my friends!

Happy Halloween! 🎃

I hope you have something fun planned today, whether that's dressing up, handing out candy, watching a scary movie, or just enjoying an excuse to eat chocolate.

Speaking of scary things, have you noticed how much of the wellness industry sounds like a horror movie?

There are mysterious toxins hiding in your body. Ordinary foods are supposedly poisoning you. And somewhere out there, a miraculous potion promises to save you from it all.

All for the low, low price of $79.99 a month.

So, in honor of Halloween, I thought we'd have a little fun.

Allow me to introduce three monsters that might already be lurking in your health feed.

And as we meet each one, we'll play a quick game of Trick or Treat?

See if you can spot what they're up to.

The supplement that drains your wallet.

Our first creature feeds on something more valuable than blood: your hard-earned money.

He usually appears in a sponsored post, wearing a white coat or standing beside an impressive collection of supplement bottles.

He has some concerning news.

You're probably full of toxins. Your hormones might be out of balance. That afternoon fatigue you've been feeling? It could be a sign that something is terribly wrong.

Fortunately, he has just the thing.

A proprietary blend of 27 ancient herbs, scientifically formulated to restore your body at the cellular level.

Trick or Treat?

TRICK! 🦇

The biggest clue is how much this single product promises to accomplish.

What toxins, specifically? How are they being measured? What evidence shows that the supplement removes them or improves the outcomes being advertised?

The FDA identifies sweeping cure-all promises and personal testimonials as common warning signs of health fraud.

Of course, some supplements are genuinely useful. Vitamin B12 supplementation, for instance, is essential for people following a vegan diet.

The Vampire's trick is convincing you that you have a mysterious problem, then selling you a mysterious solution.

And somehow, he's always running a limited-time promotion. Plus, a discount code!

The six-week transformation that doesn't last.

Our next monster is obsessed with transformations.

You've probably seen his advertisements.

Six weeks to a new body. Thirty days to a new metabolism. One challenge to become a completely different person.

The testimonials are dramatic. The before-and-after photos are impressive.

Speaking as a new mom, any program that requires six workouts a week, perfect meal preparation, and 8 to 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep sounds like it was designed by someone who has never met a baby.

Trick or Treat?

TRICK! 🐺

The suspicious part is the guarantee.

Six weeks can absolutely be enough time to learn useful skills, establish routines, and make meaningful progress.

But a short program cannot guarantee lifelong results.

What happens when you finish the program? Can you maintain its demands while working, traveling, raising children, or dealing with an unexpectedly difficult week?

The FTC has specifically warned about promises of permanent weight-loss results. And the same principle of maintaining change applies more broadly to health behaviors.

A useful program should help you develop practices you can continue adapting over time.

The Werewolf, meanwhile, is already preparing his next transformation challenge.

Apparently, the full moon comes around every six weeks.

The spell of all-natural wellness.

Ah, the Witch.

She's probably my favorite because she's exceptionally good at making perfectly ordinary food sound terrifying.

Her cauldron contains all kinds of alarming ingredients.

Chemicals. Lectins. Oxalates. Seed oils. Artificial additives.

Her favorite spell is simple: make something sound dangerous by describing one of its ingredients in a frightening way.

Let's test it.

Trick or Treat?

TREAT! 🍬

That's true.

But watch what happens when the Witch adds another sentence:

Now we have a trick.

I recently watched a lecture by Dr. Idrees Mughal about spotting nutrition misinformation, and he explained this particularly well.

Someone can identify a real compound in food, discuss what it might do under certain laboratory conditions, and then make an enormous leap to claiming that eating the food is harmful.

They've skipped some rather important details.

How much of the compound are we actually consuming? How does cooking affect it? And what happens when people eat the whole food in real life?

The actual evidence from human studies matters much more than a scary description of an isolated ingredient.

The Witch also loves the words natural and chemical-free.

But everything we eat contains chemicals, including the most nutritious foods on the planet. And natural substances can be harmful, too. The National Institutes of Health explains this distinction.

So if someone tries to frighten you away from beans, vegetables, or other nutritious foods with an impressive-sounding list of chemical names, examine the reasoning before accepting the conclusion.

You might discover that the scariest thing in the cauldron is the marketing.

Our three monsters have different costumes, but they share a favorite ingredient.

Fear.

Fear is a powerful emotion. It captures our attention, makes threats feel urgent, and can push us toward decisions we might otherwise question.

And in wellness marketing, fear often comes conveniently packaged with something you can buy.

The trouble is that all this fear can distract us from taking care of ourselves.

People become afraid to eat perfectly nutritious foods. They spend money on products they may never have needed. They jump from program to program, hoping the next one finally delivers.

Meanwhile, ordinary health practices, such as eating a variety of nutritious foods, moving regularly, getting adequate sleep, and building routines that fit our lives, are still there, quietly doing their job.

They're just terrible at marketing themselves.

Here's something you can carry with you the next time a suspicious health claim appears in your feed.

Ask three questions:

These questions won't make you an expert in everything. They'll help you recognize when a claim deserves a closer look.

And if you'd like more practice, I have a free Prebunking Playbook that explores common wellness scams and the persuasion tactics behind them.

For now, I hope you have a lovely Halloween.

Enjoy the costumes, the candy, and a little harmless fright.

You've already got enough monsters in your health feed.

To fewer scares and better science,

Grazelle 🌱