Crunchy, Controversial, and Trending: Wellness Today

“POV: you used to be normal but now you drink colostrum, avoid seed oils, block blue light, and get in bed by 8:00.” This caption, posted by Ava Noe (@cleanlivingwithava) on Instagram, encapsulates the rapid rise of alternative wellness culture on social media. Noe, a self-proclaimed “crunchy teen,” creates content that reflects the latest health and wellness trends circulating online, including drinking colostrum (premature breast milk) and unpasteurized milk, mouth taping for oral health, cold plunging, and a general avoidance of toxins, which to the crunchy community come in various forms, from synthetic fabrics to hormonal birth control and seed oils.

Since I joined social media in the mid-2010s, health content has made a dominant appearance on my feed and like clothing, internet lingo, aesthetics, music and other trends, health trends are constantly changing. One year everyone is drinking green tea for weight loss, the next year everyone is avoiding green tea because tea bags have microplastics. Soon after, the stair climber is “in” for a thick figure, and after you use the stair climber, red-light therapy is a one-stop-shop for acne, flushing out toxins, muscle soreness and weight loss. Science, like everything, is ever-evolving, but the rate at which these health trends were being spat out was astonishing. In the past two years, this content has made an increasing appearance on my feed until more than half of the videos on my Instagram Reels featured health and wellness advice, and this advice was also becoming increasingly alternative, aligning with modern “crunchy” health methods, like Noe’s. I wasn’t alone in this either — I noticed friends buying products I’ve seen advertised by these influencers like kefir, collagen peptides and tart cherry juice.