The desire to be healthy is any­thing but new. But what we’re wit­ness­ing today is com­plete­ly unlike its pre­de­ces­sors. Well­ness, in its cur­rent form, is almost an obses­sion for the Amer­i­can woman. What’s the rea­son every­one is guz­zling kom­bucha and tak­ing to aro­mather­a­py now? Why, in this moment, do we find our­selves at what seems to be the peak of alter­na­tive health prac­tices? The Gospel of Well­ness exam­ines how and why Amer­i­can women were led down this cost­ly kale-cov­ered path. Part inves­tiga­tive report, part soci­o­log­i­cal analy­sis, part per­son­al account, this book will dive deep into this boom­ing move­ment, bring­ing the read­er inside the sprawl­ing land­scape of well­ness and intro­duc­ing them to its many trends and blind spots. Blend­ing tra­di­tion­al report­ing, first-per­son nar­ra­tive, and social cri­tique, Rina Raphael guides read­ers through a jour­ney of the mod­ern Amer­i­can woman and why she’s so dis­sat­is­fied with the sta­tus quo. Women are search­ing for mean­ing, pur­pose, com­mu­ni­ty, and cer­tain­ty — and try­ing to find it through health prac­tices. But what hap­pens when the cure becomes as bad as the disease?