I was also doing fitness competitions and researching and taking every healthy supplement out there. Thank you dear sister. So why are we talking about all this? Well you might have seen a program on Netflix called Apple Cider Vinegar.

我還參加了健身比賽，研究並服用了各種健康保健品。謝謝你，親愛的姐姐。那麼，我們為什麼要談論這些呢？你可能在Netflix上看過一個叫《蘋果醋》的節目。

It's a dramatization of a wellness influencer who lied about having terminal brain cancer and she claimed that she had cured herself through alternative therapies. That got us thinking about the wellness industry. So on this episode we're gonna peer behind the curtain to find out what it's all about. Are terms like self-care and wellness just sexier ways of saying health? And are people using those terms to sell us things that we don't really need? We're gonna find out. Plus we're gonna tell you how you can identify online wellness scams. I'm William Lee Adams and this is What in the World from the BBC World Service. I'm in the studio with Jackie Wakefield. She's a reporter with our global disinformation unit. Jackie hi. Hey. So before we dive into online wellness scams, and there are a lot of them, I'm hoping we can look at the big picture. How big is the global wellness industry? So the global wellness industry is massive. It's bigger than the pharmaceutical industry. It's worth 6.3 trillion dollars worldwide and it's growing year-on-year with more and more people jumping on the trend trying to cash in. So I can picture what the profile of a fitness influencer might look like. Abs for days, spandex, exercise routines. But what does the profile of a wellness influencer look like? It's really tough because I think this changes year-on-year depending on the trends. But I think typically the profile is normally women, normally younger, normally looking quite thin, fit, have some form of aspirational life that followers might want to copy or get part of that magic that they seem to have.

這是一部關於一位健康影響者的電視劇，她謊稱自己患有晚期腦癌，並聲稱自己已經通過替代療法治癒了自己。這引發了我們對健康產業的思考。是以，在本期節目中，我們將窺探幕後的真相，看看它到底是怎麼一回事。自我保健和健康等詞彙是否只是健康的性感代名詞？人們是否在利用這些術語向我們推銷我們並不真正需要的東西？我們將一探究竟。此外，我們還將告訴你如何識別網絡健康騙局。我是威廉-李-亞當斯（William Lee Adams），這裡是英國廣播公司（BBC）世界服務檯的《世界新聞》（What in the World）。現在

It's really difficult to say though because we sort of associated that like wellness influencer, like the young beautiful woman who was vegan and did everything right in her lifestyle. But now it's really starting to shift to become anyone really. Anyone can partake in these trends and anyone can spread misinformation and profit off them. And anyone, that includes you as well if I'm not mistaken, could you tell us about a time in your life you maybe latched on to one of these? Yeah, so I am notorious for latching on to these trends on occasion, which is ironic given my job title. So one that I jumped on, so any

但這真的很難說，因為我們總是把它與健康影響者聯繫在一起，就像年輕漂亮的女人，她是素食主義者，在她的生活方式中做了一切正確的事情。但現在，它真的開始轉變為任何人。任何人都可以參與這些潮流，任何人都可以傳播錯誤信息並從中獲利。如果我沒記錯的話，任何人，包括你在內，你能告訴我們，在你的生活中，你曾有過這樣的經歷嗎？是的，我因為偶爾抓住這些趨勢而臭名昭著，鑑於我的工作頭銜，這很具有諷刺意味。是以，我抓住了其中的一次，所以任何

Aussies might know this, was so she was really big when I was in high school, so around 2013-2014. And her thing was eating 40 bananas a day. You say 40 for zero. 40 for zero. And that was pretty much all she ate. She was stunning, she was frugivorian, which is like vegetarian but only eat fruit, abs for days as you said. And I looked at this woman, I was like 40 bananas is a lot, I'm gonna be really full, I like bananas, let's try it. My mum, when I asked to buy 120 bananas at the supermarket, did not love this request. But she bought me 10, fair start. I ate three the next day, never did it again. Mother was mothering.

澳大利亞人可能知道，我上高中的時候，也就是 2013-2014 年左右，她已經非常大了。她每天要吃40根香蕉。你說40換0。40換0她幾乎只吃這個她令人驚歎 她是個節儉主義者 就像你說的 吃素但只吃水果 腹肌會持續好幾天我看著這個女人，覺得40根香蕉太多了，我會吃不飽的，我喜歡吃香蕉，我們試試吧。當我要求在超市買 120 根香蕉時，我媽媽並不喜歡這個要求。但她還是給我買了 10 根，這是個好的開始。第二天我吃了三根，再也沒吃。母親就是母親。

We should point out, if you eat too many bananas you can get constipated, you can have too much potassium in your system which has hard effects, and indeed you can rot your teeth because it's not good for you. Well, moving steadily along, what makes these trends go viral? What is it that pushes people to click, click, follow?

我們應該指出的是，如果你吃太多香蕉，你可能會便祕，你體內的鉀可能會過多，從而產生不良影響，而且你的牙齒可能會腐爛，因為這對你沒有好處。好了，繼續往下看，是什麼讓這些趨勢成為病毒？是什麼促使人們點擊、點擊、關注？

I think there's a few things that adds to like a viral trend, right? So the first is, is it something simple? Can people remember it? Is it grabby? Like what a strange trend, what is it? Like the bananas, how odd, like you're gonna remember that.

我認為有幾件事情會促成病毒式流行，對嗎？首先，它是否簡單？人們能記住嗎？是不是很搶手？就像一個奇怪的趨勢，它是什麼？就像香蕉，多麼奇怪，就像你會記得。

They tend to be something that you wouldn't be doing in your ordinary life.

它們往往是你在平常生活中不會做的事情。

So it's kind of easy to say like, oh drink more water or eat a more balanced meal, but a lot of people have kind of tried this before or are already doing it in their life, so it doesn't kind of seem like something you can really easily latch on to. Whereas when you say cut out all carbs, that's like a new thing that you can bring into your life that feels like you're really changing something. So trends tend to be something that's new, kind of strange sounding, and something that you can easily latch on to that people think may improve their life. Now we should point out that in terms of the wellness industry, not everything is a scam. As you said up top, it's a massive industry and there are indeed products that are backed by scientific evidence. My question for you is this though, where is the line? When does it become problematic? It's really tough to draw that line sometimes because you've got most of the trends that I see tend to be kind of in this middle area where they don't work, but they don't cost you money, so it's not really an issue if people want to try them. It may lead to something, it may make you happier in some way, but it kind of is this middle ground where, oh it is a lie, but at least there's no direct harm being caused. And then you have the next step, which is selling a product that may not have any harms, costs a lot of money, but also doesn't work. So that's actually ripping people off. Then you've got the next step where someone tries a wellness trend or believes in these products so much that they don't then seek mainstream medical care. That's really problematic because it delays treatment, it can delay prevention, which is really the most important point in medical care, and it can cause people to have a bit of distrust in mainstream medicine and think that this maybe natural solution that an influence is selling is better than a pharmaceutical or doctor recommended treatment. And then there's the last step where influencers recommend products or regimes that are actively harmful. So this is when they recommend disordered eating habits or a product that has a high concentration of some chemical or some, I don't know, byproducts that can actually cause harm. Now I think it's easy for people to watch this and say, oh how could people fall for these scams? But the fact is there are a lot of vulnerable people. Perhaps they have consulted a doctor, they haven't found a solution, and they sincerely want that solution. Do you think that plays in to this becoming so popular, this trend taking off? It's so easy to be swept up when you're seeing video after video after video from these beautiful influencers who've changed their lives and look at that and be like, wow, I want to feel like, I want my gut to be healthy, I want my hormones to be balanced. These terms are meaningless and gut health, for example, is so complex. An influencer on TikTok is not going to know how to solve it. We talked about aspiration, we talked about people seeking a solution. Are there any other reasons that these online trends go viral, that they're so effective for the influencer in promoting themselves? I think one thing that these viral trends tend to do really well for influencers is to be a successful influencer, you need to have a story, you need to have a character arc. These wellness trends are a really easy way to create a character arc for yourself. You could say, come with me on my journey to heal my cortisol levels. It's one of those things where, okay, well now I'm going to tune in and see if this influencer does heal their cortisol. Even if they're doing completely separate things. One trend that people may have seen is cortisol face, which is when there's just like a bit of fat in your face.

是以，說 "哦，多喝水或吃更均衡的膳食 "很容易，但很多人之前已經嘗試過，或者已經在生活中這樣做了，所以這看起來並不像你能真正輕易抓住的東西。而當你說戒掉所有碳水化合物時，這就像是一件新事物，你可以把它帶入你的生活，感覺就像你真的在改變什麼。是以，趨勢往往是新的、聽起來有點奇怪的、你可以很容易抓住的、人們認為可以改善生活的東西。現在，我們應該指出，就健康產業而言，並非一切都是騙局。正如你在前面所說，這是一個龐大的產業，確實有一些產品是有科學依據的。但我想問的是，界限在哪裡？什麼時候會變得有問題？有時要劃清

Everyone has fat in their face, don't worry. But influencers have kind of tacked on to this insecurity that a lot of people have to sell regimes or programs to like get rid of your cortisol. In reality, it's not a problem.

每個人臉上都有脂肪，別擔心。但是，有影響力的人卻把這種不安全感強加給了很多人，讓他們去推銷消除皮質醇的方案或計劃。實際上，這不是問題。

You're allowed to have fat in your face and the influencer can just lose weight and say, oh I no longer have cortisol face. We've talked about a lot of wellness scams that target women, but we should be clear, men are also following these trends and indeed creating them. Yeah, so women have been really invested in the health and wellness space, but in the last couple of years we've really seen men being targeted more and more. What I'm seeing in particular is male influencers who have previously been really gym content or self improvement, self-help, business style men have slowly been moving to the health and wellness space. I think there's kind of two reasons for that. One, it's a kind of natural fit as men and their audience becoming more and more interested in self-improvement, not only in the financial sense, but also in the looks and beauty sense. And the second one is there's a lot of money to be made.

你的臉上可以有贅肉，影響者可以減肥，然後說，哦，我不再有皮質醇臉了。我們討論過很多針對女性的健康騙局，但我們應該清楚，男性也在追隨這些趨勢，甚至創造了這些趨勢。是的，女性在健康和保健領域的投入一直很大，但在過去的幾年裡，我們確實看到越來越多的男性成為目標。我尤其看到的是，那些之前一直從事健身內容或自我提升、自助、商業風格的男性影響者，也慢慢轉向了健康和保健領域。我認為這有兩個原因。其一，這是一種自然的契合，因為男性和他們的閱聽人對自我提升越來越感興趣，不僅在經濟方面，而且在外觀和美容方面。第二個原因是可以

It's a huge untapped market. As I said at the start, it's a massive industry wellness and there's so much money to be made, but men haven't really been targeted yet. So we're seeing more and more male influencers selling wellness protein powders, supplements, wellness regimes, and really kind of finding a new market with men. Now Jackie, I want to pause for a second because we've been talking a lot about Western societies, but these wellness trends they're not unique to any part of the world. In fact, we've reached out to our

這是一個尚未開發的巨大市場。正如我在一開始所說，這是一個巨大的健康產業，有很多錢可以賺，但男性還沒有真正成為目標。是以，我們看到越來越多的男性影響者在銷售保健蛋白粉、補充劑和保健方案，並真正找到了一個新的男性市場。現在，傑姬，我想暫停一下，因為我們一直在談論西方社會，但這些健康趨勢並不是世界上任何地方獨有的。事實上，我們已經聯繫了我們的

BBC colleagues around the world to find out the situation where they are. Our first stop is Nigeria. This is Makawachi Okafor. He's a BBC reporter covering health in the Lagos Bureau. Health and wellness scams are very popular in Nigeria. You know, on the streets you see lots of posters and signages advertising and announcing this product. And there are also lots of celebrities and influencers and people who have large following who peddle these messages. For example, you see lots of slimming tea, which experts and health experts have really said that these things don't really help you slim down.

英國廣播公司（BBC）的同事們在世界各地瞭解當地的情況。我們的第一站是尼日利亞。這位是 Makawachi Okafor。他是BBC拉各斯分社的健康報道記者。健康和保健騙局在尼日利亞非常流行。你知道，在大街上，你會看到很多海報和招牌在宣傳和宣佈這種產品。還有很多名人、有影響力的人和擁有大量粉絲的人也在兜售這些資訊。例如，你會看到很多瘦身茶，而專家和健康專家確實說過，這些東西並不能真正幫助你瘦身。

They tell you, once you take a cup of this tea every morning for say one month you're going to lose weight. And there's also things like herbal cure-it-alls, you know, lots of mixtures of herbs which they claim, oh this can cure HIV, this can cure cancer, this can cure sickle cell anemia. And there are lots of messages from health experts, even state regulatory bodies, saying, oh these things do not work. We do not have any evidence that these things will offer you the value that this will promise, that it offers. And then there are also things like unregulated fertility and aphrodisiac products. You know, people and lots of messages online will tell you, oh once you take this or you apply this topically, you're going to get better in the other room. You know, you're going to be better, your performance is going to be great, it's going to offer you this and that. Part of the reasons why this happens in a country like Nigeria is currently, Nigeria is facing very tough economic times and this has affected the cost of drugs. Most people can no longer afford medical products, so they are turning to alternative means, unorthodox means, and they're looking for ways to take care of their health while they can still, you know, keep the little money that they have. Then things like the cultural background of Nigeria and the religious background, Nigeria being a very conservative country, conversations around sex and fertility and reproductive health isn't what you ideally hear people talk about in the open. So that means, because it's very hush-hush, people seek for very secret ways to address their needs in that sphere. And lastly, here is our What in the World colleague, Maria Clara Montoya.

他們告訴你，只要你每天早上喝一杯這種茶，比如一個月，你就會瘦下來。還有像草藥萬能藥之類的東西，你知道，很多草藥的混合物，他們聲稱，哦，這個可以治療艾滋病，這個可以治療癌症，這個可以治療鐮狀細胞性貧血。健康專家，甚至國家監管機構都發出了很多資訊，說這些東西不管用。我們沒有任何證據表明，這些東西能給你帶來它所承諾的價值。還有一些不受監管的生育和壯陽產品。你知道，網上有很多人和很多資訊會告訴你，哦，一旦你吃了這個或者局部塗抹了這個，你在另一個房間裡就會變得更好。你知道，你會變得更好，你的表現會很棒，它會給你帶來

She's originally from Colombia and she's been looking into wellness trends in

她來自哥倫比亞，一直在研究哥倫比亞的健康趨勢。

Latin America. Many of the things that we have been looking at in Latin America are focused on well-being, positivity, manifesting, fitness, and financial freedom. There is an infamous case in Brazil where things took a darker path.

拉丁美洲。我們在拉丁美洲關注的許多問題都集中在幸福、積極、表現、健身和財務自由方面。在巴西有一個臭名昭著的案例，事情的發展軌跡比較黑暗。

Former model Cat Torres turned wellness influencer and self-help guru. Through her platforms, she promised love, money, and the self-esteem that you always dreamed of. Her audience consisted of mainly women keen on achieving all these goals, but last year she was sentenced to eight years in prison in Brazil for subjecting a woman to human trafficking and slave labor, and more than 20 women reported being scammed or exploited by her. Thank you, Maria Clara. So that leads us to a big question. How do you spot online wellness scams? So there's a few things that I like to look for. So the first is, are they giving you a problem that you don't actually have? I think the cortisol vase is such a good example of that. This is not a real issue. Is it something that you've never thought of before? The next is, is their solution too simple? Is it just cutting out carbs? Is it just taking a gut health drink? Is it just taking a couple vitamins? If so, why?

前模特凱特-託雷斯（Cat Torres）轉行成為健康影響者和自助大師。她通過自己的平臺許諾愛情、金錢和你夢寐以求的自尊。她的閱聽人主要是渴望實現所有這些目標的女性，但去年她因販賣人口和奴役一名婦女而在巴西被判入獄八年，還有 20 多名婦女報告說被她詐騙或剝削。謝謝你，瑪麗亞-克拉拉。這就引出了一個大問題。如何識別網絡健康詐騙？我喜歡從幾個方面入手。首先，他們是否給了你一個你實際上沒有的問題？我認為皮質醇花瓶就是一個很好的例子。這不是一個真正的問題。這是你以前從未想過的問題嗎？其次，他們的解決方案是否過於

It would be much more popular than it is, first of all. Your doctor would recommend it. Usually if it's a really simple solution, it doesn't tend to be something that works. The last thing I really like to look out for is a lot of wellness influencers will say things like, your doctor doesn't want you to know this, or they're hiding this from you. It's when you get into those sort of like conspiratorial ways of thinking that, once again, it doesn't tend to be true.

首先，它會比現在更受歡迎。你的醫生會推薦它。通常情況下，如果是一個非常簡單的解決方案，它往往不會奏效。最後一點，我非常喜歡注意的是，很多健康影響者會說，你的醫生不想讓你知道這些，或者他們對你隱瞞了這些。當你陷入這些類似於陰謀論的思維方式時，再一次，這往往不是真的。

Your doctor isn't hiding the cure from you. They want you to get better. So it's just something to look out for. And then the last one is, are they making money from it? Are they selling you a product? If so, just think about that conflict of interest. Jackie Wakefield, thank you so much for explaining that. I have some bananas for you out back. Oh, thank you so much. And thank you for watching this episode of What in the World from the BBC World Service. If you liked it, please do subscribe. There are more than 1 million subscribers on the BBC World

醫生並沒有向你隱瞞治療方法。他們希望你能好起來。所以這只是需要注意的地方。最後一個問題是，他們是否從中賺錢？他們是否在向你推銷產品？如果是，就要考慮到利益衝突。Jackie Wakefield，謝謝你的解釋。我在後面給你拿了些香蕉非常感謝感謝您收看本期英國廣播公司世界服務節目《世界上有什麼》。如果您喜歡，請訂閱。BBC世界廣播有超過一百萬的訂閱者。

Service YouTube account. We'd love you to be one of them. We'll see you next time.

服務 YouTube 帳戶。我們希望你能成為其中一員。我們下次再見。

Bye.

再見。