Uhealthy Ambition

Group CEO and executive director Laetitia Garnier explains how Health and Happiness International Holdings creates science-backed products and aspirational brands that make people happier and healthier, naturally.

- Julie Cooper

Modern life is saturated with a seemingly small and rather insignificant word: ‘or’. Labelling and defining things and ideas, and then placing them into simplistic categories like hot or cold, true or false, kind or mean, healthy or unhealthy, and good or bad makes interacting with the world around us easier.

It’s just the way the human brain works. It loves simplicity, which is fine as long as the world behaves as expected. But when it doesn’t – like when faced with an unprecedented pandemic – things can get messy, quickly.

That’s when the word ‘and’ comes into play. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Some things can be healthy for some and unhealthy for others. Water can be hot and also a little cold, becoming warm. And things can be both good and bad – like COVID-19.

This pandemic has obliterated businesses, devastated livelihoods and forced struggle upon economies, all while causing a spiking global death toll that shows no signs of stopping. Categorically speaking, that’s bad. Really bad. On the other hand, the coronavirus pandemic has also created an environment that allows the Himalayas to be seen from homes in India, it’s cleared the canals of Venice and reduced nitrogen dioxide levels in the atmosphere.