The wellness grift spectrum runs from peer-reviewed science to full-moon crystal ceremonies, and the $6 trillion global wellness economy contains both extremes plus everything in between. The problem isn’t that grifters exist. It’s that the legitimate and the ludicrous share shelf space, Instagram aesthetics, and sometimes even the same podcast sponsors. This guide maps the spectrum so you can spend your wellness dollars where they’ll actually do something.
The Five Zones
Zone 1: Evidence-Based (Highest Confidence)
This is the territory of interventions supported by large-scale, peer-reviewed clinical research. Exercise (particularly zone 2 cardio and resistance training), Mediterranean-style nutrition, seven to nine hours of sleep, stress management, and preventive screening. These interventions have decades of data behind them. They’re boring. They work.
Practitioners in this zone include board-certified physicians, registered dietitians, and certified strength coaches. The products are mostly free (walking, sleeping, eating vegetables). The business model is thin, which is why you hear less about Zone 1 on podcasts than Zone 3.
Zone 2: Science-Adjacent (Good Confidence, Emerging Data)
This zone includes interventions with plausible biological mechanisms and early clinical support but without the decades of large-scale validation that Zone 1 enjoys. Creatine supplementation, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D optimization, cold exposure therapy, sauna use, and intermittent fasting all live here. The evidence is promising and growing.
Practitioners like Andrew Huberman and Rhonda Patrick operate primarily in this zone: translating emerging research into actionable protocols. Their value is genuine when they clearly distinguish between established evidence and promising-but-early findings. The risk is when enthusiasm outpaces the data.
Zone 3: Biohacker Experimental (Mixed Confidence)
Here’s where things get interesting. NAD+ infusions, peptide therapies, rapamycin, methylene blue, hyperbaric oxygen for longevity, red light therapy for cellular repair. These interventions have biological plausibility and some clinical support, but the evidence base is thin, the dosing protocols are unstandardized, and the long-term safety data is essentially nonexistent for healthy populations.
Figures like Ben Greenfield, Dave Asprey, and Bryan Johnson operate in this zone. They’re not charlatans. They’re experimenters, using their own bodies as test subjects and sharing results with audiences who understand (or should understand) the experimental nature of the protocols. The issue is that the audience often doesn’t make the distinction between “Ben tried this and felt better” and “clinical trials demonstrate this works.”
Zone 4: Marketing-Driven Wellness (Low Confidence)
This zone is dominated by products and services where the marketing budget exceeds the research budget. Overpriced supplements with proprietary blends that obscure underdosed ingredients. Celebrity-endorsed wellness lines (Lemme, various influencer brands) where the founder’s fame, not clinical evidence, drives purchasing. Detox programs, juice cleanses, and “alkaline” water that contradict basic physiology.
Zone 4 isn’t necessarily harmful. Most products here are simply overpriced placebos. The grift is economic, not physical. You’re paying $60 for something that either does nothing or could be replicated for $5. The $190 billion supplement industry is heavily populated by Zone 4 products.
Zone 5: Full Shaman (No Confidence)
Energy healing, medical medium channeling, crystal therapy for serious conditions, anti-vaccination wellness, and any protocol that asks you to stop evidence-based medical treatment in favor of alternative approaches. This zone isn’t just a waste of money. It’s potentially dangerous. And it thrives because the aesthetic packaging is often indistinguishable from Zones 1 through 3.
How to Navigate the Spectrum
Five rules for wellness consumers. First, check the credential. Board certification, research appointments, and peer-reviewed publications are the baseline. Second, follow the money. If someone recommends a product they also sell, apply extra skepticism. Third, look for the uncertainty language. Honest practitioners say “the evidence suggests” or “in my clinical experience.” Grifters say “this cures” or “science proves.” Fourth, beware the protocol stack. Recommending 15 supplements simultaneously is a revenue strategy, not a health strategy. Fifth, ask whether the intervention has a plausible mechanism that doesn’t require rejecting established biology.
The doctor-to-brand pipeline exists precisely because clinical credentials reduce consumer risk. The dermatologist beauty pipeline works for the same reason. Credentials aren’t a guarantee. But they’re the strongest filter available in a market designed to make everything look equally scientific.
Why the Spectrum Persists
The wellness grift spectrum endures because the legitimate wellness industry benefits from the hype generated by its fringes. AG1’s $1.2 billion valuation exists partly because the broader supplement conversation, including its dubious participants, keeps wellness spending culturally normalized. Goop’s cultural influence opened consumer willingness for premium wellness spending across all zones, from the evidence-based to the absurd.
The $29 billion longevity industry will only intensify this dynamic. As more money flows into aging research, the Zone 3 experimental treatments of today will either graduate to Zone 2 with clinical validation or slip to Zone 4 when the evidence fails to materialize. Your job as a consumer is to know which zone you’re buying from before you swipe your card.