Ezekiel Emanuel opens up about his new book, Eat Your Ice Cream, and his fury at the wellness industrial complex
Fact checked by Shannon Sparks
Chicago native Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel, MD, PhD, an oncologist, bioethicist, and health policy expert, spoke with Chicago Health about his recent book, Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life.
Chicago Health: We live in a moment when wellness has become an industry, from fad diets to expensive supplements and constant talk about optimizing our lives for longevity. Given all the noise around taking care of ourselves, what motivated you to write this book?
Ezekiel Emanuel: The real spark was Peter Attia’s Outlive. It landed on my desk in early December 2023. I had finished teaching, and the finals weren’t in, so I wasn’t grading. I read it, and I became so furious that I sat down and wrote 35,000 words in three weeks, and that was the first draft of the book. So it was really a response to the wellness industrial complex and the fact that it was largely misleading and pushing all sorts of nonsense.
CH: As the title suggests, the book is organized around six major principles, one of which is “Talk to People.” What does the science tell us about the importance of social interaction?
EE: When you talk about social interaction, people say, “Well, you know, it’s good for your psychology, but it has nothing to do with your biology.” That’s, first of all, dead wrong, and I think it’s one of the great misconceptions that somehow the brain and the mind are separate. They’re one thing.
In the UK Biobank, they’ve been looking at people who are socially isolated. Are there different genes activated in their system? The answer is yes: genes for inflammation. And we know that people who are socially isolated have a less robust response to vaccines.
So there’s lots of work, much done by Nick Epley at the University of Chicago, that shows that a lack of social connection causes biological problems that both cut short your life and lower your happiness. The problem is that people haven’t integrated that into their thinking about wellness.
CH: Another of your principles is about staying mentally sharp. A Washington Post article this spring stated that Americans “spend billions of dollars each year chasing the idea of a sharper mind,” so “optimizing” cognitive abilities seems to be something people are invested in. What is actually backed by evidence?
EE: The first thing is that there are actually vaccines that can decrease your risk of cognitive impairment, and not a lot of people know that. There’s the shingles vaccine. Not only does it prevent a very painful illness like shingles, but it also has been shown to decrease your risk of cognitive impairment and dementia by 20%. The pneumococcal vaccine is the same, as are the annual flu shot and the diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus vaccine.
The second thing I would say is that staying mentally sharp, staying curious, and learning new things are very, very important. I think we often get into mental ruts. We do the same thing over and over, and we don’t challenge ourselves to try something new. One of the things I began a little more than 10 years ago was committing myself each year to doing something totally new, different, and out of the ordinary.
Last year, it was harvesting honey and taking care of bees. Challenge yourself. Do something new every year.
CH: This conversation wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t talk about how you landed on the title.
EE: The original title of my book, which is still in the file in my Box folder, is Don’t Be a Schmuck. Now, the problem with Don’t Be a Schmuck is that it’s a kind of negative title — it’s a “don’t” — and the publisher didn’t like that. I agreed, so we came up with another.
The point of the book is: look, you should not think of wellness as a punishment or self-deprivation or maxxing or biohacking. It should be part of a full, meaningful life.
One point I make in the book is that you’re going to have to do these habits for years and decades. You have to make them part of your life; if it’s self-denial or punishment, you’re going to give them up. You have to get to a place where what you’re doing is something you actually enjoy doing, and it shouldn’t be hard. Cooking good food is something to enjoy. Exercising is something to enjoy. Sleeping is also something to enjoy.
Anushree (Anu) Vashist is a freelance writer who often covers medicine, science, and higher education. She recently graduated from the University of Chicago with a double major in biological sciences and history.
