To view health as the only important quality is a perfectly logical conclusion--based on materialist premises. If there is no spirit, there is no benefit to morality except to improve health and increase one's chances of breeding successfully; indeed, those two criteria define morality. A good action is one which increases personal well-being or the well-being of descendants--and well-being is limited to bodily health.
And on those two Self magazine has its sights. Beauty is a far greater attractor of a potential mate than any other factor, and so Self emphasizes looks. Of course, one's mate will tend to leave if one demonstrates mental instability, so being happy ("carefree") becomes important. This problem affects women more, so while we see men's magazines about beauty, mental health is seldom discussed.
This view of morality-as-health has more serious results than causing people to worry more about their weight than, say, their soul. I read an article some time ago (this will be a link if I can again track it down) about the attempt to reform criminals by demonstrating that their actions were irrational; that is, that they were less likely to succeed through an illegal strategy than a legal one. Leaving aside the questionable assumption (that legal methods are more rewarding), this argument seems to me to teach a single lesson: don't get caught. If the wrongness of an action is defined solely by its effects on my physical well-being, I have an obligation--a moral obligation--to succeed in my illegal doings and get off scot free, not to restrain myself.
They believe that all the evil results of human crime are the results of the system that calls it crime. They do not believe that the crime creates the punishment. They believe that the punishment has created the crime. They believe that if a man seduced seven women he would naturally walk away as blameless as the flowers of spring. They believe that if a man picked a pocket he would naturally feel exquisitely good.
G. K. Chesterton
The reform program was an abyssmal failure, as I recall, with recidivist rates higher than the control group, who received no counseling. Character, as Mr. Moody once observed, is what you are in the dark.
