Wellness is one of those words that means different things to different HMOs and health care providers. It’s become a catch-all phrase that covers everything from diet programs to aromatherapy anything, really, that offers alternative or preventative health care.

Beyond the jumble of various programs and therapies, a fundamental transformation is taking place. It’s the belief, as commentator Harold Benjamin put it, that “one should no longer completely rely on experts, and should affirmatively participate in one’s own well-being.”

Them’s fightin’ words among many in the health care community, which is why our health care special report, beginning on page 21, makes for especially provocative reading.

It seems strange, yet somehow fitting, that in the same issue as this report we profile Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles, an L.A. institution for those interested in something other than the treadmill/tofu way of life.

The success of Roscoe’s, especially among the Hollywood crowd, might surprise those East Coast types who tend to believe the stereotypes about L.A. being obsessed with fitness. I can think of several other haunts around town Roscoe’s, Pink’s, El Cholo, Dr. Hogly Wogly’s Tyler Texas BBQ, among them where calories are of limited concern. Thank goodness.

Mark Lacter

Editor