How to Be Healthy in an Unhealthy World

Always be on the lookout for the unwritten messages in health. At first glance, this ad for Special K from a New York City street corner looks like just a promotion for a breakfast cereal. But it's really also pushing personal responsibility. Your health is in your own hands. You've got to make the resolution to be healthy. And if you're not healthy, it's your own fault.



Trouble is, it's very hard to be healthy if you live in an unhealthy environment. Eating a particular breakfast cereal isn't going to counteract the damage done by your parents' smoking or the fact that the only affordable food in your neighborhood is fast food.

Let's not even get started thinking about germs or genes that sometimes make it impossible to be healthy.

I believe in sharing good, validated information about health so that people can make the best choices available to them. But there's no hiding the fact that good health is often out of an individual's control.

By all means, eat healthy, get plenty of regular exercise and don't smoke. But also agitate for those things that are society's responsibility--like clean drinking water, vaccination and access to basic health care.