I was reading an article about life expectancy in Finland being the highest it has ever been, and how Swedish-Finns (Swedish speakers) have slightly better health than the Finnish-speaking population. One of the major reasons for the increase in life expectancy is the reduction of smoking over the last few decades which is now having an affect on the "final" numbers. The factor mentioned for the difference between Swede- and Finnish- speakers was the drinking culture differences between the two, where while they drink about the same amount in total, Finnish drinkers drink more in one sitting, and it tends to be less social. Essentially, Finnish-speakers binge drink more alone, for no social reason.
However, one factor that wasn't mentioned (but is likely somewhat related), is that Swedish-speakers tend to be noticeably thinner on average than Finnish-speakers. Part of this is genetics, but it also comes down to those cultural habits also. In another article from Australia, the story is similar, where obesity has overtaken smoking as the number one health risk, meaning that as far as general health outcomes go - obesity is the main indicator of ill-health.
Fat and healthy?
Perhaps it is possible to be overweight and healthy, but even if it is, that is not the average situation for those who are overweight. There are also likely people who are able to smoke their whole lives and never get cancer, and maybe even some who can smoke and not lose lung function - but, that is not the normal situation, and when it comes to making health decisions for larger populations, it has to factor in the average.
But I'm an individual.
Yes. I am. However, am I that individual that the averages don't apply to me? Do I consider my daughter to be such an individual that she will be the healthy overweight person, or the healthy smoker? Am I willing to take the risk that I am able to beat the odds?
The house always wins.
This statement is about the law of averages, where a casino (the house) has set its win-loss ratios so that while an individual might win, at volume, the casino will net a profit due to all the losses from others. This possibility of the individual win is what drives the gambler to keep rolling the dice and for some they might have the skill to win more than they lose, but it is a game of averages.
When it comes to our health, if we were to assume that the average outcomes of a large population are "the house" and then play to the averages, we would likely get far better results than trying to beat the odds. This is a cultural shift away from what we have been told to do though, because we have been conditioned to believe that we are not only individuals with specific needs, but also that we should emphasis how we feel right now above everything else. This means that we satisfy desire now, rather than foregoing the good feeling now to invest into a better feeling in the future.
This impacts on our health massively.
On top of this, we are also conditioned to "love ourselves" no matter what condition we are in, instead of love ourselves enough to improve our condition. And when we do look to improve our conditions, we often look at the external factors, again favouring how we feel, instead of the internal factors that are affecting our feelings about the world. We should of course love ourselves, but that love shouldn't become an excuse to stop improving ourselves, in the same way that a parent who loves their child, isn't going to give them everything the child wants in life, and are instead going to favour what the child needs.
Sometimes, a child needs reprimand.
reprimand
/ˈrɛprɪmɑːnd/
noun
a formal expression of disapproval.
Shouldn't we be disapproving of bad behaviour? And if that bad behaviour is our own - what then? And when I say "bad behaviour" in terms of our individual health, I mean the behaviours that are counterproductive to good health, and instead support poor health. And of course, I am not talking about some kind of extremism here, where everything we do has to be in pursuit of good physical health. Yes, we can have a dessert, have a drink, skip the gym and splurge on occasion - but the effects of our behaviours are cumulative, and the more we repeat negative behaviours, the bigger the impact.
Same goes for actions of growth.
Meditating once or twice is going to make little difference in a person's life, but meditating regularly might see profound effects. Similarly, eating a salad occasionally while surrounding it with greasy, sugary foods most of the time isn't going to make a person healthy. Essentially, if we want to improve our personal conditions, we have to change our personal culture.
culture
/ˈkʌltʃə/
the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society.
Counting ourselves as a member of a group doesn't necessarily mean that we are within the average behaviour of that group. There are overweight Swedish-speakers in Finland, and there are non-drinker Finnish-speakers. Each person is an individual that makes up that group, so we should be careful when we identify to the average, without acting the average.
But, our personal culture is just our set of personal behaviours and we should be actively changing if what we are commonly doing isn't getting us to where we want to be. However, just like all the different culture war topics ongoing over the last few decades, we don't want to "lose" our culture, even if it is unhealthy. We don't want people coming in and telling us what to do, even if what we are doing isn't making us feel good about ourselves.
I think about these things a lot, because just like everyone else, I have been conditioned by my environment, my family, peers and my genetics. But, through my behaviours, I am also conditioning myself toward achieving my outcomes, whether they are the outcomes I actually want, or not. Each action is a vote for better or worse, and the more I vote in ways that are likely to lead me down a less healthy path in some way or another, the more likely it becomes I will vote that way again, and the more frequent I vote.
We live in a time where we have access to the most amount of information ever, and while a lot of that information might be questionable, it is also easy to get evidence-backed knowledge that is most likely to lead to good average outcomes. It is not just about our weight or looks, but how we think and feel also. It takes more to be healthy than to just look good. Mind, body and feelings have to align and all be on average in good condition. Over time, the percentages might change and fluctuate and we will of course degrade as we age, but even then, we can be healthy for our age - not in comparison to others, but in comparison to ourselves.
Our best self.
Isn't that the outcome we all want? But what is our "best self" on the spectrum of what we could be, across all the factors that matter. We can't have it all, so we have to think that what is our best self that we can achieve, based on where we are willing to spend our attention and energy. We have to recognise that our personal culture is not infallible, that it is not optimised, that it is going to include negatives, just like our collective culture. Yet, just like our collective culture, we have to also see that it can change, it should change, and it should change for the better.
We needn't punish ourselves for the past.
We shouldn't punish ourselves in the future.
We can only change now.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
