Today, stress, lack of exercise, and pollution are some examples of factors contributing toward a less healthy life, despite improved medicines and awareness of health. This is what Epoch Times reporters from Italy to New Zealand found when they asked locals: “Do we live healthier lives today than our parents did at our age?”
Polly Carlsen, 53, Metro Supervisor
No. There’s too many fast foods. We don’t grow our own foods anymore; its’ just too easy to go pop into a shop and buy fast junk food. Everyone thinks they’re short of time. Our parents had huge gardens and orchards. We fished from the sea; we had a beautiful backyard. When I look at it now, we had fantastic opportunities to eat healthy, and that’s what we did. I think we’re locked into a society that thinks there is less time, and so the thing is to think the big goal is money.
Ben Benest, 61, Retired Town Planner
I would say yes and no. My lifestyle is healthier than my parents because they used to smoke heavily and didn’t really exercise. But my parents’ generation probably ate better food, not so much processed food, and ate less. I think, in general, a lot of people these days don’t get exercise through their normal living—work, or traveling to work. A lot of people are sitting at computer desks, and so on.
Warsaw, Poland
Marek Kostrzewa, 24, Historian and Archaeologist
I think our parents lived a healthier life. It is because we live in a very stressful world filled with many things to do. Currently, it is a very common trend to live healthy and buy healthy, ecological food without GMO and without chemical food preservatives. Our parents at our age were eating everything without dividing what is healthy and what is not, simply because at the communist times in Poland, people didn’t have much choice. They ate whatever was available and they didn’t get ill because of that. We have a different problem today, sometimes choosing unhealthy food that makes people suffer.
Charo Melian Villalobos, 26, Bank Manager
Well, I think it depends, ’cause if you look at it seeing how medicine has improved in the last five decades and you add to this all the care governments, local authorities, food industries, etc., have on hygienic control, we should conclude that we are healthier because we are exposed to fewer risks. But on the other side, the new generations, to which I belong, have seen arise several unknown and in some cases extremely dangerous new diseases that nobody knew of when my parents were in their twenties. So as I said at the beginning, it’s not a one-way answer question.
Priyanka Saira Verkey, 19, Student
No, we don’t. … A lot of factors are responsible for this—pollution, the air we breathe in. Our space is a mixture of a lot of things that are very dangerous to us; overpopulation has brought about a lot of competition. … Earlier, people walked such long distances and that kept them fit, but now we live such a luxurious life! Exercise is only the interest of a select few who wish to keep fit. Junk food has also made things worse in this aspect. People do not have the peace of mind they used to have.
Rita Pera, 60, Administrator
My parents in their time had a more serene life full of affection and cooperation. Today, we are more selfish, suspicious of others, I don’t know why. If one is calm and serene, relations with others, work, and everything will be better and health will benefit too. And compared with those times, today we have too much, and this often causes disease, cholesterol, stroke, and all those sorts of things. At those times, people ate what they needed. I never heard that my father had cholesterol and nobody even spoke of these things. They were satisfied with little and so they were better than us.
Renáta Krajcovicová, 36, Office Manager
Today, our society tries to do more campaigns related to health issues. But in the end, it favors the pharmaceutical companies and increases the consumption of medicine. For example, the doctor prescribes, as a preventive measure, to consume bifidus milk instead of a normal one, or fizzy drinks, enzymes, and coenzymes. I think it is all related to the exaggerated liberal egotism, as they are always imposing to think only about ourselves, and that results in the immoderate attention to ourselves. Let’s look at how today’s people are literally obsessed with their physical appearance.
Pavel Vavros, 23, Casting Machines Operator
I don’t think so. Lifestyle before was based on work, and, generally, people had more exercise and physical activity, so I think they were healthier. Today, the lifestyle is kind of sedentary, so the population is getting fat. I don’t think today’s lifestyle has a better influence than the one in the past.
Camila Chuba, 31, Logistics Manager
My family always had concerns regarding eating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. My mother always avoided foods with high levels of fat and carbohydrates, such as fast food, pasta, etc. But I think the main difference between those times and today is that today, we have much more concern about physical activity and physical exercise. I believe that today we have easier access to the gym, outdoor exercise, and other forms of exercise than the people of those times had. And we are a lot more concerned about keeping fit and having good health.
Look for the Global Q&A column every week. Epoch Times correspondents interview people around the world to learn about their lives and perspectives on local and global realities. Next week’s global question: “Do you feel you have enough time to spend with your family?”
