Healthy, Happy … and Disappearing Fast

It’s a freaky question with an equally freaky answer: Not many.

As the chart indicates, if you are healthy and flourishing — physically, mentally and emotionally — you are, statistically speaking, very much in the minority (almost certainly less than 20 percent, and arguably less than 3 percent — see below). Eek!

You can get more of the official facts and statistics in my feature “Being Healthy Is a Revolutionary Act: Renegade Perspectives for Thriving in a Mixed Up World.” But the main thing you gotta know is that if you are not one of the lucky few represented by those happy-healthy green figures, you needn’t beat yourself up about it.

Because, guess what? There’s a reason you’re struggling: You’ve got an entire culture working against you — one that has successfully undermined the well-being of fully 80 percent of the U.S. adult population to date. And (if recent data from the Mayo Clinic is correct) our social norms are on course to undermine the health of more like 97 percent of us in the not so distant future.

I know: Whaa?! That sounds crazy. And it is.

But the data is real: Study data published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings suggests that less than three percent of U.S. adults are eating even a marginally healthy diet, getting a reasonable amount of exercise, not smoking and maintaining a healthy body composition. And the study doesn’t even touch on equally huge health factors like stress, sleep and social connection. (For more on the findings, see this summary by Science Daily News.)

Fortunately, it’s not too late for you to break ranks with the unhealthy majority. That’s what the healthy revolution is all about: Cultivating healthy deviance (hey, I’m hashtagging that: #healthydeviance) from unhealthy norms.

I’m currently working on a book about how one can go about doing that on a daily basis. Meanwhile, just wanted to share this infographic-driven insight and let you mull on it a bit.

If the data boggles your mind as much as it does mine, please feel free share the chart to Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter (handy social-sharing tools at left). But before you do, I invite you to imagine — for just a moment — what it might be like to live in a world where the ratios of healthy and not-so-healthy people were reversed.

What if 80 percent (or better yet, 97 percent!) of us were thriving, flourishing, enjoying a surplus of energy, vitality and resilience?

Imagine the difference that would make in our families and communities, schools, places of work. Imagine how it might improve our healthcare system, to say nothing of social justice, our environment and economy. Oh my goodness, it gives me goosebumps.

Wanna hear me talk more about this (and other stuff)? Listen in to the recent interview I did with Stupid Easy Paleo’s Steph Gaudreau on her terrific “Harder to Kill Radio” podcast.