On Reinterpreting SDGs 3 : Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

On Reinterpreting SDGs 3 : Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages 
Md. Amzad Hossain, Perth, Western Australia 
Email: A.Hossain@curtin.edu.au 
Wisdom
Tell me what you eat, I will tell you who you are  -Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 
Prelude
     This discourse on the reinterpretation of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) attempts to reflect on its theme, aims and target areas  in terms of  naturally sustainable ‘Healthy Lives and Well-being’ situation globally, especially, in Bangladesh. SDG 3  aims to ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’. Health is directly linked to food and spirituality; and well-being is linked to health, and socioeconomic and environmental sustainability scenarios. Ignoring the main theme (healthy lives and well-being) the 13 target areas of SDG 3 largely talk about saving human lives from diseases and deaths, which is only passively linked to healthy lives and well-being. Thus, a discourse on SDG 3 follows to discuss this issue in details: 
What does ‘healthy lives’ mean?
     Healthy Lives implies a nature-friendly way of living a lifestyle that can result in sustainable wellness for experiencing wholeness of well-being in terms of both physical and spiritual health.  When talking about healthy lives,  thesurrounding social and environmental health must also be accounted for. Because, ‘The part can never be well unless the whole is well.  – Plato. 
 
What is health?
     The word ‘health’ refers to a state of complete spiritual and physical well-being. Wisdom has it that Happiness is the highest form of health - Dalai Lama.  In the Australian context, health is defined  ‘as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (WHO 1946). In another account “ Health is a large word. It embraces not the body only, but the mind and spirit as well;…and not today's pain or pleasure alone, but the whole being and outlook of a man.” -  James H. West
How to judge a person’s health?
     The judgment of whether a person is healthy or not depends on the assessors’ individual assessment point of view and contexts. One’s health can simply be judged by his/her outward physical ‘look’ in terms of facial freshness, weight etc. Health can also be judged by medical or pathological criteria. Immunity test to determine the power of disease prevention and recovering from illness is another way. Because of such judgmental diversity, wisdom reveals:  ‘Just because you're not sick doesn't mean you're healthy.’ -  Anonymous. According to Baul beliefs and practices human  health is a totality of visible physical wellness and invisible spiritual,  socioeconomic, and environmental contentment. 
 
How do we say a person is 'healthy' or ' unhealthy'?
     A healthy person is one who looks healthy i.e. whose body is moderately fleshy. And an unhealthy person is one who looks skinny, malnourished, and underweight.  
The impacts of emergence and divergence of Corona syndromes demonstrate that skinny (nearly underweight), heard working and voluntarily hungry persons have a stronger immunity to resist the attack of Coronavirus. They are also safe from the suffering from various other non-curable diseases that many apparently healthy people have.
 
How is health related to food?
     Food is the key to health.  Moderate eating of safe food helps reduce the risk of health problems like heart disease and diabetes. It also helps with sleeping patterns, energy levels, and general well-being. 
Which safe food items are treated as healthy food?
     Eating fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains can meet one’s daily nutritional needs, keep mental health conditions normal, improve one’s overall health, and lead a healthy lifestyle. In other words, a balanced diet plays an important role in overall health and wellbeing. From a wisdom point of view: Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food -  MichaelPollan. 

 
What do we need to know about food for healthy lives?
     There are diverse points of view on food. The following wisdom regarding food are important to keep in mind :

‘Any food that requires enhancing by the use of chemical substances should in no way be considered a food’ -   John H. Tobe.

‘Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food’ -  MichaelPollan.

‘The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison’ -   Ann Wigmore.

 ‘Eating crappy food isn't a reward, it's a punishment’ -  Drew Carey.
 
How is health related to eating habits?
     In order to understand about healthy eating habit,  the following wisdom revelations are most beneficial : 
 
      ‘Eat to live, not live to eat’. 

     ‘The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not’ - Mark Twain. 

     ‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants’ - Michael Pollan.

     ‘অণু ভাতে দুনু বল, ভরা ভাতে রসা তল’ (Eating less doubles the energy, eating too much leads to drowning – Bangla proverb. 

     ‘পান্তা ভাতের জল, চার পুরুষের বল’(Water of watered rice, the strength of 4 persons - বাংলা প্রবাদ।

What does healthy eating mean?
     Healthy eating means eating a variety of food that give you the nutrients you need to maintain your health, feel good and have energy. These nutrients include protein, carbohydrates, fat, water, vitamins, and minerals. Nutrition is important for everyone. When combined with  physical activity and a healthy weight, eating good food is an excellent way to help your body stay strong and healthy. 
 
What constitute healthy lives?
     Healthy lives include good physical health by way of modest consumption including voluntary hunger, simple living i.e. happiness with less, adequate physical activity, positive thinking, and spiritual exercise. This suggests that safe food and economic solvency with good physical and spiritual wellness constitute healthy lives. “Without health, life is not life; it is only a state of languor and suffering.”  - Francois Rabelais. The wholeness of healthy lives also includes strong immunity, economic self-reliance, healthy eating, social sustainability, spiritual contentment, and surrounding ecosystem health.
 
What are healthy lives there in the west?
     “Eat better, Move better and Sleep better” – three aspects of human life are the keys to healthy lives in the West. The West believes that a healthy life is about making the most of it. About eating delicious and filling meals, going outside in the sunshine, hanging out with other people, and sleeping well. At healthy lives the West does not believe in crash diets that leave people hungry and miserable. A healthy life should be effective and enjoyable (https://www.healthylives.com/ ).
 
What are healthy lives in Bangladesh?
     Healthy lives in Bangladesh are somewhat the opposite of that of the West. Fill one-third of the stomach with water before having a meal, then fill one-third with mostly plant-based natural food, and keep the remaining one-third empty for spiritual upliftment.  This indicates that practicing ‘eat to live’ is a healthy life in Bangladesh; whereas the West ‘lives to eat’ as part of their healthy lives. Healthy lives in Bangladesh in terms of Corona pandemic is mostly attributed to heard working simple eating, simply living, and immunity enriched people who are noticeably unaffected by Coronaviruses  and are able to recover quicker than other affected people. On the other hand, well-being in Bangladesh rests in family bondage, social brotherhood bondage of Islam, and multi-religious coherence.
 
What is well-being?
     Well-being is the experience of health, happiness, and prosperity. It embeds having good mental health, high social satisfaction, a sense of wellness and self-respect. More generally, well-being is just feeling and being well. It is a state of complete mental, physical and societal wellness, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.   According to the World Health Organization “Life is not merely being alive, but being well.”   - Marcus ValeriusMartialis
 
How food and eating habit is linked to well-being?
      
     Food is for energy and nutrition. Eating habit is linked to health and immunity. And well-being is being or feeling well, amongst others, after eating food. Food and energy go hand in hand and exist in a synergistic relationship. 
Where does Well-Being come from?
     The concept of well-being is broad as there are several types of well-being. However, well-being emerges from thoughts, actions, and experiences. Positive thinking generates spiritual well-being. Outcome-based sustainable positive actions generate social well-being and environmental sustainability, and experiences generate wisdom.  
What are the major types of Well-Being?
     There are 5 types of well-being.
          • Spiritual Well-Being. Happiness, mindfulness, positive thinking and resilience.  
          • Physical Well-Being. The ability to improve the functioning of body through healthy eating and good physical and spiritual exercise habits. 
          • Social Well-Being. The ability to communicate and develop meaningful relationships with others. In other words, the ability to actively participate in a thriving community, culture, and environment.
          • Occupational Well-Being. The ability to pursue your interests, values, and purpose in order to gain meaning, happiness, and enrichment professionally.
     These skills help enjoy our work more; and to stay focused, motivated, and successful at work.  Occupational well-being helps feel more fulfilling. 
What is well-being in Bangladesh?
     The Baul philosophers of Bangladesh consider well-being as a divinely created invisible entity. Every individual has it, more or less. This invisible entity is linked to some spiritual things such as ‘The less you have, the more you are.’ ‘When you think, see and do something about other’s well-being, your own well-being is renewed’.
 
How Bangladesh government can ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all in this period of Corona crisis?
     Emergence and divergence of Corona syndrome were first considered simply as a new pandemic. With the passage of time now the word, including Bangladesh government, largely believe that Corona is a nature’s mission for bringing the contemporary growth-oriented nature devastating unsustainable socio-economic development back to sustainable development in terms of achieving  SDGs. The SDGs have got clear cut principles and praxes in order for achieving them. 
     Our 20 Discourses  published on Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Bangladesh’ in the News From Bangladesh (www.newsfrombangladesh.net)  have details about how to achieve SDGs in Bangladesh.
     However, due to a lack of linking sustainable development principles and praxes to our way of living, we are attempting to link Corona resistant lockdown, social distancing and ‘new normal’ life-style precepts and practices to pursue achieving SDGs. Please see our Facebook posting #5 for details (Link :https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=148882843449104&id=100740978263291&__tn__=K-R).
 
     Last but not the least, achieving SDG 3 could be an outcome of pursuing a nature-friendly way to live our lives. Also, if we can maintain simple living, voluntary hunger, moderate food intake and agri-ecological sustainability, achieving SDG 3 would be automatic.  
 
Concluding Remarks
       It appears that maintaining healthy lives and well-being is mostly linked to people’s eating,  lifestyle and spirituality culture, where food plays the prime role. The following wisdom sayings also justify it:
Tell me what you eat, I will tell who you are’ - Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin,  
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants -  MichaelPollan

Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food - Michael Pollan

The scientific truth may be put quite briefly; eat moderately, having an ordinary mixed diet, and don't worry -Robert Hutchison

Eating crappy food isn't a reward it's a punishment-Drew Carey
     It is obvious that people who eat less, live simply  and devote more time to spiritual practice live  immunity enriched healthier lives and well-being. Strong immunity is primary requirement for preventing diseases including Corona syndromes. Simple living people with ‘Eat to live’ habit  are happier and live longer than those who seek material possessions and conspicuous consumption. Materially rich people generally experience less happiness and report less satisfaction with their lives. They also live shorter than people who practice healthy hunger. Social science research also shows that, with the exception of the extreme poor, a person’s income or socioeconomic status does not contribute to his/her contentment significantly, and even economic growth does not have a significant effect on happiness. 
     
(To be continued)
Links to our other published Discourses and Facebook Postings :
https://www.facebook.com/100740978263291/posts/100749594929096/?sfnsn=mo 2. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=124898932514162&id=100740978263291&__tn__=K-R 3. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=134338164903572&id=100740978263291&__tn__=K-R 4. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=147054566965265&id=100740978263291&__tn

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