Copyright majorcadailybulletin
We often ask, What’s best for my health? But there’s a hidden assumption in that question: that there’s one single “best” option. In reality, it depends entirely on what you’re hoping to achieve. A low-fat diet may be excellent for someone trying to lower cholesterol, but counterproductive for a growing child, or for someone struggling to maintain weight. Marathon training is wonderful for endurance, but not ideal for joint health or recovery from injury. A certain medication might be excellent for curing a particular illness, but have troublesome side-effects. Medicine and public health messaging tend to give us absolutes: “avoid sugar,” “exercise daily,” “get eight hours’ sleep.” This effect is amplified in the world of the internet and social media, where extremes – good or bad – rise to the top of the algorithm and are far more clickable than the less clear-cut truth. Absolutes are useful as general rules, yet they can make us feel guilty when we aren’t able to follow them. The truth is, our bodies and circumstances change over time, and so should our approach to health. Even medical research can suffer from this effect. It’s common to see a paper draw certain, cautious conclusions, only to see this sliver of truth distilled down in the media to a ‘wonder drug’ or a ‘revolutionary finding’. So the next time you read a headline claiming the best diet or the ideal exercise, ask: best for what, and for whom? Is it longevity, energy, mental health, or recovery from illness? Being mindful of what you are optimising for is the foundation of good decision-making, and healthcare is no different. It’s also fine to prioritise. Rarely does a patient overhaul everything at once. More often one small, successful change becomes a gateway to further improvements. Sometimes the best approach is to focus on optimising one area, and trust that others will follow. Framing health as something dynamic, rather than a single destination, helps us make wiser, kinder choices for ourselves.
