In the “absence of health.”
Wellness for “everything” and “everyone.”
When we are unable or unwilling to enunciate an immaterial concept, we define it by negation. The easiest way to describe the indescribable or support its existence is always to affirm what it is not.
This is generally an effective operation but a hazardous one when applied to notions that are anything but abstract, thus deprived of their concreteness and rootedness to reality. One of the victims most affected by this dynamic is the concept of health, which, according to a widespread convention, is there when there is no illness; and which, on the other hand, is not there when a frighteningly revealing event occurs. The hypothesis also transfers to our perceptions: we feel healthy when we are not sick and when … we are sick.
Why does this happen? Because of a neurological process that activates a state of alertness only when fighting against fear: whenever we are confronted with a stimulus interpreted as a threat, a part of the nervous system involved in those functions called “attack or flight” is activated. In short, any disturbance affecting our health is postponed until the moment the body conspires against us. This is precisely why the tendency to preserve oneself (the so-called survival instinct) is not directly related to the exercise of a healthy lifestyle that promotes “complete physical, mental and social well-being”-according to the definition assigned to health by the WHO (World Health Organization).
Generally, we do not perceive health-related dangers until they clearly show themselves. Yet, the latest WHO data show them sharply. Cases of diseases related to environmental factors are steadily increasing (about 24 percent of all conditions worldwide), prevention of which would save nearly three million lives a year, among children alone. But dietary nutrition is directly correlated with health; according to WHO, sufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables would save about three million people a year. Poor dietary and lifestyle behaviors are the leading risk factor for the onset of chronic diseases, the leading cause of mortality worldwide. As a result of the pandemic, mental well-being has also suffered: today, one in eight people is affected by psychological disorders, which, in turn, cause severe obstacles to achieving any social well-being.
Having observed the line that connects the dots in this picture, once again, and at the risk of being redundant, I would like to reiterate how one of man’s greatest presumptions is to think of himself as a monad, autonomous from the interrelationship of all things. Instead, the impact of any event on our existence shows us how individuality is the knot of infinite relationships with equally endless factors. Everything is intimately connected in a tangle of relationships that weave the fabric of reality. And, in fact, even just reading the latest IPCC report, it becomes clear how health is not-quoting WHO-just “the absence of disease and infirmity,” but the concomitance of elements that are triggered in a chain.
Our actions directly impact climate, ecosystems, and the environment. In the least developed countries, the increase in extreme weather and climate phenomena has resulted in severe food insecurity, reduced water security, unstable supplies, and — ça va sans dire — increased mortality and diseases of food, water, and vector origin. Similarly, negative health consequences are seen in other nations, mainly due to the destruction of entire ecosystems, pollution, and damage to soil quality (and its fruits). Everywhere the damage to the economy and social equity is extensive and inevitable.
Of great significance, though less immediately perceptible, are also the effects on mental health: due to rising temperatures, loss of livelihoods, and trauma derived from extreme events; but also as a consequence of food progressively lacking essential nutrients and, due to the pervasive virtualization of reality, that intimate connection with rituality, communication and sharing that has always made it a vehicle for psychological and social well-being.
The Mediterranean Diet, which is not a list of foods, but a natural way of life, can undoubtedly represent a virtuous model for the achievement of concrete goals in terms of health: for the whole territory (made up of people, environment, and ecosystems), being the pivot around which an integral ecological regeneration can be moved; and-quoting to the theme of the 73rd Health Day 2023-for “everyone,” is a fully exportable prototype, a vector of a fundamental right. To cite two of the most emblematic achievements of the Mediterranean lifestyle in terms of physical well-being: the reduction of mortality by 10 percent, down to as low as 13 percent for diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and the increase in longevity studied by Andrea Bariselli through the now famous algorithm-understood not as a mere prolongation of the existential parabola, but improvement of its quality.
However, good intentions must be followed by concrete actions. For politics, economics, culture, environment, and society to be communicating vessels that keep health in the balance, as well as with funding and resources, it is necessary to move actively in a direction that is too often neglected: education. Right from school, we need to be educated about a concept of health that is not just the “absence of disease” but the presence of essential regeneration of the human, environmental and social spheres.
In some deterministic phenomena, such as the evolution of weather, small changes in inputs can produce significant changes in outputs, leading to so-called “deterministic chaos”-that is, the principle that small causes can have significant effects. This is where we need to start: from the education of small practices that could reverse the now deterministic setback that threatens our well-being and our world, leading us back to the possession of health, the most precious commodity of our existence.
The Future Food Institute is an international ecosystem that believes climate change is at the end of your fork. By harnessing the power of its global ecosystem of partners, innovators, researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs, FFI aims to sustainably improve life on Earth by transforming global food systems.
FFI catalyzes progress towards the UN Agenda 2030 of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by training the next generation of changemakers, empowering communities, and engaging government and industry in actionable impact-driven innovation grounded in integral ecological regeneration.
Through its Paideia Campus, the open-air laboratory of land, sea, and landscape biodiversity based in Pollica, in the middle of the Mediterranean basin, the Future Food Institute is formally committed to promoting the Mediterranean Diet as a framework for integral Ecological Regeneration and enlivening the concept of integral ecology through integrated approaches grounded in nature-based solutions. With education, innovation, and community for biodiversity, the Institute fosters active conservation of natural and cultural biodiversity, sustainable use of natural resources, and responsible innovation in the Mediterranean agri-food chain.
Learn more at futurefoodinsitute.org, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Or attend a program through the Future Food Academy!
