Health Benefits of Living Simply

Is simplicity a healthy approach to life? Just look at the Amish.

In America, the simple and clean-living Amish community lives longer than the general population, which has been experiencing a drop in life expectancy in recent years, despite spending record amounts of cash on health care.

The Amish experience fewer chronic conditions that have plagued the consumer-oriented population since it became more dependent on Big Ag and Big Food.

Amish children are rarely diagnosed with obesity, cancer, diabetes, or autism, while in the larger society, all these afflictions are tragically common.

Unfortunately, Big Health sees chronic conditions not as something to prevent and cure, but as markets to be exploited for profit.

The Amish are healthier despite not having easy access to modern health care in their rural settings. 

In fact, these traditional, self-reliant folks may not want to access what the modern system has to offer. Vaccines and expensive dental treatments are two such examples.

Perhaps they are healthier because of their avoidance of the entire sickness care industry. 

Or it might be due to their emphasis on maintaining traditional lives of clean living, hard work, and strong community support.

Either way, I believe that the Amish provide evidence that the more simply and traditionally one lives, the healthier they will be.

Tell us what you think in a comment below. Is the simple life the way to health, or is it possible to live a modern, consumer-oriented lifestyle dependent on profit-seeking enterprises and still be healthy?