Healthy lifestyle, goals and global efforts

A healthy lifestyle is a series of daily choices that become habit; it is best started in childhood to prevent lifestyle disorders such as poor eating and inactivity.

Set positive goals ('I will eat healthy food', not 'I will skip dinner') and realistic ones; if you slip, re-plan instead of giving up. Make them SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

The eight Millennium Development Goals had three on health. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (169 targets) continue them; SDG 3, healthy lives and well-being for all at all ages, includes universal health coverage.

Physical and mental health are inseparable. Low activity is a major public-health problem; inactive people have a 20-30 per cent higher risk of death than those doing 150 minutes of moderate activity a week. Activity controls weight and lowers heart disease, diabetes, blood pressure and cancer risk.

WHO: ages 5-17 need at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a day, with muscle and bone strengthening three times a week; ages 18-64 need 150 minutes of moderate (or 75 vigorous) a week, up to 300 for extra benefit, and muscle work twice a week.