As our living standards and conditions continue to improve, people are increasingly interested in living a healthy life, with the expectation that by pursuing such lifestyles, they can live longer and better. However, there are disagreements regarding who should be responsible for the well-being of our lives. Some advocate that authorities need to take up more obligations, thus ensuring the health of their citizens, while others argue that individuals should make decisions on their own.
Undoubtedly, though the ongoing efforts of governments, people tend to live healthier lives. By enforcing food safety laws and regulating additives, the basic qualities of our daily meals are guaranteed, preventing individuals from being harmed by extremely profit-oriented companies that ignore social responsibility totally and deliberately. Another example is the requirement of food ingredients and nutrition labeling. Customers are informed by these labels, leading them to make wise choices, and, more importantly, the labels remind them of the value of balanced diets as well as the nutrients in them, thus increasing their possibility of seeking a healthy life. Without authorities acting as market keepers, citizens lack options, forcing them to accept low-quality and misleading products, which undermines their ability to stay fit.
However, it is individuals’ freedom to decide whether to live a healthy life and how to achieve it if they want. Intervention from the government constitutes a violation of people’s basic right of choice, which states that everyone has the absolute right to decide on their personal matters, with no exception unless that may put others in negative positions. People should be given the chance to make decisions on what kinds of life they want, even though it might be proved harmful, while governments focus more on society-scale issues they are commissioned to do, like providing education, ensuring justice, and reducing poverty, therefore truly benefiting the society as a whole.
Furthermore, the methods and definition of living healthily vary from person to person. So there are no simple answers for the roadmaps of keeping fit. Some people may want to improve immunity by having balanced diets, but others can also achieve it through intensive exercises. There is not a black and white question, but options up to individuals for choosing, on which they need to consult with professionals (not governments) to find a suitable one. Similarly, although a majority of people only value physical fitness, the importance of psychological well-being is considered by much more people in modern society. By freely choosing the goals of staying fit, we can maximize the benefit of healthy living, improving our overall life quality. Such personalized decisions do not and cannot be made by authorities.
That is, to sum up, it is clear that the governments can help people lead a healthy life, but keeping in mind that the basic right of choosing is important and the questions regarding health should be completely personalized, I find myself aligned with the idea of giving individuals their own choices related to a healthy life.