Being healthy is not easy. We need to talk about privilege.

I guess it’s the start of the school season so there are more young tutors on TikTok promoting their services. Before I go on, I must acknowledge their entrepreneurial spirit and tenacity to start their own business at a young age. It is 100% commendable. But this post will not be about that.

The common theme about individuals who share their straight A grades is that they changed something. Specifically, only one thing. And that got them their straight As from maybe straight Fs or whatever it could be before. I totally believe it by the way.

They say it’s their mindset shift. They say it’s their study techniques, whatever. I totally appreciate it. But nobody conscientiously acknowledged how their privilege could have contributed to their success.

But before we start attributing that everyone will succeed because they did one thing or other, and therefore everyone can, we need to consider the influence of privilege.

Being healthy is no easy task

As a chiropractor, I see in my daily work that being healthy is fundamentally challenging because it takes effort. It takes discipline and commitment. It also cost something. Mostly money. Even more often time and money.

Ministry of National Development did a sponsored (?) post with 8days on where to find budget friendly meals. The food items shortlisted were Dan Dan Mian, Chicken Chop Rice, Curry Mee With Char Siew, Kway Teow Goreng, and Fishball Minced Meat Noodles. At $3.50 per meal, they were definitely afford, maybe even cheap.

But is it nutritious?

Based on Singapore’s own eating guidelines, the recommended diet should be 50% vegetables. None of the foods featured would meet this recommendation.

Furthermore, all of the foods were predominantly carbs. 40% of Singaporeans are either obese or overweight. Eating high carbohydrate, calorie-dense foods is not going to help with weight loss.

So, eating healthily, will cost time, money, or both. You can meal prep nutritious meals at very affordable prices but will take time. You can also buy nutritious ready-to-eat meals but it will cost you money. It will also take discipline to choose healthier foods and more expensive food over yummy and cheaper food.

It’s a commitment.

Exercise also take resources

A gym membership cost money. Sure, you can buy your own equipment to train at home. But gym equipment also cost money. And gym equipment takes up space. So, you will need to have enough space at home to train at home, which again, suggests affluence. Home ownership and rent are expensive in Singapore.

Indeed, we are very lucky in Singapore in that we have fitness corners all around the island. So technically everyone can workout for free in Singapore. But what is available at fitness corner may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

So having access (e.g., money) to more palatable exercises options make exercising more accessible, and exercising easier.

This is where privilege comes in.

Privilege is not readily apparent

If you think you are not privileged, you probably are. Privilege can be thought of as benefits over others you were born with or born into. In other words, unearned. It’s always around you. So it does sound like you don’t have it, because you have always had it.

Sure, there are people more privileged than you. I am not contesting that. But for most of us who are healthier (loosely used), we tend to have more working in our favour.

We’ll start basic, or controversial, Chinese privilege. If you are Chinese, you are more likely to be within a healthy weight range. This is not something you earned. This is something you were born with or both into.

Sure, you can’t help being Chinese. But you still get the enjoy the (health) rewards of being one.

Privilege refers to unearned advantage

Privilege refers to unlearned advantages that are largely invisible. This is why it is hard for people who are on the benefitting end to have awareness of their own privilege.

For people who love to exercise, it’s easier for them to keep an active lifestyle. They are probably more likely to be in a healthy weight range and have better physical well-being. This is why just making time to exercise or just putting the effort to exercise is not the same from person to person. There is no “you just have to do this.”

We all have different contexts and challenges

Personally, eating healthy is not difficult for me. This is probably because healthy eating is a part of my life growing up. So, eating healthy, is a construct I am familiar with and something I have been exposed to since a young age.

Because we rarely eat out, cooking is also fairly intuitive. It’s not something I have to deliberately learn. In fact, I attended zero cooking classes my entire life but could following Thomas Kellers’ cookbooks just fine – Ad Hoc at Home and Bouchon Bakery.

Exercise, on the other hand, is a struggle. I personally find exercise burdensome and would do the least possible amount possible to keep myself physically healthy. Sometimes I procrastinate and forget. Then I would actually exercise even less. I am not proud of it but that’s life, right?

I’ve tried using the social aspects of exercising to make it slightly more palatable. Like joining a sporting team, being a member at a boutique gym, etc. Unfortunately, exercise is just not something I enjoy. And it takes great effort to do so.

We all have different circumstances. You win some, you lose some. And that’s 100% okay.

Overweight people are happier?

Someone on social media shared that overweight people are more likely to be happy. That makes sense I guess. If you are more relaxed about life, and do what you want, eat what you want, you could potentially be happier.

The problem? It may not actually be true.

I was trying to find the source for this and was led to an article on The Independent. They did provide a citation. It linked to a study on phenome scans published in International Journal of Epidemiology. The word “happy” appeared in the paper a total of zero times. Neither was emotion nor mood mentioned.

This is why what makes sense at face value may not actually be true.

If we think that overweight people are happier and we rationalise that to it’s cos they eat whatever they want, then we will run into a problem. That can potentially lead us to believe we are always going to be miserable if we are going to eat healthy.

Attitudes and beliefs play a big part in our happiness

I dug further and found a study about well-being in women. The study found that positive psychological well‐being, I am guess loosely happiness, is lower in women who are obese.

BUT! Another study reported individuals (both sex) with obesity with high positivity traits and body satisfaction were more likely to be happy. The researchers suggest that the positivity is more linked to self-stigma than the actual body weight itself.

Dieting and making a conscious effort to choose healthier foods can be challenging for some people. But honestly, we don’t have to peg our happiness to that. I also don’t think we have to peg tastiness to unhealthy food.

Research has shown that taste preference can change over time!

*Understanding your body about your beliefs and pain

Our socioeconomic situation has also changed over time

Maybe at some point in the past, where food scarcity was a real challenge, 能吃是福 (i.e., eating is a blessing) is quite literally true. When food was scarce and people were malnourished, 多吃 (i.e., eat more) could be a gesture of love, etc.

In contemporary societies, when people are overeating (i.e., 40% of Singaporeans are either obese or overweight), this is really not applicable. They, in fact, can be worse for the average Singaporean.

What is relevant or true for people of the past or even just the past generation may not be relevant to us today. We need to find our own values (i.e., what is important to us), and work with that to our own advantage.

Being healthy is not easy

I will say this again: Being healthy is not easy. If you are struggling with picking on a particular health habit, acknowledge the challenges. Try your best. Make it work for you. Your struggles and challenges are as real as can be. They may seem incredibly easy for others, but remember we all have different privileges.

The best thing you can do is to not compare with others. I had a client who shared with me today that they are the fittest amongst all their friends, yet they have the most physical pain/discomfort. Indeed, there are many things in chronic pain that we don’t understand.

Choosing to be healthy is a personal choice and it often involves change. While change does come with its own set of struggles and challenges, it does not have to take away our happiness.