When you get on a plane to travel, you get to look down on congested cities just as you take off or or before your plane lands.  You look down and you see rows of houses or tall buildings next to each other with roads stringing them together.  These are the cities of today and tomorrow. You begin to wonder how these cities exist with huge numbers of people and thinking of all the resources that they will need like potable water, clean air, shelter electricity and food.

I read an article about the healthiest cities in the world.  According to a CNN report, the healthiest cities in the world are Copenhagen, Okinawa, Monte Carlo, Melbourne and Vancouver.  They are considered healthy for many reasons.  In Copenhagen, the government encourages its people to engage in active lifestyles like exercising and going to the beach and park. In Okinawa, people eat a lot of fish and hardly eat red meat.  In Monte Carlo, people have access to advanced medical technology.  In Vancouver, they are known to be environmentally friendly and have clean air and lots of greenery.  In Melbourne, people lead outdoorsy lifestyles that contribute to their health.

So what makes a City healthy?  From what is said about all those Cities that are in the list of healthiest in the world, it seems that one has to be able to lead an active lifestyle, be able to eat proper food and live in cities with clean environment like clean air and clean water. 

So can I say that the City I live in can be considered one of the healthiest cities? Let me evaluate it according to the description of the healthiest cities. 

• Our City is not congested. It has a lot of open space, like parks and we boast of seven lakes. We have mountains and trails all around. So I can say we have many opportunities to exercise and have an active outdoorsy life. 
  
• There are lots of farms all around the City which provide healthy food like chicken, pork, beef, fruits and vegetables.  Fish is plentiful because of the lakes, but with the illegal structures built along the lakeshore, I wouldn?t make sushi out of the fish they would catch in those lakes. So it depends on what you eat because good and healthy food is available.
• Our City is agricultural. We really don?t have many industries in our City so our air is clean. Many years ago, it was said that our City had among the cleanest samples of water during testing and people could drink directly from the tap. 
  
• We have a problem of litter which finds its way to the rivers and lakes. But there is a strong awareness for environmental protection in our City so we are learning to clean up our lakes and rivers.

So, can our City pass as a healthy City?  I think so! We just need to make sure we continue to keep our natural resources clean so we can live in a healthy City for many generations to come.

Read more:   http://www.philstar.com/health-and-family/2015/06/16/1466223/and-healthiest-cities-world-are-...