It’s not at all controversial to say that people want to be healthy. But health priorities can differ between individuals. The just-married 30-somethings want a healthy environment in which to raise children, but the just-retired 60-somethings want one in which they can have rewarding and fulfilling post-retirement lives.
A new book from TIME Books identifies places that are among America’s healthiest by some definition of that word. The best place to raise a healthy kid, reportedly, is Burlington, VT. The best place for those retirees to age well is Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. Other categories include healthiest food (San Francisco Bay, CA), best healthcare (Boston, MA), keeping fit (Denver and Boulder, CO), healthy environment (Portland, OR), and more.
The book is divided into ten sections, each focused on one of the winning cities. For each city, a local author was hired to write about, for example, the fitness and outdoors culture that results in denizens of Denver and Boulder taking 2,000 more steps per day than those in other areas, or the wealth of organic and local markets that make the San Francisco Bay Area such a healthy place to eat. Accompanying these essays are beautiful, full-color photographs illustrating the attraction of the area.
While each city chosen as a category winner deserves congratulations, the book also selected an overall winner in the “lifelong health” category. Honolulu, HI was chosen as the winner, both because of its “incredible year-long access to outdoor activity” and its “cultural attitudes like ohana—a sense of being deeply connected to one another.”