Here's great news: Rates of cancer as a disease and as a killer are decreasing . One of the authors of the study attributes the decrease to reduced exposure to tobacco, earlier detection and better treatment.

Which tells us that we're all on the right track. By the 1980s , everyone started eating right, quit smoking and went to the gym . This was largely driven by the same people who had reveled in the excesses of the wild '60s and '70s .

Check out this timeline of Whole Foods Market : See how it follows the Baby Boomer trajectory? The company began bringing organic food from country to city in '78, grew by acquisition and popularity through the 1990s and has recently brought a hippie philosophy of food into the mainstream and the Fortune 500. Health went from Pinko to luxury to cool to mainstream.

On the other hand, Boomers' kids have been fed incorrectly . It's a deep economic issue to explore, and a couple-hundred word blog can't begin to address the complexity. So I'll just say this: Our society has always had a ying/yang pull between dualities—Federalist , North/South, Red Sox/Yankees ... brown rice/Doritos®.

Now, the front-line "health generation" nears retirement age . Their kids and grandkids have arrived at a fork in the road: Develop good habits  or go off the deep end .

There's news that many Boomers decline to set trends any longer, after an active life of counterculture, self-gratification and economic excesses. They choose to stay within their own desires  and leave the Age of Aquarius to others. Fine, it's a free country. And individualists are often more disaster prepared because they are concerned with their own well-being. Those who reach out to others and build communities are prepared as a matter of course (strong ties save lives and rebuild faster). But like most of us, they are not adequately prepared.

Here's the middle ground: Feed yourself and your kids unprocessed foods at least 2/3 of the time. Stock up your Preparedness Larder  with three or more days of non-perishables, and include some Doritos just for fun. Make sure you have lots of water every day and in your stash. Do calisthenics as a family for 20 minutes three times a week. It will be something you can do in the shelter while the community recovers from disaster.

Bottom line: Health is preparedness. Health isn't too difficult to practice. Healthy people recover faster and build stronger communities.