Daily Habits and Their Wider Consequences
Lifestyle
The way people live, including their habits, routines, and choices.
- This sub-theme asks you to explore lifestyle not only at the personal level but also as a cultural and social issue.
- In exams, your job is to explain how habits, attitudes, and contexts shape outcomes, and to compare perspectives across cultures.
- Lifestyle and well-being are influenced by culture.
- What is considered healthy in one culture might be different in another.
Exam Relevance
- This theme is less about biology and more about values revealed through lifestyle.
- Examiners want to see that you understand how health choices reflect identity, culture, and society.
Paper 1 (Writing)
- The most common text types are articles, speeches, and proposals.
- You might be asked to promote healthier choices in schools, evaluate a lifestyle trend, or propose ways to reduce stress among young people.
- A strong response will connect personal choices (diet, exercise, habits) to social consequences (school performance, healthcare costs, cultural identity).
SL Example (~240 words, Article)
Task: Write an article for your school magazine on how students can live healthier lifestyles.
Solution
Healthy Habits for a Healthier School
Many students believe the fastest way to survive exam season is to cut back on sleep and rely on energy drinks. At first, this may feel efficient, but the cost is high: poor focus, higher stress, and long-term damage to health. If we want academic success, we must also prioritise wellbeing.
Healthy living does not demand extreme change. It begins with small, sustainable steps. Eating breakfast provides better concentration than any can of caffeine. Taking short breaks during study sessions refreshes the brain instead of exhausting it. Even a quick walk at lunchtime can reduce anxiety and boost energy for the afternoon.
Schools also have a responsibility. If vending machines are stocked with sugary snacks, students will buy them. If healthy options are affordable and visible, habits will shift. Campaigns that explain the link between daily choices and performance can change how students think about health. Sports days, awareness posters, and peer-led projects are practical ways to start.
It is tempting to see health as a private matter, but in reality, our environment strongly shapes our decisions. A school that values balanced eating, regular exercise, and rest is not just protecting students from illness, it is building a culture of achievement.
Healthier students are not only happier; they are also more successful.
Note- Task fulfilment: Directly addresses audience (school magazine article), clear persuasive article format.
- Language: Wide range but natural: rhetorical (“If we are serious…”), cause–effect, balanced tone.
- Development: Moves from individual → school role → social responsibility.
- Length: Within SL range (~240).
HL Example (~465 words, Proposal)
Task: Write a proposal for your national youth council suggesting strategies to address unhealthy lifestyle trends among teenagers.
Solution
Introduction
Teenagers today face more lifestyle-related health challenges than any generation before them. Skipping meals, relying on fast food, and spending hours in front of screens have become normalised.
These behaviours may appear harmless in the short term but have serious long-term consequences: reduced concentration, higher levels of anxiety, and increasing rates of obesity and diabetes. The national youth council has the authority to set policies and initiatives that can reshape habits and improve wellbeing on a national scale.
Findings
- Dietary habits
Many teenagers choose convenience over nutrition. Energy drinks and processed food dominate cafeterias, while healthier options are either too expensive or unavailable. This trend contributes directly to fatigue and falling levels of concentration in class. Over time, it has created a worrying rise in obesity and preventable lifestyle diseases. - Physical activity
Exercise levels among young people have declined. Even in urban areas with sports facilities, participation rates are dropping as screen-based entertainment takes over. In rural regions, access to gyms or organised sport is often limited, meaning students may have no realistic opportunities to stay active. - Mental health
Academic pressure, competitive exam systems, and constant comparison on social media have intensified stress. Many students report sleeping fewer than six hours per night. Unlike physical illness, these problems are invisible, which makes them harder to recognise and address. The result is an entire generation struggling with anxiety and burnout. - Inequality of access
Health challenges are not distributed equally. Low-income families may be unable to afford nutritious food, while rural schools face shortages of trained staff and facilities. Unless support is targeted, the gap between wealthy and disadvantaged teenagers will continue to grow.
Recommendations
- Improve school food environments: Subsidise balanced meals, regulate the sale of high-sugar drinks, and require clear nutritional labelling in all school cafeterias.
- Encourage daily activity: Fund community sports clubs and ensure schools integrate short periods of exercise into the timetable rather than treating sport as optional.
- Prioritise mental health: Provide free counselling services, launch awareness campaigns to reduce stigma, and train teachers to recognise signs of stress.
- Reduce inequality: Create mobile health programmes that deliver workshops, sports equipment, and balanced meal options to rural or under-resourced schools.
- Empower student leadership: Involve young people directly in the design of campaigns so that initiatives are relatable and have peer influence.
Conclusion
Healthier lifestyles are not only about preventing illness. They directly improve learning, resilience, and long-term opportunities for young people. If current patterns continue, the consequences will not just be individual but national, as healthcare systems struggle and social divisions widen.
By acting now through school policies, community programmes, and youth-led initiatives, the national youth council can ensure every teenager, regardless of background, has the opportunity to live well. The investment will result in healthier, happier, and more successful citizens.
Note- Task fulfilment: Proposal format with clear headings, audience awareness, and practical strategies.
- Register: Formal, policy-oriented language (“subsidise,” “integrate,” “prioritise”).
- Development: Each section (diet, exercise, mental health, inequality) expanded with both detail and solutions.
- Balance: Explains why the problem exists and how to solve it, not just one side.
- Style: Persuasive, structured, and logical progression from findings to recommendations.
Paper 2 (Listening & Reading)
- In this theme, you’ll read or listen to texts about diet, exercise, stress, or public health campaigns.
- To score well, you must demonstrate understanding of the text's purpose by showing:
- The chain: Fast food popularity → obesity → pressure on hospitals.
- Who gains/loses: Food companies profit, families face health costs.
- The frame: Is health described as your fault (“students should make better choices”) or a system problem (“schools don’t provide healthy food”)?
- Cultural contrast: Japanese cycling culture prevents obesity; US car culture contributes to inactivity.
- High-yield phrases:
- “The text links personal habits to wider social costs.”
- “The passage highlights benefits for one group but consequences for another.”
- “The report contrasts different cultural approaches to health.”
Individual Oral
- For this sub-theme, images usually show choices and consequences.
- Common image types include:
- Students eating fast food vs balanced meals.
- A gym or sports team compared with a sedentary lifestyle.
- Posters about stress, sleep, or mental health.
- Traditional diets (Mediterranean, Japanese) vs modern processed food.
- When analysing, notice:
