1776 vs. 2026: What 250 Years of Change Reveal About Health and Movement

This month, the country turns 250, and like any milestone birthday, it invites the question we usually save for ourselves: how are we holding up on the health front? Thinking about that in terms of a ‘then and now’ comparison, it’s a mixed answer. In many ways, we’re vastly better off than the people who signed the Declaration. In others, modern living has undone some of the healthy habits our ancestors had no choice but to make part of their daily routine.

Start with the obvious. A colonist in 1776 lived in a world we’d find brutal in many ways, and at the very least, much less comfortable than what we are accustomed to. Historians at USC recently marked the semiquincentennial by cataloging just how different daily life was, and the list is worth checking out for side-by-side comparisons across all aspects of a typical day: USC: Daily life in 1776.

A time traveler from 1776 dropped into 2026 would find modern medicine miraculous, and even handwashing astonishing, since they lived before anyone understood germs. Childhood illness and high mortality rates were common, so much so that when it was factored into the data, the average life expectancy in 1776 was 38 years. The safety of drinking water was a gamble (alcohol was the preferred beverage, even for kids), a scraped knee could turn deadly and childhood involved much more work than play (or education).

But here’s the twist when it comes to fitness. That same colonist, without a gym membership or a single wellness app, moved constantly. They walked because there was no other way to get anywhere, and they likely logged about 15k steps per day, compared with the average of 5k in 2026. Manual labor like farming, blacksmithing, carpentry, cobbling, weaving and hauling water demanded a daily physical regimen, making their workout sessions an all-day, every day reality. We may wear a ‘No Days Off’ shirt at the gym, but no doubt, they were living the life long before it was a slogan.

When it came to diet, they ate what was in season because there was no other option. They were certainly ‘farm-to-table.’ What they had on their plate was locally sourced and all-natural, with no preservatives or ultra-processed foods in the mix, and portion sizes were significantly smaller than in the present day, as there was not an abundance of food for most families.

Regular readers know I love optimized sleep, and from historical records our ancestors seem to have had proper sleep hygiene dialed in to a science. The typical routine was scheduled around the sun: when it got dark, they went to bed, and they got up to work when it got light. Without electricity, there was no natural tendency to waste resources ‘burning the midnight oil,’ so what would you do anyway? The entertainment option would likely have been reading, and most people did not have a bookcase full of options to choose from, plus literacy was not what it is today.

To summarize some key historical differences, their days were physically demanding by default, meaning that they got plenty of daily exercise and movement. The present-day diet that many of us aspire to–clean eating of organic, locally sourced meals at appropriate serving sizes–was another box they had automatically checked off. Their sleep schedule was also likely to yield solid nightly scores had the technology existed to track the data back in the day. One area that was likely weak by today’s standards is hydration, as the lack of clean drinking water in many areas was a persistent challenge.

Over the past centuries, many of those benefits from the colonial days have been engineered out of our lives. Many of us drive to work, sit for eight hours, drive home and sit some more. We built a world so convenient that becoming sedentary has become the norm, and then we started paying money to undo the effects: treadmills, nutritionists, standing desks, spin classes, the long list goes on. We invented the problem and then, not surprisingly, we monetized the cure.

As most of us know, we are not a species designed to be sedentary, even if we have statistically become so over time. A large 2026 study published in Nature Communications, drawing on Fitbit step and activity data from the NIH’s All of Us research program (NIH All of Us study), found that prolonged sedentary time was linked to a higher risk of a long list of chronic conditions, from diabetes and hypertension to heart failure and depression. The encouraging part, and a key takeaway, is what the same study found about walking. Adding daily steps meaningfully offsets the excess risk for many of those conditions. The researchers calculated that the extra steps needed to counteract a sedentary day ranged from roughly 1,700 to 5,500. In other words, the antidote to modern life is largely the thing our great-great-great-grandparents did without thinking about it.

In 2026, it’s common to spend a lot of energy chasing the newest wellness social media trend, the right supplement and the best fitness gear, but the most revolutionary health act available to any of us in 2026 is also the simplest: more movement. This can be in the most basic forms. Go for a walk, take the stairs, park at the far end of the lot. Take whatever opportunities throughout the day to do the slightly more physically demanding option. This also means putting the phone down, getting off the couch and moving on purpose, the way people once moved out of necessity.

We have medicine, sanitation and science that the founders never dreamed of. That’s a whole spectrum of significant and life-changing progress we can be thankful for. But gradually, as convenience evolved, we have moved away from the core daily routines that support optimal movement. The good news is it’s still right there waiting, on the local rail trail, on your street, on any patch of ground you’re willing to cover on foot.

Let’s help celebrate America’s 250th with a walk around the neighborhood, talking to friends and making new ones, just like they did in 1776. One nice upgrade: this time we can bring our favorite oversized insulated steel water bottle.