Unhealthiness

[Eomer]

My captial city and usually the one or two other major cities are always unhealthy. There are because they grow fast and have a high population. Even with trading for everything to adds health and the aqueduct and grocery, it doesn't matter. I usually don't even have a Forge in the cities, and hesitate for a Factory until I get a Hospital (with Medicine) or Recycling Center (with Ecology). Which Medicine and Ecology take awhile to get.
Am I the only one who has this problem? And if not, what do others do?
Luckily having unhealthy citizens does not effect production like angry citizens, but it is still something I like to avoid.

[sprudl]

How big is the unhealthiness problem? Do you also get unhappiness because of overpopulation?

I occasionally get a few cities with a small (1 or 2) health penalty, even with forges. But at that stage it doesn't matter too much and it goes away with new techs. Usually I have enough enough resources and improvements to match my growth.

If you consistenlty have a big health problem in several cities, perhaps you are building too many farms. Have you tried building more terrain improvements for hammers and commerce (workshop, mine, cottage, ... )?

In cities with a lot of food you can do some pop rushing. If you're at the health limit, assign specialists and get some great people.

[Eomer]

Well, I think it's mainly due to overpopulation. And it's usually like -2 for health, but sometimes it can be higher. I do build farms, but I also put houses, mines, windmills, and watermills around the city. I don't have too many workshops. I cut down jungles, but tend to leave some forests so I can build Lumbermills when I get Replaceable Parts.
It's also bad if the city is on the coast cause it wants to assign production on the water, which makes it grow beyond management.

[sprudl]

If you have too much food, you can skip the windmills and put mines on hills instead. You don't need the food from the windmill.

Do you use the governor for automatic worker assignment? Make sure it doesn't emphasise growth. You could also turn on the "Avoid growth" option.

Use specialists to slow down growth. They only consume food and they generate GP points. Cities with a big food surplus are great for getting a lot of GPs. Turn the problem into something useful.

[drsparnum]

You've covered most things here already, but consider an expansionistic civ. They get a health bonus....which I find is more important the higher I go in difficulty and I never even go near the top.

Also, you need 2 forest/health. So it does you no good to leave 1 forest. Similarly, you don't get 1.5 health for 3 forest. Keep the numbers of forests in the fat cross even. If your cities overlap fat crosses, the forest can count for both cities, so you should preferentially preserve those forests.