Why should they?

         If you follow economic arguments like that of the highly entertaining “Freakonomics” of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, there are not that many public incentives to a healthy life.

         “Freakonomics” describes three major forms of incentive to action – economic, social, and moral.  Is there an economic incentive to living a Food-Activity-Rest (FAR) lifestyle, of eating, moving, resting sequentially through the day?

         Unfortunately, no.  Health insurance is generally prejudiced by smoking status only.  If you eat a lot of vegetables and other plants, it does not change your health insurance bill, nor that of the company you work for, though it should change lifetime health care costs.   Exercising regularly may be healthy, but not necessarily for your cost of insurance.  If you have an athletic based injury, cherry picking insurance companies may refuse to insure you for the problem.   When I foolishly reported on a questionnaire that I once had a few days thigh pain following a workout, my disability insurance demanded a rider providing no coverage for back or lower extremity problems for two years.

Is there a social cost to unhealthy living?

         Ask Kate Moss.  After learning she was a cocaine addict, the waiflike “supermodel” first lost, then regained ever larger business.  Ms. Moss is of course an icon.  New York bus stops years ago were filled by her thin portrait, the graffiti slogan “feed me” splashed over her image.

         Will your friends shun you because you take the children to McDonald’s?  Probably not.  In a nation where the large majority of adults are overweight, will weighing too much decrease your social and economic prospects?  Yes, particularly when you are quite young and marriageable.  Yet the effects appear limited to appearance, not internal healthiness, and remain small.

         As for moral incentives, do your friends shun you when you drive your kids to school in the SUV rather than have them bike or walk?  Are your work colleagues horrified by the thousands of extra traffic deaths and decreased environmental and national security produced by such gas-guzzlers? Do coworkers loudly applaud when you make “healthy choices” at the company cafeteria?

         In sum, there are very few economic, social, or moral incentives now in place that will aid Americans moving toward a “healthy lifestyle”.  But there are still many incentives to taking the FAR approach.  They include:

         1. Feeling healthy.  The populations who follow FAR in their daily lives, like Asian-American women, are the longest lived on Earth.  In Suffolk County, their average expected lifespan is 95.6 years.

         2. You begin to fit the real process of how you’re body is built.  Your body is constantly rebuilding, renewing, resculpting through use.  We’re not houses that deteriorate over time.  We rebuild ourselves, modifying our bodies by how we live.

         3. Going FAR is easy.  You don’t need to buy expensive gym equipment or go running every day through a smog infested park. Ordinary activities perform multiple healthy roles.

         4. FAR fits body energy metabolism.  Food-Activity-Rest are all critical parts of cell and whole body energy use.  Integrate your daily activities and you may live a lot easier.

         5. You’ll probably lose weight, unless you’re already real thin.  Going FAR means eat-walk-talk, getting your body in synch with itself and your environment.

         6. Going FAR is green.  Balancing your internal environment, you harmonize with the external one.  Eating mostly plants and fish saves enormous energy and environmental costs. You and your family create a much smaller carbon and environmental footprint, giving your grandchildren a chance to live in a less polluted world.

         7. It’s patriotic.  Walking a few minutes after a meal means you’re not giving money to petrodictators.

         8. FAR is highly social.  Humans are social animals.  Strolling after the evening meal as a family keeps people together, helps prevent depression, lets you lose unneeded weight,  engages you with your neighbors, and makes you notice the environment where you live.

         9. You learn to rest. Rest is an afterthought is American life, rather than what is truly is, time for the body to rebuild and renew.  Much of you is replaced within a year. With FAR you can make those replacements better fit your life, so you enjoy your body and environment more.

         10. You can feel more whole.  You began to harmonize your body with the larger environment. FAR gives you an easy, three-letter way to a healthier, simpler life.

         All this involves change.  But the biggest change is knowledge – knowledge of what works and of what to do.  When you know what to do, it’s like suddenly becoming fluent in a new language.

         That first step is hardest.  But all you have to really do is think of what your body is built to do. Then you can start becoming more creative using the small, ordinary things to make life really enjoyable.

Dr. Matthew Edlund, M.D., M.O.H., director of The Center for Circadian Medicine, is an expert on applied public health, sleep medicine and psychiatry. A former professor at Brown and University of Texas medical schools, he can be reached via email to DocME@DoctorEdlund.com. And CLICK HERE to subscribe to our new Fitcast, via the iTunes Store.