Eat better, move more – invest in your health

A week later on my jogging routine, I met her again, and she repeated the exact same question to me. Mindlessly, I gave her the same answer. 
But this time, I heard someone call out for her. I then saw a person gently take her away. He apologised and seemed humiliated by the incident. 
To my surprise, the lady was not a beggar as I presumed; she was most likely a victim of Alzheimer’s disease. This made me realise that being healthy at any age, especially in old age, is very important. 
“Health is wealth” is one of the most famous proverbs; we all know it by heart. Yet we live our lives in such a way that health becomes a burden, especially in old age. 
It would be very sad to picture our old self with sickness and in despair. Of course, we all die in the end, but we should have long healthy lives before we do. This translates to a long “health span”. 
Do not confuse this term with “lifespan”. Your health span is the period of time you will enjoy a quality and healthy life with no serious or chronic diseases. 
With more advanced medical technology, we can have a long lifespan, though it doesn’t guarantee us a long health span. Longevity with chronic diseases costs us money and time. 
A few years ago, I witnessed a relative’s health span being shortened by chronic diseases. She had diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. At the age of 72, she finally needed triple bypass heart surgery, which cost her more than Bt600,000, excluding her monthly medical expenses. More important, she had to suffer the pain from the surgery and she lost the time that she could otherwise have enjoyed doing the things she loves. Remember that time is our most valuable limited resource. 
It is typical for people to work hard and accumulate wealth. Many of us are thorough in our financial investments and asset allocation. Nonetheless, we neglect to invest in the most important asset of our lives – our health. 
Unlike other types of investment, investing in health has no shortcuts, since there is no windfall such as winning a lottery on good health, and no one else can do it for you. It is a consistent life-long process, but surprisingly, it doesn’t cost us much. It has an exceptionally high yield – both in terms of monetary and non-monetary values.
Two rules for this investment are to eat better and move more. Eating better sounds simple yet is very difficult. There are too many opinions and disagreements on what we should or should not eat. I can name tons of diet types: vegetarian, vegan, DASH, South Beach, Paleo, whole-food plant-based etc. 
However, we all agree upon that eating more fruits and vegetables and less processed food is good for us. One recommendation, from Michael Pollan, a journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley, that I have found easy to adhere to is: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Note that the “food” here means natural unprocessed food. 
To move more means that we should be physically active throughout the day, every day. It should be more than your typical weekend jogs, yoga classes or exercises a few times a week. We should incorporate other physical activities into our daily lives such as using stairs instead of elevators, walking rather than riding on a motorbike taxi, and parking further away. 
Studies have found that most centenarians do not have regular exercises; instead they have constant moderate activities as part of their routines. 
Finally, as the old saying goes, “the early bird gets the worm”, so invest in your health today. 

Prasopchoke Mongsawad PhD is assistant professor of economics, School of Development Economics, National Institute of Development Administration.