Many of my junior high students accuse me of asking trick questions and in a sense that’s true. But every now and then, somebody gives an answer that you’d expect to hear in an upper-level college philosophy class, so ...

So I’ll pose one now and ask you to play along.

Imagine yourself back in language arts class, not nearly as focused on the discussion about the main character in the futuristic science fiction novel you are reading as that luscious lass sitting catty-corner from you. I suspect as much and say, “Why don’t you rejoin the here and now, young man, and answer a very important question: What’s the best way to get to Corpus Christi, Texas?”

To say the least, you are nonplussed. No cities — not even fictitious ones — are specifically named in the novel.

Would you be caught so off guard that you would not respond? Would you ignore “the best way” part, figure any answer is better than none at all, and give very general, north-south-type directions?

Or would you recognize the subterfuge in the specificity, consider the question metaphorically, and state something that’s true both for the character in the novel and life in general?

Would you explain that no one can answer the question without additional information because “To get where you really want to go, you need to know where you’ve been.”

If you would, I’d be impressed — so impressed that I’d tell you to pack up your belongings and head off to college. And then I’d tell your classmates to give some deep thought to what you just said by applying the idea to something really important in their lives.

Maybe even their health and fitness.

Which is something all reading this article should do now, too, because the collective state of American health and fitness certainly needs assessment. In fact, the last time worldwide life-expectancy statistics were tabulated the U.S. ranked 31st — despite spending more money in the pursuit of health than any other nation.

Clearly, something is wrong.

But, according to research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and published in the journal Cell, there are five easy things to do to correct what’s wrong and improve life expectancy: don’t smoke; moderate your alcohol intake, preferably limiting it to no more than 10 ounces of wine per day; make your heart pump at least moderately hard for no less than 30 minutes a day, preferably through an exercise routine; eat what’s gauged by standard metrics as being a healthy diet; maintain a healthy weight, seen in this study as one where body mass index does not exceed 25.

Do these five things and you can avoid what senior study author Frank B. Hu calls the “unhealthy lifestyle factors” that lead to 60 percent of early deaths.

While this may strike you as a high percentage, there’s good reason to believe it is accurate. The researchers first reviewed 15 prior studies that included more than half a million people from 17 nations, and then they dissected new data available as a result of ongoing work in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

After comparing this new data with the 2013—2014 results of National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, the researchers explain the effectiveness of the aforementioned “five easy things” this way. A 50-year-old female who does none of them lives on the average another 29 years. But a 50-year-old female who does all five lives on average to be 93 — 14 years more.

Though a bit lower, the averages for a 50-year-old male are similar. If he does none of the “five easy things,” he lives on average to be 75.5 years of age. But if he does all, he lives on average to 87.6 — 12.1 additional years.

So how does the deep thought from the hypothetical class setting apply to the work the done at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health?

That’s found in the fact that I felt compelled to use quotation marks with the phrase “five easy things.” Quotation marks are needed here because I use those words with reservations. In terms of health and fitness, I don’t really know where you want to go and I don’t really know where you’ve been.

Is exercising 30 minutes a day “an easy thing” for a woman with three young kids, a large house, and a full-time job? Is limiting yourself to no more than 10 ounces of wine per day “an easy thing” for a man who tends to abuse alcohol and whose job requires him to entertain wealthy clients?

Is giving up cigarettes “an easy thing” for the senior citizen who spent the last 55 years smoking two packs of them a day?

It’s really easy for those healthy and fit to look down on those who are not. But it’s just as easy for those who are not to make the sorts of improvements that will not only add years to their lives but also add quality to the increased quantity.

Either way, “To get where you really want to go, you need to know where you’ve been” applies.