Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 26, 1993 TAG: 9301260186
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN TANASYCHUK KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
BRODY PUTS HEALTH AT TOP OF AGENDA
Jane Brody will make you think twice about the bag of chips you had for lunch and the fact that you didn't walk, swim or otherwise get your cardiovascular mojo working this morning.More than 400 members of the Women's Economic Club in Detroit got a chance to meet her last week at a luncheon, where Brody ate a white roll for dessert instead of the cheesecake.
She would have preferred a whole wheat roll. The New York Times "Personal Health" column writer, author of six books on personal health, nutrition and healthy cooking is enough to make a slob turn over and take note.
She walks, swims, plays tennis, cross-country skis, cooks ahead on weekends, runs a household, works full-time, lectures widely, travels regularly, drinks a quart of skim milk per day, cleans her own house and doesn't own a dishwasher or clothes drier. Her philosophy of prevention through exercise and nutrition is one that she takes to heart. But it's a philosophy that's tempered with a good amount of common sense and a solid scientific background.
After her pep talk, we sat down to discuss a few current personal health concerns. Here is an edited version of that discussion.
Q: How do you think the Clinton administration will affect health in America?
A: We have a terrific person nominated as Secretary of Health and Human Services [Donna Shalala]. She's a dynamite human being, and if she can't get something done then I don't know if anybody can. But the most important thing that needs to be done in health care reform is to emphasize prevention, to mandate that insurance companies reimburse for preventive health measures. Everything from routine checkups to all the major health tests that we should have from mammograms and prostate exams and colonoscopies.
Q: What chance do you think President Bill Clinton has of introducing a universal health care system?
A: I think a universal health care system will take a lot longer than one administration. In two terms he might be able to accomplish something. We have to be very careful in moving to a universal health care system. I certainly believe in health care availability, but the kinds of systems they've established in Great Britain and in Canada - they have their downside. . . . There has to be an overseer set up so that the proper kinds of things get done and patients don't get short shrift and don't have to wait days when they should be seen within hours.
Q: What do you think of the new federal labeling act?
A: It's not ideal. I was hoping to see a pie chart label. I think people can understand that. There's instant recognition if you see what proportion of the pie is fat, protein, starch or sugar.
Q: Do you worry about the effects of biotechnology on our food?
A: Trained as a scientist as I am, we can only hope for good things to come out of biotechnology to improve the quality of our foods, the nutritional value of our foods, to speed the breeding process. This business of breeding good things into foods takes 25 years in some cases. With biotechnology, you can do it overnight. I don't see any reason to fear this as long as we understand the genetics and it's properly handled. Everything should be tested, not tested for a millennium, but tested for a reasonable amount of time.
Q: What needs to be done to improve health care for women?
A: The most important thing that's missing in the society at large is a support system for the working mother. It has been shown repeatedly that when employers provide the kind of support that women need to be total human beings, to have children, to run a household, that they get better work, there's fewer absentees, there's less turnover in personnel and there's more enthusiasm and appreciation for the employer. It pays.
Q: Should people look to their doctors for nutritional information?
A: Doctors are a poor source of nutrition information because most of them have not been at all educated in this field. It does help if the physician himself or herself is physically active and eats properly. Then they're much more likely to advise their patient properly.
What I hope the doctors will do is refer their patients to experts in the field who can help them integrate a good eating and exercise plan into their lives.
Q: Why have none of your cookbooks included a nutritional analysis of recipes?
A: I do not believe people should eat by numbers. You can paint by numbers but you can't eat by numbers. Why should you penalize one recipe with this? And anyway, how would you keep it? Would you walk around with a calculator and a notebook writing down everything you eat? I don't think that's right. I think you should learn to eat by concept. If you emphasize the starchy foods, fruits and vegetables, use moderate amounts of a lean protein and small amounts of sugar, you will automatically get the right numbers. And that's what you should aim for because no one is going to give you figures on everything you eat.
Q: Are there personal health issues that we're going to be hearing more about in the coming years?
A: I think we'll hear more about testing and making sure that you get the right kinds of checkups. I think we will have more and more patient care delivered by non-physicians, by other kinds of health professionals, everything from meditation consultants to nurse practitioners. There's some very valuable things in alternative medicine. Just because it's called "alternative medicine," it should not automatically be labeled quackery. A lot of it is not quackery. I do not believe acupuncture and acupressure are quackery. I think they're very valuable aids and we should really be studying them because they're safer and perhaps even more effective than drugs.
Q: How come you don't have a clothes drier?
A: It died some years ago and I realized that it didn't fit into my lifestyle because when the clothes hung on the line, they could hang there until I was ready to take them down and put them away. But when they were in the clothes drier and I wasn't ready to put them away, they got all schmooshed up.