Fiber, fitness and forget the fads, preaches health writer Jane Brody

Jane Brody speaks at a Feb. 9 press conference in Statler Hall. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Roger Segelken

"The healthy life is not a life of deprivation and self-denial," science writer and author Jane Brody told an intent crowd of students, faculty and staff members who nearly filled Statler Auditorium for her Feb. 10 talk.

The Ag College alumna (with a 1962 B.S. in biochemistry), whose talk was one event in the 20th annual Health Awareness Week on campus, offered herself as proof that educated eating, a healthy lifestyle and plenty of exercise pays off without costing much -- especially the exercise.

"Today, at 58, I feel better -- and I think I look better -- than I did at 18," said a lean and feisty Brody. Daily load-bearing exercise and calcium-rich foods have given her the bone density of a 38-year-old, she said. And she predicted a future "epidemic of osteoporosis the likes of which the world has never seen" among young women who now don't drink milk.

Students should exceed the phys-ed requirements at Cornell, advised Brody, who said she took eight semesters of P.E. "I discovered I could get lessons in sports for nothing," she said, and three skills she learned at Cornell (tennis, ice skating and swimming) have become lifelong parts of her exercise routine, along with bicycle riding and vigorous walking.

The writer of the weekly Personal Health column in The New York Times and author of best-selling cookbooks had some dietary advice: stay away from the miracle weight-loss diets. "Dr. Atkins is a total quack. The ducks in Sapsucker Woods don't have anything on him," Brody said of Robert C. Atkins, author of the "diet revolution" books that advocate high-protein, low-carbohydrate meals.

Brody, instead, advocated meals with lots of vegetables, fruits and nonrefined grains as a healthy source of tummy-filling fiber. "Fiber fills you up before it fills you out," she said. Those who want meat should choose lean cuts and remember the appropriate serving size (about the size of a deck of cards, she noted) while looking to plant-based foods for the necessary levels of healthful fat. The once-maligned avocado actually is a good source of healthful fat, Brody said, suggesting a single slice in a salad to help the body absorb fat-soluble nutrients from the greens.

"Some of us weren't exactly healthy when we went through Cornell," Brody said, remembering a wacky diet of her own invention -- as "a very chunky kid" -- that was doomed to failure. The problem, she said, with "the liver-grapefruit-graham cracker diet" was her obsessive fondness for graham crackers.

As expected in a lecture titled "Take Charge of Your Health," the speaker warned against smoking ("Not just a bad habit -- an addictive disease") and binge drinking ("You're probably not stopping at one glass of wine with dinner, are you?") before mentioning another health hazard: failure to wear seat belts. A once-healthy Derrick Thomas, the Kansas City Chiefs linebacker who had died the day before, and his friend were not wearing seat belts when their SUV crashed Jan. 23. The only seat-belted person in the vehicle escaped with barely a scratch, Brody noted.

But mostly Brody emphasized the benefits of regular exercise: Faster reaction times, more rest out of fewer hours of sleep ("Exercise doesn't take time, it makes time, because it makes you an all-around more efficient person"), a better body ("You can eat more without gaining weight if you're well-muscled instead of well-fatted"), resistance to illness and a better outlook on life.

Regular exercise changed her "from a Type A person to a Type A-minus," Brody said. "I'll never be a Type B. If you're a Type A, get yourself some Type B friends. You can't drive them crazy."

Brody put in a plug for one of the sponsors of Health Awareness Week, University Health Services, when she recalled the help she received during a difficult time at Cornell that altered her career plans. Brody had been a super-achievement-oriented, all-work-no-play student when she experienced what she called an "emotional meltdown," and she sought a counselor's help at Gannett clinic.

Among other advice, the Gannett counselor told the overly studious student to consider joining a campus club of some sort. Brody did that, joining the Cornell Countryman, and worked her way up to editor of the student magazine.

"That's how," Brody said, "I got to be a journalist."