For women only - questions and answers on women's health - includes an interview with Harvard Medical School researcher, JoAnn E. Manson - Cover Story

Nutrition Action Healthletter, March, 1995 by Bonnie Liebman

WHAT WOMEN CAN DO

* Don't smoke cigarettes. * Exercise for at least 20 to 30 minutes three or four times a week. It should increase your heart rate, but you needn't break into a sweat. * Shoot for an optimal body weight (see "Get (1959) Met"). * Get your blood pressure checked at least once every year or two and your cholesterol checked at least once every five years (more frequently if you've had high levels before). * Learn the signs of a heart attack: chest pain (often radiating to the arm or neck), nausea, lightheadedness, shortness of breath, or cold sweats.

WHAT WOMEN SHOULD EAT

* Cut back on fats, especially saturated fats. Eat red meat no more than once a week. (Load up on beans, pasta, rice, cereals, and seafood instead.) * Eat at least five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every dax,. * Cut sodium to no more than about 2,400 mg a day. * Get the Daily Value (400 Iti) of folic acid, either from a multivitamin or from a variety of foods like orange juice, leafy green vegetables, and beans, especially if you could become pregnant. * Get enough calcium 1,200 milligrams a day if you're 11 to 25; 1,500 mg a day if you're over 50 and not taking estrogen; 1,000 mg a day for other adults) from a supplement and/or from foods like skim milk, yogurt, cheese, leafy green vegetables, tofu, or fortified orange juice, Get the Daily Value (400 IU) of vitamin D from milk, a multivitamin, or sunshine.

Get (1959) Met

How much should you weigh? Check this table - issued by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1959 - to find out. Tables published later say that you can be chubbier, but those extra pounds increase your risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Height               Weight (lbs.)
 (without shoes)    (without clothes)