Jane Brody
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author on science and nutrition topics, who has written a number of books and reported extensively for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as its "Personal Health" columnist, which appears weekly in the paper's Science Times section, which has been syndicated nationwide. She has been called the "High Priestess of Health" by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine.
Biography
Brody was born on May 19, 1941, in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. She attended the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
(now the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
The New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is a statutory college at Cornell University, a private university located in Ithaca, New York...
), where she majored in biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
as part of a plan to become a research scientist, graduating with a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in 1962. She found that she couldn't achieve her goals of "looking for ways to help people lead better lives" as a biochemist and developed an interest in journalism after writing for her college newspaper during her senior year. She became interested in using her knowledge of science to convey information to the public and enrolled at the School of Journalism of the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, graduating in 1963 with a Master's degree in science writing.
After graduating, she spent two years as a general assignment reporter at the Minneapolis Tribune. Unaccustomed to what she called "Midwestern reticence", she responded to the isolation and loneliness by eating, ballooning up from 105 to as much as 140 pounds. She had an epiphany one night and decided that "if I was going to be fat, at least I was going to be healthy". She started changing her eating habits, eating regular meals and taking along healthy snacks. She lost the weight and never regained it.
She returned to New York City in 1965 and was hired by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as its specialist in covering medicine and biology. She was asked by the Times to write the Personal Health column, which she began in 1976 despite her initial reluctance. Her column has been syndicated by more than 100 papers across the United States.
She has become devoted to exercise, and in the 1980s her routine included singles tennis five days a week (less in winter), she would head out daily after rising at 5 a.m. and preparing breakfast for her family, for a 3½-mile run or ten-mile bike ride, followed by a half-mile swim in the evening.
Brody's approach to eating focuses on moderation, emphasizing potatoes, rice, pasta, dried peas and beans, bread (without butter), bulgur
Bulgur
Bulgur is a cereal food made from several different wheat species, most often from durum wheat. In the United States it is most often made from white wheat. Its use is most common in Middle Eastern cuisine, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Armenia and Bulgaria...
and kasha
Kasha
Kasha is a cereal commonly eaten in Eastern Europe. In English, kasha generally refers to buckwheat groats, but in Slavic countries, kasha refers to porridge in general and can be made from any cereal, especially buckwheat, wheat, barley, oats, millet, and rye...
, accompanied with moderate amounts of low-fat dairy products, fish and shellfish, lean meats and poultry. Before helping her type the manuscript for Jane Brody's Nutrition Book, her husband Richard Engquist, a confirmed meat-and-potatoes eater, switched his focus from meat to potatoes and ended the year 26 pounds lighter.
Books Brody has written include Jane Brody's Nutrition Book and Jane Brody's Good Food Book, both of which were bestsellers. Jane Brody's Guide to the Great Beyond: A Practical Primer for Preparing for the End of Life is due to be released in early 2009.