Thursday, April 10, 1980
Weekender
Page 3
Health foods
America's latest nutrition fad
By ANN PETERS
No matter whether we relish, savor, gobble or
nibble our vittles, problems occur in trying to
balance our diets. Nutritionists and health-food
advocates agree that our society is one of constantly
changing fads, especially in the foods we eat.
Processed foods, health foods, fast foods and
natural foods comprise everyone's diet. However, in
recent years, the trend has been toward eating
natural or health foods.
"A whole movement is afoot towards using more
basic (foods). ...There are however a myriad of
additives and preservatives," "If we did not preserve
the foods, we would not have the array of foods
(found today).
"Guidelines recently .supported by the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and
the Department of Agriculture publication
(Nutrition and Your Health - Dietary Guidelines for
Americans) suggest though the use of more foods in
their natural state rather than prbcessed.
"Misinformation and misconceptions (abound)
about so-called natural foods," Kaufman said. The
concept of natural foods is related primarily to
vegetables and fruits that are grown without
pesticides. "When blanket statements are made
(about all preservatives and pesticides), (the issue) is
not too rational, she said. "One should know which
of the preservatives are less desirable, depending on
their diet if restricted."
Health foods cannot be mass-produced, however,
because no preservatives are added. Items which are
usually available in a natural health food store
include tiger's milk, soybeans, whole wheat, peanut
flour, wheat germ, vegetables and fruits. Since the
shelf life of these products tends to be shorter and
production smaller, most health foods are more
expensive.
Nutrition and Your Health - Dietary Guidelines for
Americans suggests that for a balanced diet a variety
of foods should be eaten. They compare with those
foods found in a health-food store or with others
found in a grocery store, with slight modification.
The guidelines also suggest avoiding excessive
amounts of all sugars. The category includes, in
addition to white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar,
honey and syrups. How often you eat sugar is as
important as how much sugar you eat.
Terms ranging from organically grown to natural
health foods describe foodstuf fs.that are said to be in
their primary states with as little processing as
possible, said Tom Dean, owner of Harmony Natural
Foods in Chapel Hill. Harmony has just celebrated its
10th anniversary, marking its status as the first natural
health food store in the Southeast.
Since Dean has been with the store, he has seen a
"tremendously definite increase each year (in the
interest of health foods).
"In this time period it is unrealistic to think that
everyone only will eat natural foods," said Ira Levin,
owner of Makers Market Inc. in Carr Mill Mall. "I
simply try to introduce (the customers) to foods that
have been around for centuries. I'm not a natural
food guru.
"Seveb years ago I personally became involved in
(health foods). I took classes, tried food diets and
even invented one of my own," Levin said. "We
should forget the hodgepodge (of necessarily only
eating health foods) and go with our natural desires
but with a balance."
- Stephen Chaney, an associate professor in
biochemistry and nutrition, agrees. Chaney believes
that a message should be brought across to the
general public that there is nothing necessarily
'wrong' with eating fast foods if at other meals you
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Packaged health foods on display
compensate by eating things such as fresh fruits and
vegetables.
"The problem is basically that processed foods by
their very nature lose nutrients. Whether it's Tang
instead of orange juice, or Egg Beaters instead of
eggs, there is no way they can be nutritionally
equivalent,' he said. "We should be striving where
possible to substitute fresh wholesome foods (in
place) of processed foods."
Levin said the health-food business for a long time
overemphasized vitamins as food substitutes. "All
you would see were jars and bottles in the stores.
That's not health food," he said. "This (past) year it
has turned around. Food is more important in higher
sales than vitamins. Food products are the way to
go."
Both Chaney and Levin stress that consumers need
to be more aware of what is in their foods.
"To increase education, especially at the grade
school level, is another concern. (Consumers) need
to learn to make critical judgements of the foods
they buy," Chaney said. 0
Ann Peters is a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel.
Novel uncovers trials of competition in law school
By DIN IT A JAMES
Katherine A. Davis Roome
The Letter of the Law
Some novels have the ability to make
readers see the scenes unfolding
and the action developing, and some rare
novels put readers inside the plot or inside
a single character. Kathewne A. Davis
Roome's The Letter of the Law does all of
these.
Ixias Smith, the novel's protagonist, is a
woman readers can feel a part of, and the
rjeelxentier
is the feature magazine published
each Thursday by The Daily Tar
Heel.
Melanie Sill
Editor
James Alexander Jr.,
Assistant Editor
Elliott Warnock, Columnist
ahr Qailti aar lirrl
George Shadroui, Editor
Dinita James, Managing Editor
Mark Murrell, Features Editor
Laura Elliott, Arts Editor
Bill Fields, Sports Editor
Andy James, Photography Editor
plot of the novel is one in which everyone
can place himself to some degree.
After attending an Ivy League college,
Ixias finds herself in law school for a
variety of complex reasons, most of them
having to do with the three biggies:
money, power and position. After her first
year, Ixias finds herself in a tough spot.
Having not made Law Review on grades,
she must take part in the legendary
writing competition to further, her
ambitions.
And ambition is something Ixias shares
with her colleagues. Alicia, Ixias'
roommate, opts out of the competition,
not needing the extra advantage because
of her minority (though of which minority
Ixias is not sure) status. But Crackers, the
sometimes-friend, sometimes-lover of
both Ixias and Alicia, tackles the
competition with a nonchalant but
nevertheless fierce style.
The . chaos begins forthwith, and
cheating is rampant among all the
competitors. Ixias seduces a rather crusty
professor because he is an expert on her
topic, but her efforts come to naught
when she finds Alicia also trysting with
him.. And Ixias is victim of some foul play
in the course of the competition,
including having her paper-strewn desk
devoured by flames, her carrel in thqbrary
overturned and herself attacked in the
library stacks.
All the havoc points out the rigors of law
school as experienced by the children of
the idealistic '60s as they were pushed into
the fiercely materialistic and acquisitive
70s.
The twist of the novel is that Ixias was
not tortured by a fellow competitor, but
by her ex-boyfried from undergraduate
days, Jeremy. Jeremy is a relic of the '60s,
trying to persuade Ixias that she doesn't
need money or power to be happy, only
peace, happiness and his love.
Roome is able to put such realism in her
work because she has been in the same
situation. In fact, she wrote the first draft
of the novel in fulfillment of her third
year legal writing requirement at Cornell
Law School, from which she graduated in
1977. She is now an associate in a Wall
Street law firm.
Books
Roome's style is especially conducive to
the emotional state of her central
character. Written as a journal, readers
can see Ixias avoiding the writing of her
brief out of feelings of uncertainty, fear
and self-doubt by dashing out her
innermost thoughts in her diary. This
introspection in the entries is what gives
the novel its personal and realistic flavor
and what brings home the vigorously
competitive nature of law school and
society itself.
One passage, though lengthy, seems to
summarize all of what law school and life
is to Ixias:
"When was ten, all I wanted in life was a
horse, and when I was thirteen, all I
desired was K2 skis. When I was sixteen,
Iwasted my energy cxn acquiring a skinny,
pimpled star on the soccer team. By the
time it became apparent that that desire
too would pass, I was in college. Perhaps
in college, for a time, achievement kept
pace with desire. Jeremy and good Rrades
relieved to some degree the persistent
restless dissatisfaction with my life. But the
goals seemed to have slipped a year of me
once again since that time. Now they are
money, security, success."
She found herself, as so many people do,
forever pursuing some far-off goal, and by
the time she came near to reaching it,
much to her dismay, there was a new goal
ahead of her. The ultra-competitive world
ol .a a school is, fortunately, something
thiough which most o'. us don't have to
p- .s in our careers. But what makes this
novel more than a preparatory lecture for
prospective law students is its universal
application. Everyone, no matter what his
chosen occupation, has someone with
which to compete, and as Ixias discovers,
to take yourself out of combat is about the
same thing as dying.
The minus points to this novel are many.
Often, Ixias' thoughts rush pellmell to
nowhere, and readers get lost in the
shuffle. Other times, the plot gets so far
fetched, with student after student
pitching himself into the abyss adjacent to
the campus and coincidences and
rdmships intertwined somewhat like the
l;vcs of daytime-drama characters, that
even undiscriminating readers roll their
eyes. But the real meat of Roc me's work
prevails. "
This is a novel about surviving, whether
as a second-year law student or as an auto
mechanic. It is about using all available
energies and ending up at the point from
which you started. And it is an
extraordinary statment on nursing
wounds and starting again, not for the jov.
but for the perseverance. 0
Dinita lames is managing editor for The
Daily Tar HeeL