News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 35

News-Press POpl Southwest Florida Lifestyles, Culture And Entertainment SECTION SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1975 Willpower Wednesday Approaches till fcwK Ml 7ssH By KATHLEEN POWELL News-Preti Staff Writer Nnw is the time to revive the good resolutions you made on New Year's Eve and abandoned on Jan. 1. Lent begins next week on Feb. 12, Ash Wednesday, and whether you are a practicing Christian or not, you may regard this traditional period of fasting and abstinence as an appropriate time for exercising willpower you always knew you had, but rarely threw into gear. You could work on the business of shedding a few pounds you don't need, or sitting on your hands when you start to reach for a cigarette.

If you're in the younger set, there's always bubble gum to forego. Spinach you eat right through" Lent. You may find some good side effects, like the art editor who gave up sugar in her tea during one Lenten season, and afterward found she preferred her tea that way. A very convenient thing to happen when sugar became scarce and expensive. In England during the Middle Ages, a Lenten fast was imposed not only by ecclesiastical but also civil law.

By the time of the Reformation, people were slacking off so badly in their Lenten disciplines that a series of proclamations and statutes had to be issued to keep them in line. William Law and John Wesley gave fasting a boost in the 18th Century and the custom of women wearing mourning during Lent, strictly observed by the first Elizabeth and her court, lasted well into the 19th Century. In modern times people have asked what good purpose Lenten disciplines serve. Philosophers point to the value of any act of self-denial as an end in itself; theologicans as evidence of a penitent and contrite heart. Nutritionists say Americans eat more than is good for them anyway, and moderate fasting may be a plus factor in your chances for a long and happy life.

Socially-aware Christians sometimes give up food if the equivalent will be sent to help ease the hunger pains of the world. The parish of Redeemer Lutheran Church inFort Myers sent $2,000 to World Hunger earlier this year by following the Rev. Robert L. Keys' admonition to give up a meal a week or portion thereof and put the money aside for World Hunger. He sees the project as getting renewed emphasis during Lent, "not, however, from the negative point of giving something up.

Rather, we think of the positive action of helping to people in need." It is for the purpose of reminding his congregation of their responsibility to the rest of the world, as well as confrontation with God, that he will plac- Turn To WILLPOWER, Page 2D Hei gahat. doesn't necessarily create super foods. The new foods can fool our senses, not our cellular need for nourishment. This is not to say that all new products lack food value. A few, like those based on soybeans, are excellent.

But they are also rare. Most popular new foods do not improve upon what we already have. And, since many are inordinately expensive in relation to their nutritive value, their continued production seems a costly, potentially dangerous technological exercise. Ask yourself: Did this nation really need that orange powder the astronauts took to the moon? We already had orange nectar from California and Florida fresh, bottled or frozen. The imitation juices (including Tang) are mostly coloring, flavoring and sugar spiked heavily with Vitamin as one food editor said, in effect, Kool-Aid.

Overall, they are far less nutritious than real orange juice. Turn To SYNTHETICS, Page 6D For the last couple of decades the food companies have been on a creative binge. There are few substances the food chemists can't make to look and taste like real food. And the awful fact is that some of the fabricated products taste better an their real-life counterparts. I drank Orange Plus for a year before discovering that it was labeled imitation juice.

As the commercials imply, it seems more like the real thing than the real thing itself. Food technologists report that youngsters raised on imitation foods find the taste of some genuine foods tinny and objectionable. Every year, the food industry gives us about 5,000 new items our ancestors never heard of. But do we need them? Few are nutritionally superior. Many are inferior.

Look closely at the new product labels, which will increasingly appear this year because of new FDA regulations demanding nutritional information. You will probably be shocked to discover that our super technology As an investigative reporter and author, the writer of this commentary has focused on consumer and healthcare problems. By JEAN CARPER Gannett News Service A recurring fantasy of mine is that Garry Tell the Moore is named head of the Food and Drug Administration. One Monday morning, he, Kitty, Nipsy and the others sweep grandly into the FDA's Washington office and ask the real foods of America to "please stand up." Countless impostors climb down from their supermarket shelves and, in shame, march out like lemmings to drown in the sea. I am grounded in Washington reality, so I knjw it won't happen.

But it should. Dr. D. Mark Hegsted, a nutritionist at Harvard's School of Public Health, says we could get rid of 30 per cent of our food items with no loss to anyone. Synthetics Are Food For Thought nil wmmmmmm Mill Inside Today's People Stations Wage Electronic Battle For Local Viewers Rough Riding "Day Train," now appearing at the Fort Myers Holiday Inn, chugs over some rough rails, in case you've got a ticket to ride.

Nightbeat 2D Lesley Darren On The Media PEOPLE POLL asks: Should private citizens own hand guns? 2D There's a ratings battle going on between Fort Myers' two television stations, WBBH and WINK, and it is bound to get hotter now that WINK has cut its fi p.m. newscast to a half hour and is telecasting it directly opposite the WBBH evening news. WINK used to be the number one rated station in the area, but about a year ago WBBH upset the applecart and has consistently been top dog in the news ratings since. Changes have taken place at both of the stations in the last few months, new personnel, new news sets and new news directors. Although neither station will come right out and admit it, the changes are calculated to up their ratings.

And WBBH has been operating with the advice of Magid, a consulting firm which, it is rumored, costs the station a pretty penny. Although it would probably be wrong to say that Magid controls the WBBH news, it would be hitting the nail on the head to say that their advice is taken seriously. The news directors at both stations are the men who are ultimately responsible for the news programs and it is, most times, their thinking that directly influences what you see and hear each week-day night at 6 and 1 1 p.m. Lee Phillips, at WINK, and Steve Smith, at WBBH. disagree about the importance of the ratings but their opinions may be a reflection of the ratings race.

Phillips says, "Ratings can be shots in the arm or they can be very depressing but truly, tothe news people, ratings don't mean anything. Say there are 50,000 households in Southwest Florida. The ratings survey 200 to 300 of those households. Now, how can they reflect what every household is watching? Ratings are good for salesmen. They can use them as something to sell." Smith, on the other hand, says "The ratings are important.

They're a measure of your accomplishments and everything that's out tthey tell you how many people you're communicating with. But they shouldn't compromise good journalism. If you're doing a job properly, the ratings will be there. We're more concerned about doing a good job from day to day than we are with the ratings." Smith is a newcomer. At 26 he is on his way up, having been Naples bureau chief for WBBH for six months and news director at WNOG, a Naples radio and cable TV station.

He graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism from Indiana University. Phillips, 55, is a veteran newsman Turn To STATIONS, Page 3D Dedr Abby A COLLEGE student tells Abigail Van Buren that girls could use a little more aggression 5D Movies Today 4D Television 3D Newi-Prest Photo By DAVE BEATTY WBBH NEWS DIRECTOR STEVE SMITH DISCUSSES UPCOMING NEWS SHOW 'If you're doing a Job properly the ratings will be.