SUSAN WINSTON : Food for Thought

One test we should all take is Lifetime’s “A Healthy Challenge: The National Nutrition Test,” an interactive special that hopes to challenge viewers’ knowledge of proper nutrition. The program’s goal: Get the audience to make subtle changes in diet and exercise.

From her North Hollywood office, executive producer Susan Winston talked with Times Staff Writer N.F. Mendoza. Winston has produced three driving-test shows as well as “Good Morning America.” She has also produced, with her partner Dan Funk, “The American Red Cross Emergency Test” and “The Tube Test,” which examined TV history.

Winston first began research on “A Healthy Challenge,” hosted by “Hearts Afire’s” Markie Post, in January, 1992. The American Heart Assn. acted as a technical adviser to the program.

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Did you have a personal interest in this show?

I’m an extremely health-conscious person. I’m 40, and I work hard to stay a young 40. I’m fanatical about exercising and eating right. The show is basically an outgrowth of what I do naturally.

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How does the show work?

There are 20 questions to be answered, true-false, multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks. It’s not just facts and figures, it’s a real participatory experience. We use celebrities Robert Urich, Rue McClanahan, Shanna Reed and Scott Bakula to present healthy tips. For example, Bakula does a segment answering the question of, “Is fish really brain food?” (Although high in protein and low in saturated fats, science has yet to prove that fish benefits intelligence.)

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What about preconceptions of food . . . are those addressed?

Well, for example, most people think of popcorn as something you eat at the movies, but it’s a very nutritious food. It’s wonderful to give to kids and yourself as a snack. It’s very high in fiber and, served without butter and salt, it’s one of the healthiest foods around--and filling too.

And, in the area of vitamin C sources, you wouldn’t have thought that you can munch on a red pepper and it has four times the vitamin C as an orange. Another thing we bring up is the butter vs. margarine issue. Like how one type of margarine is better than another. Margarine in a squeeze bottle or a tub is better than in a stick because it’s less condensed. We have a lot of tips like that.

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What about exercising tips?

Well, in this world of many exercises, we discuss what activities burn how many calories. I think people will be surprised to find out, like I did, that you can walk two miles and burn as many calories as you can running the two miles.

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What about food labels?

We address the packaging thing. With the new FDA regulations, there will be new packaging by the end of next year. We point out that until then people need to pay attention to the labels. They aren’t standardized yet. For example, one can may indicate the grams of fat or calories for a whole can, and another may do so for one serving, of which there may be up to four in a can.

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With this show being on Lifetime, are there issues focused toward women?

We talk about iron and calcium and let viewers know that they need to pay attention to such things--how you can get more and why you need it. Calcium is very important. Osteoporosis is a national epidemic. Our show gives a laundry list of where women can find it in foods.

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What are your goals with this show?

It’s almost a call to action. Rather than feeling depressed at the end of the show, it should empower people to get healthier, which is the key to empowering your body. We point out how if you binge it’s not the end of the world, and we make suggestions on how to take care of yourself after a binge.

I hope the show will dispel a lot of food myths and help people become more conscious in their label reading. People don’t need to worry about scoring high on the test; we just want them to feel right about taking it and miss enough questions to go: “Whoa! I did get an education.” I hope that it will immediately cause them to make a change in their life.

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Are people going to be able to make that drastic a change?

The things you need to do to get healthier are amazingly subtle. Cutting back the percentage of fat in milk, for starters, can make a significant change in cholesterol level. We also discuss the 20 spices which can substitute for salt.

We’re basically gearing people up to get into a fat-free diet and show them how easy it is to do. There’s no radical dieting going on in the show. It’s not that I have to completely change, it’s how to substitute what I’m already doing.

“A Healthy Challenge: The National Nutrition Test” airs Saturday at 2 and 10 p.m. on Lifetime.