BODY WATCH : Q & A WITH KENNETH COOPER : The Fitness Doctor Is In : You May Not Recognize the Name, but You’ve Got to Be Familiar With His Baby: Aerobics

Never mind that Dr. Kenneth Cooper has written 11 health and fitness books, selling more than 30 million copies in 41 languages.

Or that he founded the Cooper Aerobics Center and the affiliated Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas, known worldwide for its exercise studies.

Or that he coined the word aerobics in 1968 when his landmark book, “Aerobics,” was published.

Mention his name, and the response is often, “Kenneth who?”

At 63, the tall and lanky Cooper--”the father of aerobics”--is too busy to care. While preparing for yet another trip abroad to educate the masses, he took a breather to talk about our health habits, his career, the disease-fighting potential of antioxidant vitamins and his weakness for sweets.

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Question: Although you’ve been writing health and fitness books since 1968, a lot of people, even serious exercisers, don’t know your name. Does that surprise you?

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Answer: No, not really. I would say realistically I’m better known throughout the world than in the United States and for one reason: the Cooper test. That is a 12-minute (fitness) test which has been picked up by military organizations and schools and now it is the official test for soccer players throughout the world and for referees.

Even though I created the word (aerobics) in 1968, it wasn’t until 1975 when Jane Fonda comes along and starts popularizing aerobics and everybody thinks aerobic dancing--which is only one of 31 aerobic exercises--is exclusively aerobics.

What we decided to do in the early days . . . was to get such a scientific base that no one could argue with our ideas. The (Cooper) Institute is doing three things: researching, working with corporations and organizations all over the world to help establish fitness and wellness programs for their employees, and (conducting) continuing education. We trained over 4,000 people last year. The work is just what I want it to be. I couldn’t care less about notoriety and people knowing my name.

Q: If you had to give Americans a fitness grade, what would we get today?

A: C-minus.

Q: And what did we have five years ago?

A: Probably a C-plus. Maybe a B-minus. We reached our peak in 1984. We had 59% of Americans claiming to be exercising aerobically. Now that realistically is probably 25% or 30%.

Q: Where do you see us going?

A: I think we’re beginning to see a resurgence. There was a study (unpublished as yet) looking at a road race. They started following people in 1980 and found by 1990 only 55% were still running. But of interest, 85% were still exercising.

We’re finding people are transitioning to other types of exercise when they find they can’t run anymore because of musculoskeletal problems or they get bored with it. So I think moderation is going to be the key to the future.

If so, that means if you go out and cover two miles in 30 minutes and do that three times a week, you get almost the same benefit as you get from running three miles five days a week if your goals are health and longevity.

Q: What do you run a week, mileage-wise?

A: Twelve to 15. But let me elaborate. We did a study . . . published (in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. in which) we found walking at a 12-minute per mile pace is the equivalent of running at a nine-minute per mile pace and you have one-tenth the injury problem. So I am running about half the time now. I’ve been doing a lot of aerobic walking, two or three miles at a time. I’ll probably average 3 1/2 days a week running, 2 1/2 days of aerobic walking.

I get home, have a light evening meal and then about 10 o’clock take my two dogs for a walk. I (also) work out with weights for 20 minutes, two to three times a week.

Q: In light of the recent popcorn study (pointing out the high fat content of most movie theater popcorn), what do you eat for snack food?

A: My wife, Millie, makes air-popped popcorn, and we’ve been on that for a long time.

Q: What’s your biggest dietary sin?

A: Chocolate chip cookies. When I sit on the airplane, riding first-class, and you can smell those chocolate chip cookies . . . I have them with skim milk.

Q: If you could tell couch potatoes one way to get motivated, what would it be?

A: Get a dog. Kind of strange, I know. But Paul Dudley White (the late physician to President Dwight D. Eisenhower) once said everyone should take their dog for a walk whether they have one or not.

Q: Your 12th book, “Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper’s Antioxidant Revolution,” is due out this fall. Recently, in the New England Journal of Medicine researchers found that the antioxidant Vitamin E did not reduce the incidence of lung cancer and that beta carotene may raise the risk. What are your thoughts?

A: (The subjects) had been smoking for 36 years, a pack a day. And they were 50 to 69 years of age when they entered the study. There’s a very good chance (that) a lot of those guys already had cancer. The only thing that study shows is if you put people on that dose of Vitamin E and beta carotene and they are a high risk patient to have lung cancer, it’s not going to help them.

Q: What’s your personal regimen of antioxidants?

A: The “antioxidant cocktail”--1,000 of Vitamin C, preferably 500 milligrams twice a day; 400 International Units of natural Vitamin E and 25,000 units of beta carotene. So it takes me four tablets a day. . . . In the book I’ve adjusted it according to weight and sex, age and physical activity--if you go up to 30 miles per week (of running), that’s fine, but you need to increase antioxidants.

Q: Will you ever stop running?

A: I doubt it. I want to enjoy life to the fullest right up to the last moment and then die suddenly. And I think exercise gives me the best chance for doing it.