FITNESS WITHOUT EXERCISE

Fitness without exercise? Not really. Stamford and Shimer don't recommend desk-work days and TV nights as a route to health and longevity. But they do say that moderate activity--taken in small doses of stair climbing, mini-walks, house cleaning, leaf raking, and the like--can bring large gains in heart health, whereas the additional gains to be had from strenuous exercise at the highly touted ""target heart rate"" are relatively small. Despite two decades of ballyhoo for heavy running programs, only a small proportion of the population actually engages in them; fewer yet keep them up for any extended period; and the rest of us sit around feeling guilty when we could be helping ourselves to a reasonable activity program. Though the presentation suffers a little from the promotional tone of most such advisories, this is welcome and sensible advice. It's accompanied here by other sensible, though more usual, advice on high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets, and the reminder that no amount of heavy exercise can run off the ill-effects of high-fat gouging.