Triangle ‘key’ to good health

Press, 25 August 1988, Page 8

Triangle ‘key’ to good health

By

NEIL CLARKSON

Vicki Peterson can look you in the eye and say with conviction that tapping the middle of your breastbone will help you on the way to improved health.

The technique to stimulate the thymus gland is one of many techniques in Mrs Peterson's fourth book, “Strategies of the Champions.”

Mrs Peterson, in New Zealand to launch the book even before its release in her home country, Australia, says few people dismiss the strategies in her book as “quack medicine.”

“Everything I mention in this book is underpinned by scientific back-up,” she says. "I can go to really traditional doctors and they listen.” Mrs Peterson, who is health and fitness editor of “Harper’s Bazaar” magazine, says she went to considerable lengths to identify the experts and explain the techniques they developed.

The people are established and respected experts in their fields, she says. The book is aimed at "the average well intentioned person in the street” although athletes will learn something too, she says. She identifies the “golden triangle of health” as right food, motivation and exercise.

Mrs Peterson says her programme is the key to her being able to cope comfortably with a daily schedule that includes a 12hour working day. What then can a person expect to achieve following the strategies of the champions?

Mrs Peterson says that placing emphasis on alkaline instead of acid foods,-deep relaxation and a minimum of 30 minutes brisk walking a day will see people lose weight, gain energy, become more positive and mentally fitter. The book outlines such techniques as thymus tapping, which stimulates “our immune system’s

most faithful watchdog” and kinesiology — simple exercises to harmonise the workings of the hemispheres of the brain.

She identifies stress and a long list of materials as common catalysts to the weakening or “switching off” of this harmony. Even rock music and high-heeled shoes are identified as villains.

Mrs Peterson explains techniques for relaxation and motivation as part of her over-all plan for health. She sees reversal eating —- big breakfasts and lunches and small evening meals — as a key to losing weight.

Mrs Peterson says the techniques she describes are easy to start and maintain but adds, “You need a glimmer of motivation.”

New Zealand is her first stop in launching her book. She will then travel to Australia, Britain and the United States. Mrs Peterson is Welsh-born and lives in Sydney.