The Healthmark Program for Life

``The health status of most Americans today can be likened to a runaway train. We are totally out of control, eating the wrong foods, exercising too little, smoking and drinking too much,'' observes Gleser, former medical director of the Pritikin Longevity Center. He founded the HealthMark Program in 1984 to put Americans back on the right track. Gleser's promise of a healthier life, achieved by lowering cholesterol level, fat, salt and alcohol consumption, stopping smoking, losing weight and taking regular aerobic exercise, is supported here by his solid, comprehensive data; his more than reasonable expectations (e.g., you're not expected to go saltless); and his sane, caring authorial tone. If one way to judge books of this genre is by how crazy they succeed in making you (does the author induce a nutritional paranoia so profound that you never accept another dinner invitation? Does he whip you into a weighing or calorie-counting frenzy? Do you sail into euphoria confident that you can eat and exercise your way to heaven?), then Gleser's comes out well indeed. Included are 70 recipes from the HealthMark cookbook, Cooking for a Healthier Ever After. (Nov.)