Q 6

PLAYBOY: Are all kinds of sex healthy?

Jack La Lanne: It's up to the individual. Sex has to do with imagination, so the sky is the limit. If you're not doing bodily harm, why shouldn't you do what turns you on? I'm not a prude who thinks everything should be done the Jack La Lanne way. All I want you to do is follow my method of fitness: Eat properly. Think right. Exercise more. What you do with your new-found energy and vitality is your own business.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: Is sex still good at 70?

Jack La Lanne: The biggest bunch of bullshit is that it's not. Use it or lose it, I say. I've got friends who are 70, 80, 90, and, Christ, they're horny bastards. Three or four times a week is nothing to them.

Q 8

PLAYBOY: By now, you've probably seen all the health-and-fitness videos put out by such people as Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons and Debbie Reynolds. Would you care to offer a quick critique?

Jack La Lanne: They're all about the same; they're all jumping around. Some of it's good; some of it's bad. But 90 percent of the exercises in those things are for your calves. There's too much stretching for the lower back and calves while ignoring the rest of you. What are they doing for your shoulders, arms, chest, waist? Now, I'm going to be coming out with ten audio-visual tapes for home consumption. They'll be good ones. They'll concentrate on all the problem areas. I'll do one for kids, one for executives, a motivational tape, one on nutrition. Another thing: I've just built a television studio in my new home in Morro Bay. I'm going to do a syndicated show from there called Jack La Lanne and Friends. I'll get celebrities like Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller, big sports celebrities, anyone who's recognizable. I'll put people up overnight at my home. I have a maid who will take care of their food and drinks. Then we'll shoot a show together, a real comprehensive thing. I'll find out what they're having for breakfast, lunch and dinner, what their exercise habits are, their sex habits, their hobbies, their problems. And then I'll give them an exercise for their problem areas and get them right there on the floor exercising with me. And I'll recommend what foods they should eat: a real in-depth thing.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: For most people, food equals pleasure. Yet diet programs usually leave you hungry, and it's difficult to stick to a diet when you go to a restaurant. What do you eat when you eat out?

Jack La Lanne: I've never told my stomach I'm a poor man. Lots of my contemporaries go into a restaurant and figure they can cheat just this one time. What the hell, they don't want to bother anyone. Not me. I call over the chef or the maitre d'. I ask for the right food and he respects me for it. Some people complain about taste. They'll look at a squid and go, "God!" So they eat chicken. But chickens are some of the world's filthiest creatures. They eat anything. I lived on a ranch as a kid. When the sheep died, they'd get maggots. We'd throw the carcasses into the chicken yard, and within two hours they'd be down to the bone. The pigs would defecate and the chickens would eat it up! But people love chicken. So the chickens I eat are organically grown with special care. I know the source of everything I eat.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: Lots of people work out during the week; then, on weekends, they do drugs, drink wine and indulge in vigorous self-abuse. Are they just fooling themselves? Is there a wine that goes well with wheat germ, so to speak?

Jack La Lanne: They've earned the right. It's just like, goddamn, if you write a check for $1000 but have only $500 in the bank, you're bankrupt. But if you have $5000 in the bank, you can afford it. Who are the greatest dissipaters in the world? Professional athletes. They're in such good shape that they can drink, they can screw, they can smoke. What you put into life you can take out. Look, you've got to have a little fun. We're living in a promiscuous society now. People want sex; they want drugs; they want lots of things. I know we all hear that we shouldn't smoke, shouldn't drink, but you've never heard me say that. I would rather see you drink moderately than not drink at all. Any kind of wine is great. Most restaurants have good food, but the only natural food you'll get at the whole damn meal is wine. It's never been cooked, heated or had anything taken away from it. It was picked at maturity and nothing was added. It gives you a nice little euphoria and opens the blood vessels. It adds extra vitamins and minerals. That's helping yourself and having fun at the same time. Complete abstainers' life spans are shorter than those of people who indulge moderately. My next-door neighbor just died recently. He was 102. He had two martinis for lunch; later a few more; wine. But he was active. I had a program of exercises for him that he did until damn near two months before he died. Now, I'm definitely not into this heroin or coke or any of that stuff--well, maybe coke; it depends on how you eat and how you exercise. And marijuana--nobody knows too much about it except that it's definitely not habit-forming, so it would probably be better for someone to have a joint once in a while on the weekends than to drink booze to excess. I mean, you wouldn't eat 100 apples a day, would you?

Q 11

PLAYBOY: Can vitamins cure a hangover?

Jack La Lanne: I don't know; but if you're going to drink a lot of alcohol, then I think you should take extra B complex, liver and yeast. If you smoke, you need extra vitamin C. Caffeine destroys E. Candy and sweets destroy B complex. Air and water pollution destroy C. So many things destroy A, which can prevent cancer. Marijuana and cocaine destroy vitamins C and E. When you take coke, you get a lot of energy, but you pay for it. When you're taking pot into your lungs, that's smoke. The damn coke destroys your nasal septum, so I would suggest you take an extra tablespoon of bone meal to replace the calcium.

But basically, I think you should treat your body like a Rolls-Royce. You wouldn't put water into the gas tank. So you cannot put all those artificial flavorings and colorings and sugar and crap into your body. It's got to take its toll. How many Americans got up this morning and had a breakfast of coffee, a doughnut and a cigarette? It's damn near the standard American diet. Most Americans are arthritic, have hemorrhoids, stink, are psychotic. The men can't get hard-ons. People do it to themselves. Would you get your dog up in the morning and give him coffee, a doughnut and a cigarette?

Q 12

PLAYBOY: You were once a 98-pound weakling. What changed you?

Jack La Lanne: I was the weakest-looking kid you ever saw. The kids at school took turns beating me up; even the girls. My parents took me out of school at 14, thinking a rest would improve my health. Instead, I was considering suicide. I couldn't stand the humiliation. I used to bang my head against the wall. I got blinding headaches. I couldn't sleep. I got failing grades and had an uncontrollable temper and even tried to kill my brother. I was a shut-in. I couldn't hack it anymore.

Then my mother heard about this nutrition lecture by Paul Bragg at the Oakland Women's City Club. We were late getting in and had to sit on the stage. Bragg told the audience, "I don't care what your age or present physical condition is; if you obey nature's laws, you can be born again." I went to his dressing room afterward and we talked until three A.M. about exercise, nutrition, white sugar and white flour; about how he was a vegetarian. I went home that night and prayed--I had to have help, because I couldn't give up my cakes, pies and ice cream. I was addicted. But I could also begin to envision myself with a terrific physique, going out for sports. So I stuck with it. I was a vegetarian for six years. It took pride and discipline. I'm no genius, but I am a disciplinarian. The guys who are tough survive. It was a religious experience.