VOORHEESVILLE – Winnie Yu Scherer says she’s not a "dietary saint," but, for her and her family, healthy eating has become a lifestyle.

Yu Scherer is a journalist and author. Her husband, Jeff Scherer, is an advertising on-line producer for a daily newspaper and an illustrator of children’s books. The Scherers make a point of exercising and making smart food choices for themselves and their children – Samantha, 9, and Annie, 7.
"We both put a lot of emphasis on eating well," Yu Scherer said.
"I’ve always been interested in health and medicine," she said, adding that she remembers wanting to be a pediatrician as a child. She has written five books on health and nutrition, and her sixth – What to Eat for What Ails You – was released in April.
The book, written under Yu Scherer’s pen name – Winnie Yu – is what she calls "a consumer guide" to how food affects health.

The research for the book involved speaking to dietitians, doctors, nutritionists, and other professionals, along with reading countless books and articles, she said. Each section is based on a different health condition, ranging from cancer to the common cold.
"Chicken soup has been used since the twelfth century as a way to relieve colds and is celebrated as a favorite remedy among moms," Yu writes in her section on what to eat for the common cold. Researchers at the University of Nebraska, in 2000, found that chicken soup can help reduce inflammation in the respiratory tract, she says.
"Make it your goal to eat a colorful diet and to include foods such as broccoli, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, apples, carrots, blueberries, and strawberries," she advises in the section on what to eat for cancer sufferers. These foods contain cancer-fighting antioxidants. "By some estimates, the incidence of cancer could be decreased by 20 percent if all Americans ate at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day," she says.
Experts studied each section, she said, and everyone involved shared "an interest in using nutrition to help ease health problems."
As she began working on the book, Yu Scherer drafted a list of common ailments – "broad-sweeping ones," things that were widespread, and some rare ones that had specific foods that affected them, she said.
She found some "umbrella" nutrition tips. "Eating complex carbs is a must," she said of foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. "Drinking lots of water" is also essential, she said.
"It’s sort of like giving birth, writing books," Yu Scherer joked. "It takes a lot of energy, discipline, and organizational skills."
Yu Scherer has been a journalist for over 20 years, she said. She has been a freelance writer since 1997. "When I had kids, I wanted both to work and to stay at home," said Yu Scherer. She writes on health and nutrition for Woman’s Day, Weight Watchers, Redbook, and Fitness magazines.

Working from home

Though Jeff Scherer works full-time for the Times Union – where he met his wife who worked as a reporter there for eight years before she began freelancing – he also works from home illustrating children’s books.
Scherer has illustrated 11 books since his first book was published in 1994, he said. His latest, Whooo’s There", written by Mary Serfoso, will be released in July. It is his first hardcover, published through Random House. "I’m pretty excited about it," he said.

It is his second book with Serfoso, and they submitted it as a team, he said.
"I’ve done books where I didn’t know who wrote it," Scherer said. "Generally, the writers and illustrators don’t overlap" It eliminates a lot of problems," he said.
Scherer said he put "six months of really concentrated time into the book." But the entire process took more than a year.
"You have to make a sacrifice to do it," he said.

Scherer’s illustrating studio is in his Voorheesville home, and, though it is nice to work from home, he said, it is sometimes difficult to work when it is bright and sunny, and he must fight the urge to play outside with his daughters.
"It’s hard on the kids," he said. "But, it makes you appreciate the time you do spend with them."

Scherer himself grew up in Voorheesville, and has enjoyed drawing since he was little, he said. His youngest daughter, Annie, is artistic, too, he said.
Though Scherer is an "avid bird-watcher," he says that birds are "trickier" to draw than bugs, for example. "Because I know all the birds, I get hung up" on the details, he said.
In his latest book, he conquered bird drawing through his depiction of a curious owl who wants to know which other animals are awake with him in the woods at night. "It’s kind of a screech owl" But I made it up," he said.

Within minutes of describing a recent bird-watching trip in Texas, Scherer identified a loud, ringing noise that permeated the air; it belonged to a pileated woodpecker, which he spotted high in a tree in his yard.

Yu Scherer said she isn’t really into bird-watching, but enjoys the hiking that usually accompanies it.

Healthy practices
Though the Scherers have their weaknesses and aren’t perfect when it comes to healthy eating, they implement what Yu Scherer calls "stay-healthy strategies," she said.
"I shop a lot in the produce department," she said. "I definitely push fruits," she added, "It’s become sort of a way of life."
Samantha and Annie can sometimes make healthy eating a bit more challenging, though, said Yu Scherer. "We do our best anyway."
She said that habits take a long time to change. The key is "doing it a little bit at a time," she said.
"I think people today are so busy and frazzled," Yu Scherer said. "People are time-pressed, stressed" All that gets in the way," she said. Healthy eating "takes foresight and planning," she said.

In order to avoid the quick bag of chips or the candy bar while traveling, it’s necessary to plan ahead and pack a cooler with healthier options like fruit and string cheese, Yu Scherer offered.
"To ensure that you eat well, it’s important to also tackle other health challenges in your life," Yu advises in the book. "For many people, that means getting a handle on your stress, quitting smoking, sleeping more, and getting more exercise."

Change doesn’t happen overnight, Yu Scherer told The Enterprise. It is unreasonable to think that you will be able to reverse a longtime habit right away, she said. It’s important to "take one step at a time," she said.
There’s no substitute for chocolate, Yu Scherer said, remembering the days when she would eat a large cookie everyday with her lunch. "When I think about it now, I can’t believe I did it," she said. Shortly after eating the daily sugary treat, she would feel a decline in energy, caused by the crash in her sugar levels, she said.

Fruit is a much better alternative, she said. The complex carbohydrates in fruits cause the body to release insulin much more slowly than baked goods, she said, and the body’s blood sugar does not spike drastically from the sugars in fruit.
From her book, Yu Scherer says, "Hopefully people will get the message that what you eat can affect how you feel, especially if you have a health condition." If you choose the right foods, she concluded, "You can lessen the impact of the condition."