Fast-Food Diet May Be No Joke : Boxing: Some say Foreman’s age, weight and love for cheeseburgers are a dangerous combination.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. —  George Foreman has parlayed four years’ worth of cheeseburger jokes into what is projected as the largest-grossing boxing match in history.

When at 42 and carrying 257 pounds, he challenges Evander Holyfield for the heavyweight championship Friday night, all those jokes will add up to a minimum of $12.5 million for Foreman. For Holyfield, who has scarcely said a word during the promotion, Foreman’s one-liners will mean at least $20 million.

Said Foreman earlier this week: “After I win and become the champion again, they’ll give me the drug test, but all they’ll find inside me is cheeseburgers.”

A couple of months ago, after Foreman appeared on NBC’s “Tonight Show,” executives wanted to take him to a glitzy Beverly Hills restaurant for dinner. Nope, Foreman said. He directed the limo driver to the Fatburger’s at Santa Monica and La Cienega boulevards.

But fast-food cheeseburgers are no joke to a growing number of nutritionists and cardiologists. They are alarmed by high serum cholesterol levels in fast-food devotees, and particularly those of inner-city teen-agers, many of whom tend to have predominantly fast-food diets.

Last December, in a three-part series in the Wall Street Journal on nutritional levels of inner-city poor Americans, reporter Alix M. Freedman quoted numerous nutritionists and physicians on the subject of the high-sodium, high-fat diets of inner-city youths virtually addicted to fast-food fare.

Dr. Robert Johnson, chief of adolescent medicine at New Jersey Medical School in Newark, N.J., told the newspaper that results of a study he conducted show youths who report the most frequent visits to fast-food restaurants clearly show much higher cholesterol levels.

The series also quoted Pedro Espada, president of the Soundview Health Center in New York’s South Bronx, as calling the fast-food industry, “ . . . public enemy No. 1 to the health of poor, working-class people.”

Case in point: George Edward Foreman, product of a Houston ghetto, who has been a confessed fast-food addict most of his life.

“When I left Houston when I was 18, my dream was to come back one day rich enough to buy all the cheeseburgers I wanted at the McDonald’s down the street,” he said.

Does this mean that Foreman, the second-oldest man ever to appear in a world title fight, is going to keel over from a heart attack when he fights Holyfield Friday night? Probably not, but many boxing people worry about Foreman, just a bit. When he started his comeback, in 1987, he weighed 315 pounds.

And some worried a bit more when his brother, Roy, was hospitalized six weeks ago with an irregular heartbeat.

When Foreman applied for a California boxing license in 1987, he presented results from a two-day series of intensive medical tests at Houston Medical Center. Presumably, he checked out OK on his cholesterol level, but no one can remember for sure.

When asked about his cholesterol level the other day, Foreman said: “It’s perfect, just perfect.”

But physicians and dietitians say having a normal or low serum cholesterol level doesn’t necessarily protect anyone from having heart disease.

“If your cholesterol level is OK, it just means the probability factor of your having heart disease is lower than someone with a high level,” said Dr. Julian Haywood, a USC professor of medicine.

“You can still have atherosclerosis and a low cholesterol level. If a person with a low cholesterol level develops atherosclerosis, it means the low cholesterol level didn’t protect them from heart disease.

“And there are mechanisms other than cholesterol levels that can bring about a heart attack.”

Haywood also said all athletes should know what their cholesterol levels are.

All states with professional boxing commissions require professional boxers to pass a cursory prefight physical examination, but none requires a serum cholesterol check.

“It’s almost inconceivable all athletes are not screened for this,” Haywood said.

“It’s recommended to the general public that everyone should know what their cholesterol level is. . . . Why would you exclude professional boxers?”

Haywood said Foreman, simply because of his diet and age, is at risk for heart disease. “Almost any black male in his age group is at risk, typically from a combination of risks such as genetic factors and diet,” he said.

David S. Cannom, a cardiologist at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles, said Foreman may or may not be risking a heart attack, depending on his “luck of the draw.”

Cannom added: “If he’s lucky enough to be blessed with a good family history, no history of high cholesterol levels, he’s probably in good shape.

“I know a lot of people like Foreman who eat like he does and who have low cholesterol levels. I also know people who are monk-like about their diets, who eat raw vegetables and rice, and who are also on medication to lower very high cholesterol levels.

“So without knowing much about him other than his diet, I guess you could say he risks dropping dead in the ring or he could live to 110.”

California ring physician Robert Karns of Los Angeles sees little reason to believe Foreman has heart disease.

“If he does all that roadwork and training without chest pain, I would assume his arteries are fit,” Karns said.

“But certainly everyone over 40 should have a baseline treadmill exam before undertaking a lot of physical exercise.

“In Foreman’s case, if he were my patient, I’d tell him I wasn’t happy that he was a 250-pound man over 40 eating fast-food burgers every day. But if I then found that he had a normal cholesterol level, I’d tell him to lose weight . . . and enjoy the cheeseburgers.”

Foreman said this week his roadwork near his Texas ranch has included runs of as long as 15 miles. He also said he has worn a harness and pulled a pickup truck. And he said he spent several weeks on St. Lucia, in the Caribbean, running up steep hills.

He is the second-oldest boxer to challenge a world champion. Archie Moore, one of Foreman’s cornermen, also was 42 when he lost to Floyd Patterson in 1956--but eight months older than Foreman is now. Moore was 41 when he lost to Rocky Marciano in 1955.

Foreman has for years disputed the age that boxing reporters ascribe to him, claiming he is a year younger than the Ring Record Book said he was. And sure enough, Boxing Illustrated publisher Bert Sugar came up with Foreman’s birth certificate, plucked from microfilm files of the Texas Department of Health.

Foreman’s birth occurred at 9:50 a.m., Jan. 10, 1949. His father, J.D. Foreman, a resident of Marshall, Tex., was 36; occupation, laborer. His mother, maiden name Nancy Ree Nelson, was 29.

There have been two health stories buzzing in the press room this week. In addition to discussion about Foreman’s age, diet and weight, some boxing reporters have been formulating theories for 28-year-old Evander Holyfield’s rapidly receding hairline.

Holyfield seemed to have lost some hair density last October, when he won the championship by knocking out Buster Douglas. But this week, his hairline seems to be in full retreat. Also, ceiling lights in sparring sessions reflect brightly off bare skin on Holyfield’s crown.

Holyfield, at the time he knocked out Douglas, was going through a stressful period. His wife, Paulette, had filed for divorce. And his one-time manager, Ken Sanders, had been fired by Holyfield, allegedly for fouling up one of the champion’s tax returns.

Also, a car agency in which the champion was a substantial though passive investor had failed.

So far, no one has pegged Holyfield’s onset of apparent baldness to fast-food cheeseburgers.

“Evander tried a hair-growth formula, and his hair has actually thickened a little bit,” said the champion’s publicist, Ellen Krudys.

Ron Stephens, Holyfield’s personal physician, said: “It’s probably just old age.” Stephens also said Holyfield’s cholesterol level was normal.

HEAVIEST HEAVYWEIGHTS

George Foreman weighted in at 257 pounds for Friday’s heavyweight championship fight against Evander Holyfield. Only Primo Carnera weighed more in a title bout. Here’s a look at the 10 heaviest: Primo Camera, def. Tommy Loughran 1934: 270 George Foreman: 257 Abe Simon, lost to Joe Louis 1942: 255 1/2 Leroy Jones, lost to Larry Holmes 1980: 254 1/2 Buddy Baer, lost to Joe Louis 1942: 250 Buster Douglas, lost to Evander Holyfield 1990: 246 Jess Willard, lost to Jack Dempsey 1919: 245 Tony Tubbs, lost to Tim Witherspoon 1986: 244 Buster Mathis, lost to Joe Frazier 1968: 243 1/2 John Tate, def. Gerrie Coetzee 1979: 240