Millions read Jane Brody’s Personal Health column in The New York Times for advice on healthy eating, exercise and the latest research on staying robust and fit. For more than three decades, Brody has been a trusted source for health information. In her most recent columns, you would have learned that nuts are by far the healthiest snack. Considering e-cigarettes? Brody says don’t: They’re just as bad for you as regular cigarettes. Wondering about your long commute by car every day? That’s taking a bigger toll on your body than anyone could have guessed. Brody’s column has been published in The New York Times since 1976, but she’s been a staff writer at the newspaper since 1965, when she was the only woman in the science department. “I always wanted to cover science,” she said. “I would not be a women’s writer or anything else they threw at me. I was adamant about that.” Brody grew up in the Manhattan Beach section of Brooklyn and attended PS 225 and Cunningham JHS. She graduated as valedictorian from James Madison HS in 1958. Brody’s mother, stepmother and favorite aunt all taught in Brooklyn public schools. “Teaching was definitely part of my family history,” she said.

In junior high school and high school, I always felt encouraged to take on what I was interested in. No one ever said you can’t do this because you’re a girl. Critical thinking was encouraged. Two of my favorite teachers at James Madison HS, Harold Nagler and George Kapp, remained my lifelong friends and even came to my wedding.

Nagler was my biology teacher during my sophomore year. He really cared about his students. He always encouraged us to come up and talk to him and have a discussion about something you didn’t understand. You always got the impression that the most important thing was that you learned what you needed to learn. It wasn’t just a job for him, but an avocation. I visited him after he moved to California and then later when he entered a retirement home in Englewood, N.J.

Kapp was my chemistry teacher, and years after I graduated he became chairman of the chemistry department. Kapp was the kind of teacher who had kids come over to his house after school, not just to talk about chemistry. It was an open house. He was enthusiastic about everything. Kapp stayed in Brooklyn and played bridge with my husband almost to the end of his life.

High school was a very interesting time for me. We had great teachers. Philip Rodman was an English teacher who exposed us to Thomas Mann and Nietzsche — things you wouldn’t typically be exposed to in the 1950s. Rodman played Wagner’s operas in class to show the relationship between Wagner and Nietzsche. It was the first opera I ever heard, and to this day, I love Wagnerian operas.

My husband and I raised our two sons the same way. My sons went to public schools in Brooklyn and both graduated from Midwood HS. Two of my grandchildren attend public schools in Brooklyn; the other two attend public schools in Los Angeles. We are strong believers in public schools. If all the bright kids are pulled out, our schools would go to hell in a handbasket. It’s important for parents like Mayor de Blasio to send their children to public schools to keep public schools vibrant and effective.

One of my daughters-in-law wanted her children to go to a private school. My son put his foot down about that. After graduating from Midwood HS, my sons went on to Yale and Johns Hopkins. To me, the important thing is we brought up interested and caring children.

— As told to reporter Linda Ocasio