Canaan, CT, c. 1992, 450 pages, $17.95. By the time I got hold of this, it was in its
18th printing. Author writes clearly and well; documentation included at the end.
For ach chapter, the vitamin itself is discussed -- what it does, prevents, etc., and a
list of foods that are top sources of it is given. Minerals are not covered. No recipes.
The Real Vitamin and Mineral Book: Going Beyond the RDA for Optimum Health,
Shari Lieberman and Nancy Bruning. Lieberman is a PhD nutritionist, consultant
and broadcaster on nutrition for Home Shopping TV Network. This book provides
good coverage of minerals as well as vitamins. Author belongs to the school of
thought that wants you to take vasst amounts of vitamin/mineral dietary
supplements (pills) daily. While she mentions a few food sources in passing, th
emphasis is on take-a-pill. However, the discussion of vitamins and minerals is
thorough and the studies which established each point are summarized as well as
cited. They make one very good point about this take supplements attitude: foods
can supply only what nutrients they get from the soil. Most factory-garms in the Ag
industry do not re-supply with fertilizer nutrients that are removed by cropping.
Too, vitamins are vulnerable to storage conditions and time, and generally greatly
reduced or destroyed by most processing. This book also has good coverage of
interactivity of nutrients: interferences, proper ratios of different kinds,
potentiations.lDiet & Nutrition: A Wholistic Approach, Rudolph Ballentine, M.D. Himalayan
International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 17th printing, 1993. 700
pages. This huge book has good, clear explanations of the western-accepted
nutritional and health affects of nutrients (all discussed in terms of their sources in
natural foods, rather than pill-supplements). Dr. Ballentine studied "Ayurvedic" or
traditional medicine in Indian, not a quick ashram trip, and also put in time in Hindu
hospitals and labs. I have little patience for the Indian-and-gurus trip, but I like this
book very much. Dr. Ballentine is the only one of the popular nutritionial authors to
discuss the physiology of eating and digestion in detail. He also has many studies
and picture-comparisons of people who ate traditional diets (and look fine as well
as being fine) and tribespeople, brothers or sisters, who adopted modern fast and
refined foods, whose bodies are nearly falling apart. Many health food co-ops carry
this book, which deserves a wider audience than New Age types. Those interested
in Native medical and health traditions will enjoy the clear, interesting, account of
Ayurvedic Indian traditional medicine. A few recipes for very simple traditional
India-Indian dishes are scattered throughout.lDiet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore-Lappè, Ballantine Books, NY: c. 1971 and
later editions. About half this is a cookbook, and half is plain, clear explanations of
why Lappe is concerned about American diets including so much meat. She
mentions health and "animal rights" ideas only in passing. Her main concern is
ecological and political: destruction of the land -- and new destructions of
rainforest and savannahs of Mexico and South America-- by factory farming, largely
to feed meat animals, largely for American and European markets. Her nutritional
concern is with proteins in a largely (not necessarily entirely) vegetarian diet. She
clearly explains the concept of usability when several foods with complementary
amino acid (protein components) are combined -- as Native people long ago learned
to do with traditional combos such as corn and beans. About half the book is good
science for Earth Science or Health classes; the rest is some pretty good recipeslNative Foods/Plants: Recommended Books
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