Nutrition vs. quackery

Books on how to raise personal health through self-control | George Grant

According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 60 million Americans will go on some kind of a diet this year. Sadly, most will fall short of their lofty aims. Some will fail for lack of will power. Some will fail because they've fallen prey to one fad weight-loss product or another. But the vast majority will fail because their efforts are based on poor nutritional strategies--relying on mere temporary disruptions of metabolism. Thankfully, these three new books provide a sane and practical alternative to such quackery.

Prescription for Nutritional Healing, by James and Phyllis Balch, is a vast encyclopedia of clinically tested approaches to healthy living. Already a two-million-copy bestseller, this newly expanded edition focuses on nutritional, herbal, and fitness therapies as a basic defense against most of the ailments and disorders that we commonly face.