Nutrition vs. quackery

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.

Providing a wide array of drug-free supplements, remedies, strategies, and maintenance programs, the book is a veritable gold mine of preventive medicine and common-sense living. Written in an easy-to-understand style, it is an invaluable A to Z resource for families committed to balanced diets and healthy lifestyles.

Kenneth Cooper has been one of America's most trusted experts in preventive medicine and fitness. He invented the notion of aerobics and has written more than a dozen books that have sold nearly 30 million copies worldwide.

His latest volume, Advanced Nutritional Therapies, is a layman's introduction to supplements, vitamins, herbs, anitoxidants, minerals, and other elements of healthy dietary strategies. He provides brief descriptions and evaluations of dozens of well-known nutrients such as melatonin, folic acid, ginseng, and beta-carotene. And he suggests innumerable nutri-medicinal responses to common maladies such as arthritis, osteoporosis, migraines, and arteriosclerosis.

Of course, while what we eat is a vital component of healthy living, how we eat it is just as important. Essentially, that is what The Weigh Down Diet addresses. Utilizing an unabashedly biblical approach to the issues of temptation, gluttony, sloth, and self-control, Gwen Shamblin teaches us how to begin to exercise the simplest and the most obvious health disciplines: how to stop eating when we are full; how to escape the slavery of cyclical dieting; how to conquer food obsessions; how to rise above unhealthy eating habits; how to truly satisfy our hunger; and how to enjoy our favorite foods again.

This book is a refreshing dose of reality in an industry submerged in the elixirs of hype and fantasy. You'll find no quick fixes here, no miracle cures, no magic wands, no incredible breakthroughs, no instant washboard abs, and no sudden beauty-queen transformations. But you will find wise counsel for a sustainable healthy lifestyle for you and your family.