The Vitamin Pushers

by Stephen J. Barrett

Book Overview

Drs. Barrett and Herbert present a detailed and comprehensive picture of the multibillion-dollar health-food industry and counter the phony assertions of health-food hucksters with reliable,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879759097
• ISBN13: 9780879759094
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 543 Pages
• Weight: 4.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

An Educated Technical Professional without a Dog in the Fight

I am not, nor have I ever been, involved in a health-related profession. I am in technology by training and career. So, I don't have a dog in this fight, as it were. What I do know, though, is that there is a "standard of truth" -- the double-blind study. If the modality is valid, if the benefits real, then they should be able to be demonstrated. Line up 1000 folks in one group and offer the remedy. Line up 1000 folks in a second (control) group, and offer them the fake (placebo is the operative word). Then, let the experiment run.... In three years, five years, ten years, the group receiving the remedy should be able to show quantifiable, statistically significant, differentiation. ("X" percentage less of occurrences of cancer, "Y" percentage less incidence of diabetes, or whatever outcome.) Elsewise, there is no basis whatsoever to claim a "cause" leading to an "effect". Without this, we are at liberty to disregard the claims. This is COMPLETELY lacking in the "Health Food" industry. As I have read their, yes, I will say "so-called" research; it is anecdotal at best, relying on a small group of people relating how they "feel," possibly a result they "want", with no documentable, measurable outcome. It is academically dishonest at best. For some people making a ton of money on these products, one would expect someone, somewhere would be forwarding the cash to actually conduct the definitive study, subject their findins to critical, juried review, as I've laid out in the paragraphs above. Then, we can plant the flag and claim "truth". But, still, we hear nothing but crickets chirping. As I have read Dr. Barrett in this treatise, he simply points this out. Nothing more. His lengthy references and annotations are legitimate as I've looked those up and corroborated. Quality of the food supply? Depleted soil? Nah. It is the DNA and RNA combination which determines the outcome of the growth of a carrot. Postulating a dearth of the chemical building blocks (atoms and molecules) available, then, these processes are aborted, and the carrot simply does not materialize. The fact it even exists means that the vegetable has all the same molecular make-up, ergo, the same nutritive quality, per cubic inch of product, as any "parent" carrot from time immemorial. Read this book. It is a great read, and you will be innoculated against hype and advertising. Let the Buyer Beware. Or, as P.T. Barnum once should have said, "A fool and his money should have never gotten together in the first place."

This Book will save the World from being OD by Vitamin

Supplement means to supply a deficiency. Essential means absolutely necessary or indispensable. Health Food Industry has made the Vitamins from supplements to essential to all normal human being. Being normal is 100% healthy and it is okay.

Sensible information that is all too rare these days

This book debunks a lot of popular myths and misconceptions regarding fad diets, supplements and related quackery, and provides sensible information on nutrition. As a personal trainer, this information has been of trementous value to me for helping my clients avoid being suckered into wasting money on worthless diet supplements and compromising their health with unbalanced fad diets.I'm not surprised that a lot of people have given the book very poor reviews. A lot of people stand to lose a lot of money if the public becomes educated about such things, and it is natural that they would become defensive and hostile towards something that threatens their livelihood or beliefs. However, ignore the bad reviews, and buy this book. Better yet, buy two copies, because you'll find yourself lending it out often.

A must read for people who want the whole hard truth.

Americans have been indoctrinated by the media to believe the preposterous claims of thousands of quacks now running amok and exempted from anti-fraud laws by corrupt, incompetent and ignorant legislators and regulators. This book is a terrific antidote to the title wave of nonsense presented in the hundreds of hoax books that have turned libraries and bookstores into minefields of misinformation. The book is disturbing to many in the same way that telling a child Santa Claus is a myth is disturbing to a young child. But the truth will free them from the shackles of quackery with all its dangers and expenses.