The A-to-Z guide to essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, so you can ditch synthetic supplements and promote health naturally with nourishing foods. Vitamins and minerals are the building blocks of good health. But the heavily processed foods that are so common in today’s modern diet are stripped of these nutrients, leaving many people nutrient deficient despite meeting (or exceeding) their daily calorie needs. The accepted solution is to take supplements created in a lab, but the dosage and interactions can be confusing, and supplements are loosely regulated and not always foolproof, especially since our bodies are designed to receive nutrients from natural, whole foods. Eat Your Vitamins features fifty key vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients essential to your health. You will find clear definitions of each nutrient along with the role it plays in the body, how it is best consumed and absorbed, recommended daily doses, and detailed lists of foods and natural sources that contain the vitamin along with a recipe for a nutrient-rich meal. Ditch the synthetic supplements and make the right choice about how to properly feed and fuel your body.

Health foods and dietary supplements are widely used throughout the world - it is estimated that more than seventy million people in Europe regularly buy these products, and it is a billion dollar business in the USA. Health foods include vitamins, minerals, cereals, nuts, herbal medicines, functional foods, and many others. A large number of people use these foods in the belief that they contribute to their general health, while, in most countries, little or no information is given on products explaining their therapeutic values. The Oxford Book of Health Foods begins with an account of modern concepts of human nutrition, followed by a series of over one hundred accounts of individual health foods and dietary supplements. In all cases the importance of these products in human health is explained, and, for herbal medicines, the evidence for their claimed therapeutic value is given, and toxic effects are described. Full-colour illustrations accompany these accounts. The Oxford Book of Health Foods will be of interest not just to health professionals, but to all people with an interest in health foods and healthy eating. The text is supplemented throughout by beautifully drawn botanical illustrations.

Results from the National Research Council's (NRC) landmark study Diet and health are readily accessible to nonscientists in this friendly, easy-to-read guide. Readers will find the heart of the book in the first chapter: the Food and Nutrition Board's nine-point dietary plan to reduce the risk of diet-related chronic illness. The nine points are presented as sensible guidelines that are easy to follow on a daily basis, without complicated measuring or calculatingâ€"and without sacrificing favorite foods. Eat for Life gives practical recommendations on foods to eat and in a "how-to" section provides tips on shopping (how to read food labels), cooking (how to turn a high-fat dish into a low-fat one), and eating out (how to read a menu with nutrition in mind). The volume explains what protein, fiber, cholesterol, and fats are and what foods contain them, and tells readers how to reduce their risk of chronic disease by modifying the types of food they eat. Each chronic disease is clearly defined, with information provided on its prevalence in the United States. Written for everyone concerned about how they can influence their health by what they eat, Eat for Life offers potentially lifesaving information in an understandable and persuasive way. Alternative Selection, Quality Paperback Book Club

In Vitamania, award-winning journalist Catherine Price takes readers on a lively journey through the past, present and future of the mysterious micronutrients known as human vitamins -- an adventure that includes poison squads and political maneuvering, irradiated sheep grease and smuggled rats. Part history, part science, part personal exploration, Price's witty and engaging book reveals how vitamins have profoundly shaped our attitudes toward eating, and investigates the emerging science of how what we eat might affect our offspring for generations to come.--AMAZON.

The A-to-Z guide to essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, so you can ditch synthetic supplements and promote health naturally with nourishing foods. Vitamins and minerals are the building blocks of good health. But the heavily processed foods that are so common in today’s modern diet are stripped of these nutrients, leaving many people nutrient deficient despite meeting (or exceeding) their daily calorie needs. The accepted solution is to take supplements created in a lab, but the dosage and interactions can be confusing, and supplements are loosely regulated and not always foolproof, especially since our bodies are designed to receive nutrients from natural, whole foods. Eat Your Vitamins features fifty key vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients essential to your health. You will find clear definitions of each nutrient along with the role it plays in the body, how it is best consumed and absorbed, recommended daily doses, and detailed lists of foods and natural sources that contain the vitamin along with a recipe for a nutrient-rich meal. Ditch the synthetic supplements and make the right choice about how to properly feed and fuel your body.

Diet and Health examines the many complex issues concerning diet and its role in increasing or decreasing the risk of chronic disease. It proposes dietary recommendations for reducing the risk of the major diseases and causes of death today: atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (including heart attack and stroke), cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, liver disease, and dental caries.

Discover every vitamin and mineral the body needs to function at its best This book suggests plenty of easy ways to get your recommended dietary allowances as well as tips and tricks for optimising vitamin absorption. Listing natural food sources for every vitamin and mineral with tasty recipe ideas for boosting your daily intake. The role of each nutrient is explained, along with information about medical conditions which can lead to deficiencies. Replete with advice for vegans, restricted diets, pregnancy, and different life stages, this book shows how vitamins and minerals work together and highlights the ones that benefit common health problems and examines vitamin requirements at different times of the year

The first demonstration of the existence of a vitamin and the full recognition of this fact are often attributed to the work of McCollum, who found that a sub stance in butterfat and cod-liver oil was necessary for growth and health of ani mals fed purified diets. It became obvious that an organic substance present in microconcentrations was vital to growth and reproduction of animals. Following the coining of the word vitamine by Funk, McCollum named this fat-soluble sub stance vitamin A. We can, therefore, state that vitamin A was certainly one of the first known vitamins, yet its function and the function of the other fat-soluble vitamins had remained largely unknown until recent years. However, there has been an explosion of investigation and new information in this field, which had remained quiescent for at least two or three decades. It is now obvious that the fat-soluble vitamins function quite differently from their water-soluble counter parts. We have learned that vitamin D functions by virtue of its being converted in the kidney to a hormone that functions to regulate calcium and phosphorus metabolism. This new endocrine system is in the process of being elucidated in detail, and in addition, the medical use of these hormonal forms of vitamin D in the treatment of a variety of metabolic bone diseases has excited the medical com munity.

“[An] absorbing and meticulously researched history of the beginnings and causes of our obsession with vitamins and nutrition.” —The New York Times Most of us know nothing about vitamins. What’s more, what we think we know is harming both our personal nutrition and our national health. By focusing on vitamins at the expense of everything else, we’ve become blind to the bigger picture: despite our belief that vitamins are an absolute good—and the more of them, the better—vitamins are actually small and surprisingly mysterious pieces of a much larger nutritional puzzle. In Vitamania, award-winning journalist Catherine Price offers a lucid and lively journey through our cherished yet misguided beliefs about vitamins, and reveals a straightforward, blessedly anxiety-free path to enjoyable eating and good health. When vitamins were discovered a mere century ago, they changed the destiny of the human species by preventing and curing many terrifying diseases. Yet it wasn’t long before vitamins spread from labs of scientists into the realm of food marketers and began to take on a life of their own. The era of “vitamania,” as one 1940s journalist called it, had begun. Though we’ve gained much from our embrace of vitamins, what we’ve lost is a crucial sense of perspective. By buying into a century of hype and advertising, we have accepted the false idea that particular dietary chemicals can be used as shortcuts to health—whether they be antioxidants or omega-3s or, yes, vitamins. And it’s our vitamin-inspired desire for effortless shortcuts that created today’s dietary supplement industry, a veritable Wild West of overpromising “miracle” substances that can be legally sold without any proof that they are effective or safe. Price’s travels to vitamin manufacturers and food laboratories and military testing kitchens—along with her deep dive into the history of nutritional science— provide a witty and dynamic narrative arc that binds Vitamania together. The result is a page-turning exploration of the history, science, hype, and future of nutrition. And her ultimate message is both inspiring and straightforward: given all that we don’t know about vitamins and nutrition, the best way to decide what to eat is to stop obsessing and simply embrace this uncertainty head-on. Praise for Vitamania: “Measured, funny, and fascinating. The only thing that Catherine Price is selling here is good reporting, engaging storytelling, and more than you thought you could possibly learn about vitamins. If you need vitamins to survive (you do), you should read this book.” —Scientific American