Books received for review

Books received for review

206 Reviews of recent publications--Fd Chem. Toxic. Vol. 25, No. 2 aimed at students of food and health, for whom it seems highly appropriate. The p...

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206

Reviews of recent publications--Fd Chem. Toxic. Vol. 25, No. 2

aimed at students of food and health, for whom it seems highly appropriate. The presentation is clear and highly structured, and the topics covered vary from food composition to world food problems. There are pictures, tables and diagrams throughout to help clarify the text and maintain interest (after all, what book on nutrition would be complete without a few ghastly pictures of malnourished children?). It contains a great deal of basic information on the more biological side of nutrition, for example, on the digestion of food and the fate of food components in the body. There are also sections on the physical and chemical aspects of food and its constituents, and food hygiene. Two later chapters describe the interrelationships of food and health and food and disease. A great deal has been said about health and the food we eat in recent years, much of it contradictory and not all of it perceptably useful to the man in the street. The overall result is confusion, and the suspicion that arises from it. Thankfully there is no evidence here of the scaremongering that has become so fashionable. Indeed the question of additives, for example, is perhaps given too little attention. More data would equip readers with the ability to put into perspective the generally unscientific propaganda to which they may be exposed. There are teach-yourself questions at the end of each section which are not so much a quiz as an examination. The author has assumed the reader has no previous knowledge (not just of nutrition), and so has scattered definitions throughout the book. When applied to scientific jargon this is very useful, but the

attempts to explain more familiar terms (such as centimeter or molecule) tend to be tiresome, not to say rather peculiar on occasions. This is not a book for the casual reader. [Lynn Hesser--BIBRA]

BOOKS RECEIVED FOR REVIEW

Long-term Animal Studies: Their Predictive Value for Man+ Edited by S. R. Walker & A. D. Dayan. MTP Press Ltd, Lancaster, 1986. pp. xiv + 156. ISBN 0-85200-931-3. Hazards in the Chemical Lsboratory--4tb Edition. Edited by L+Brctherick. Royal Society of Chemistry, London, 1986. pp. xiii + 604. £29.50. ISBN 0-85186-489-9. Occultation! Cancer. By M. Alderson. Butterworth & Co., Scvenoaks, 1986. pp. x+230. £35.00. ISBN 0-407-00297-9. Principlesof Toxkological Pathology. Edited by J. R. Glaister. Taylor & Francis Ltd, London, 1986. pp. vi + 223. £25.00. ISBN 0-85066-316-4. tJll)~rltOl~ ]Dq~cOGtsmlnlllJon IHgudDeStTUCIJOII of C a r ~ in Laboratory Wastes: Some AmineophuWl¢Agems. Edited

by M. Castegnaro, J. Adams, M. A. Armour, J. Barck, J. Benvcnuto, C. Confalonieri, U. Goff, S. Ludeman, D. Reed, E. B. Sansone & G. Telling. IARC Scient. Publ. no. 73. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, 1985. pp. 163. £10.00 (available through Oxford University Press). ISBN 92-832-1173-I. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of the Carcinogenic Risk of C-'bemlc~ to Humans. Vol. 38. To~___,z~_Smoki~. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, 1986. pp. 421 (available through Oxford University Press). ISBN 92-832-1238-X.