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Vitamins and Minerals in Your Body
This material would necessitate more nutrition instruction, but it does present the subject from an angle which would interest the teenage boy. Also available: Beautful-Naturally, (for teenage girls); filmstrip, 112 frames, record, 331h rpm, 10 min, $3.00. Posters The Weight Control Unit, Didactron, Inc., 1974. From National Health Systems, P.O. Box 1501, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, poster, 16%" by 22\12", washable, $3.00. Like other posters in this series, The Weight Control Unit is designed for constant use and reference rather than "instant comprehension." The back of the poster explains various ways the d!et on the front can be used. Three diets-900, 1,200, and 1,500 Calories-are made possible by the patient's writing in on the front the appropriate number of servings of different food types at each meal. The food portions pictured are equalcalorie servings of six food groups: protein-rich foods, dairy foods, fruits and vegetables, fatty foods, cereals and starches, and "dividend" foods (low calorie spices, tea, coffee, etc.). The plans provide for flexibility within a threemeal-a-day pattern, and the wide variety of foods pictured and the colorful poster may help the individual weight-loser to follow through his intentions. The underlying message is "variety." Vitamins and Minerals in Your Body, 1974. From Vitamin Information Bureau, Inc., 383 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10017, poster 33%" by 21 %", color, $2.00. Twenty-six vitamins and minerals are listed, their U.S. RDAs (if established) given, and functions and sources are described on this easy-to-read chart. A labeled diagram of the body is included on the chart, which helps to explain nutrient function. The food sources pictured are labeled when necessary and are limited to simple single-food items. Some inconsistencies o~cur--e.g., giving egg yolk as a source for iron, but whole egg is given for vitamin A. No distinction is made for types of meat, and thus the reader would not learn that pork, for example, is an excellent source for thiamin. However, overall this is a helpful resource for use in teaching nutrition to intermediate grades and older students. It helps stress the need for food variety in the diet in order to obtain necessary vitamins and minerals. 148 / Journal of NUTRITION EDUCATION
Book Reviews Professional and Popular The Malnourished Mind, Schneour, E., Anchor Books/Doubleday, 501 Franklin Ave., Garden City, NY 11531, 1974, 196 pp., $6.95. It is difficult to quarrel with the "good intentions" of this volume. While the author asserts that his book is not a rebuttal to Dr. William Shockley's controversial stand concerning the intellectual inheritance of Black Americans, it is clear that one of Schneour's major goals is to discredit Shockley by providing, in a "popular" book, the basis for an alternative hypothesis: Children from impoveri~.hed minority groups are intellectually handicanoed because they have been malnourished. Despite the evident virtue of his intentions, Schneour has written a careless and oversimplified book. Since the mid-1960s, a growing interest in nutrition and mental development has produced an impressive body of research designed to refine our first rather crudely documented as!\ertions that malnutrition in infancy might cause permanent me'1tal retardation. Countless animal studies devoted to unravelling one or another aspect of this very complex problem have been undertaken in the last decade. In addition. progress reports have been published on several longterm investigations and/or interventions involving human populations. Other investigators have been exploring interactions between nutritional and stimulus deprivation (and nutritional and cognitive rehabilitation) as they affect performance. Schneour cites none of these studies. Rather he depends heavily on work published prior to 1970, in some cases ignoring later studies by the same investigators which contradict or clarify the very points he is making. Schneour touches on a multitude of topics-maize cultivation, the construction of the Stanford-Binet test, the Mendelian laws of inheritance. Given the complexity of the topic he has tried to explicate, however, he would have better spent his readers' time sorting out the newer evidence in the field. That evidence suggests that food alone is not enough-in a deprived environment-to guarantee normal mental development. It might not have changed his appropriately compassionate conclusion: We ought to insure adequate diets for every pregnant woman, infant and child. It might have encouraged him to acknowledge that adequate nutrition is not a
sufficient remedy for a condition requiring widespread social change. Joan Dye Gussow, M.Ed., Instructor in Nutrition, Teachers College, Columbia UniverSity, New York City.
Nutrition and Dietetic Foods, Bender, A.E., Chemical Publishing Co. Jnc., 200 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10003, 1973, 298 pp., $18.50. This is the second edition of what was previously titled Dietetic Foods by the well-known English nutrition and food scientist and is an overview of normal and therapeutic nutrition along with a discussion of the various types of diets and special foods prescribed in disease states. It is intended for food scientists and technologists as well as nutritionists and dietitians. This book is useful as a reference on the history of and reasoning behind the various therapeutic diets as well as the composition of the special foods often used in these diets. The author discusses proprietary preparations (such as lowphenylalanine formulations) found in both the U.S. and England as well as products used in British Commonwealth countries and elsewhere. The book has many charts on subjects such as food composition, sodium content of common foods, and protein and energy requirements. Anyone who prescribes or supervises therapeutic diets or who is involved in formulating special diet products will find this book a good one to own. The price ($18.50) seems high to me, but it is probably worth paying since the book gathers together a lot of information that might otherwise be difficult to get. The book is a conservative one, though, and does not really reflect the current concern with such issues as fiber, salt during pregnancy, trace elements, and traditional ulcer therapy. Kathleen Carpenter, Dept. of Nutyitiona! Sciences, University of California, Berkeley. Amber Waves of Grain.: The Secret Russian Wheat Sales That Sent American Food Prices Soaring, Trager, J., Arthur Fields Books, Inc., distributed by E. P. Dutton&Co., Inc., 201 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10003, 1973, 243 pp., $6.95. The prospect is now increasing that a run-away inflation-this time worldwide-will bring the nation's economies to their knees. Rising prices are becoming a nightmare to those on fixed incomes and, a burden to all, fall heaviest on the poor when those rising prices are Vol. 6, No.4, October-December, 1974
Book Reviews Professional and Popular The Malnourished Mind, Schneour, E., Anchor Books/Doubleday, 501 Franklin Ave., Garden City, NY 11531, 1974, 196 pp., $6.95. It is difficult to quarrel with the "good intentions" of this volume. While the author asserts that his book is not a rebuttal to Dr. William Shockley's controversial stand concerning the intellectual inheritance of Black Americans, it is clear that one of Schneour's major goals is to discredit Shockley by providing, in a "popular" book, the basis for an alternative hypothesis: Children from impoveri~.hed minority groups are intellectually handicanoed because they have been malnourished. Despite the evident virtue of his intentions, Schneour has written a careless and oversimplified book. Since the mid-1960s, a growing interest in nutrition and mental development has produced an impressive body of research designed to refine our first rather crudely documented as!\ertions that malnutrition in infancy might cause permanent me'1tal retardation. Countless animal studies devoted to unravelling one or another aspect of this very complex problem have been undertaken in the last decade. In addition. progress reports have been published on several longterm investigations and/or interventions involving human populations. Other investigators have been exploring interactions between nutritional and stimulus deprivation (and nutritional and cognitive rehabilitation) as they affect performance. Schneour cites none of these studies. Rather he depends heavily on work published prior to 1970, in some cases ignoring later studies by the same investigators which contradict or clarify the very points he is making. Schneour touches on a multitude of topics-maize cultivation, the construction of the Stanford-Binet test, the Mendelian laws of inheritance. Given the complexity of the topic he has tried to explicate, however, he would have better spent his readers' time sorting out the newer evidence in the field. That evidence suggests that food alone is not enough-in a deprived environment-to guarantee normal mental development. It might not have changed his appropriately compassionate conclusion: We ought to insure adequate diets for every pregnant woman, infant and child. It might have encouraged him to acknowledge that adequate nutrition is not a
sufficient remedy for a condition requiring widespread social change. Joan Dye Gussow, M.Ed., Instructor in Nutrition, Teachers College, Columbia UniverSity, New York City.
Nutrition and Dietetic Foods, Bender, A.E., Chemical Publishing Co. Jnc., 200 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10003, 1973, 298 pp., $18.50. This is the second edition of what was previously titled Dietetic Foods by the well-known English nutrition and food scientist and is an overview of normal and therapeutic nutrition along with a discussion of the various types of diets and special foods prescribed in disease states. It is intended for food scientists and technologists as well as nutritionists and dietitians. This book is useful as a reference on the history of and reasoning behind the various therapeutic diets as well as the composition of the special foods often used in these diets. The author discusses proprietary preparations (such as lowphenylalanine formulations) found in both the U.S. and England as well as products used in British Commonwealth countries and elsewhere. The book has many charts on subjects such as food composition, sodium content of common foods, and protein and energy requirements. Anyone who prescribes or supervises therapeutic diets or who is involved in formulating special diet products will find this book a good one to own. The price ($18.50) seems high to me, but it is probably worth paying since the book gathers together a lot of information that might otherwise be difficult to get. The book is a conservative one, though, and does not really reflect the current concern with such issues as fiber, salt during pregnancy, trace elements, and traditional ulcer therapy. Kathleen Carpenter, Dept. of Nutyitiona! Sciences, University of California, Berkeley. Amber Waves of Grain.: The Secret Russian Wheat Sales That Sent American Food Prices Soaring, Trager, J., Arthur Fields Books, Inc., distributed by E. P. Dutton&Co., Inc., 201 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10003, 1973, 243 pp., $6.95. The prospect is now increasing that a run-away inflation-this time worldwide-will bring the nation's economies to their knees. Rising prices are becoming a nightmare to those on fixed incomes and, a burden to all, fall heaviest on the poor when those rising prices are Vol. 6, No.4, October-December, 1974