cover image The California Nutrition Book: A Food Guide for the '90s

The California Nutrition Book: A Food Guide for the '90s

Paul Saltman, Ira Mothner, Joel Gurin. Little Brown and Company, $17.95 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-316-76964-8

This offering reads like a textbook than a guidebook and is, in fact, part of the teaching materials for a course entitled ""The New Nutrition'' at the University of California at San Diego. While the data covers the essentials of nutrition, from how vitamins work in our bodies to what kind of diets are best, the information is often too technical. For example, the authors provide a glycemic index for 28 different foods, a thorough listing of the various anemias and a section on vitamin and mineral deficiency tests. The tone of the book is calm and soothing , as if the authors want to slowly dispense the book's overly scientific information to the lay reader. The California Nutrition Book should be required reading for all college nutrition majors, but it is hard going for the average enthusiast. Saltman is a biology professor at UCSD, and Gurin and Mothner are American Health editors. (October)