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Advanced Nutrition MicronutrientsAdvanced Nutrition Micronutrients, by Carolyn D Berdanier, 1998, 236 pages, hardcover. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. Berdanier has done an excellent job of presenting succinctly the needs for each micronutrient and explaining how each micronutrient functions in the body. The last 17 pages of the book provide an excellent index. For each vitamin and mineral micronutrient, the following topics are addressed in an orderly sequence: overview, structure and nomenclature, properties, food sources, absorption and metabolism, functions, effects of deficiency, and recommended dietary allowances. However, the adverse effects of too much of these nutrients are obscured and should be in a separate section entitled "Toxicity," just after the section "Effects of Deficiency." Berdanier has intelligently tiptoed her way through the minefields of peer-reviewed papers by supplement industryñfunded researchers, which cite only publications reporting the upside and ignoring the downside of supplement use. In other words, she gives her readers evidence-based facts and not hyperbole. She points out that some researchers erroneously extol the benefits of ascorbic acid, þ-carotene, and vitamin E from fruit, vegetables, nuts, and grains on the basis that their concentrations in the blood increase after consumption. Each fruit and vegetable contains more than 150 health-related phytochemicals, all of which increase in the blood after ingestion, and thus blood concentrations are merely markers of fruit and vegetable intakes and not evidence of cause and effect from any 3 (ascorbic acid, þ-carotene, and vitamin E) of these 150 phytochemicals. By See also: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/69/1/161 CV#800BR. Herbert V. Book Review. Advanced Nutrition Micronutrients. Carolyn D Berdanier. Am J Clin Nutr 1999; 69 : 161. |
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