A MUST READ FOR ALL OF THOSE AIDS WATCHER

A GREAT PIECE OF AIDS HISTORY AND VERY INFORMATIVE... THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN BEFORE HIV WAS ANNOUNCED AS THE PROBABLE CAUSE OF AIDS. THEREFORE IT DISCUSSES THE MANY FACTORS/ CO-FACTORS OF IMMUNE SUPPRESSION. IF YOU THINK PETER DUESBERG IS ON TO SOMETHING AND THE MAIN STREAM THEORY THAT HIV= AIDS IS FLAWED... THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ!

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In Praise of Moderation

Published in 1986 as an "overview to the general public concerning immunity as it appears in the scientific literature," the book takes a holistic approach to boosting immunity by combining diet, nutritional supplements, moderate exercise and stress management techniques. While I found the basics of immune system function interesting and the holistic approach laudable, I was disappointed in the reliance on PC, pro-vegetarian, pro-soy, (animal) fat-phobic, food-pyramid type diet, particularly bewildering in a writer who discusses the futility of a one-size-fits-all diet (one man's oysters and Champagne is another's poison) and the protective benefits of traditional ethnic diets. (Here I would recommend the mind-blowing book by Sally Fallon, "Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.") The book also contains a curious chapter on AIDS written before HIV was identified as the causative virus, a chapter at once reassuring (casual contact does not spread the disease) and extreme (advocates mandatory nationwide testing and hospitalization-but then, I'm not an epidemiologist); the chapter also advocates ascorbic acid therapy.

I question the use of high dosages of vitamin and mineral supplements by the healthy person when ideally these would be found in a nutrient-dense diet, despite the fact that our food quality has been compromised; since, as the book points out, vitamins and minerals can have synergistic or combinational effects, one could conceivably get into trouble by, for example, taking high ascorbic acid doses without also boosting magnesium. All of this gets tricky for the layperson, who, in my opinion, would do well to seek out high-quality organic foods and, if taking supplements, to limit them to more "natural" types like cod-liver oil, dessicated liver, colostrum, or dolomite powder.

Ultimately, despite some fascinating tidbits, the moderate, PC diet focus and the felt influence of academia rendered the book prosaic, in my opinion. A subtle thread of almost apocalyptic anxiety exists-despite the book's emphasis on freeing the reader from worry for life-that perhaps comes with the territory concerned, epidemiology. The book is meticulously researched, and for that reason I was sometimes surprised by the conclusions drawn. For example, Weiner mentions the high level of toxic hormones, etc. in commercially-raised beef as a reason for abstaining from beef, when another conclusion might have been seeking out organic pastured beef; he mentions the mineral-blocking phytates in whole grains-but not the means of canceling their effects through proper preparation, such as soaking; he mentions that cholesterol is likely caused, not by fat intake in general, but by oxidation of fats, yet he then goes on to recommend minimal use of only peanut and olive oils, skirting around discussion of butter as a nutrient-dense food that also protects against oxidation--or even highly-saturated coconut oil with its anti-microbial properties (though he mentions a derivative supplement, Caprylic acid, used to fight Candida albicans); and finally, he lists raw milk in a table of cancer-inhibiting foods yet doesn't discuss pasteurization or the health benefits of raw milk within the text of his book.


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