The DHA Story: How Nature's Super Nutrient Can Save Your Life [Paperback]

Robert Abel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

DHA is an essential building block of the membranes of brain cells and retinal photoreceptors. In fact, each and every cell membrane in the body gains strength and flexibility from this omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid. The DHA Story: How Nature's Super Nutrient Can Save Your Life, explains the scientific evidence for the importance of this amazing nutrient, and will help to increase your consumption of DHA to improve your vital functions and mental status.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Abel, Jr., M.D. is a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and honor award recipient. Previously chairman of the department of ophthalmology at the Medical Center of Delaware, he is now a clinical professor of ophthalmology at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Abel has long been interested in holistic and alternative medical practices. A frequent contributor to publications dealing with complementary medicine, he is the author of The Eye Care Revolution and is listed in Who's Who in America and Best Doctors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Basic Health Publications; 1 edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591200016
• ISBN-13: 978-1591200017
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,251,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Do not even borrow this book from the library..., December 5, 2011

By 

JBG (Champaign IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The DHA Story: How Nature's Super Nutrient Can Save Your Life (Paperback)

The message of this book is that DHA, an omega-3 essential fatty acid which is a major constituent of cell membranes, is a crucial nutrient for eyes, brain, heart, and indeed virtually all tissues in the body. Most Americans are deficient in DHA, and adults should seek an intake of 600 mg to a 1000 mg a day via food, supplements, or a combination. Children need smaller, but still substantial, amounts based on age and size.

I believe these things are true and important, but I believe them because I have learned them elsewhere. This book exhibits so many errors that I cannot recommend that anyone read it.

That is a drastic indictment that requires some detailed justification, which I provide below. But there is little need for must people to read further, except perhaps to satisfy curiosity. This book is not worth anyone's time.

A few of the blatant errors of fact:

p16 Trans fats...are just as bad as the saturated fats found in animal products such as dairy products. (Actually, trans fats are much worse.)

p17 Artificially produced fats are known as...trans-fats. (False. Not all artificially produced fats are trans fats. p16 correctly says, Saturated fats occur naturally in animal fats, and they are also synthetically made...)

p22 Saturated fats are found only in animals and processed foods. Plants contain only unsaturated fats... (False. Coconut oil, for example, is about 96% saturated fat.)

p27 DHA can be found in walnuts... p72 Eating liver, walnuts, and algae...are good ways [to increase DHA intake]. (False. The books own table (p123) gives the DHA content of walnuts, correctly, as zero.)

p107 Native Americans lived off buffalo that ate healthy grains... (False. Buffalo do not eat grain, and certainly did not do so on the prairie grasslands where they lived then.)

p117 Trans fat...is synthetic and not found in nature. (False, as the book itself says on p17: Whether artificially produced or naturally occurring, trans fats [do this and that].)

p117 A saturated fatty acid or trans-fat has no double bond. (False. Saturated fatty acids and trans-fats are mutually exclusive categories, precisely because trans-fats DO have double bonds.)

p120-1 Table A.2 says 100 grams of Mackerel, Atlantic, raw contains 1.401 g of Omega-3 Fatty Acids. Table A.3 says 3 oz of Mackerel, Atlantic, raw contains 1.910 of DHA. But 3 oz is less than 100 grams, so the amount of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in 3 oz of the mackerel must be less than in 100 grams of the mackerel, while the amount of DHA in any sample is necessarily less than the total amount of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in the sample. That is, the two tables flatly contradict each other.

A few examples of bafflegab:

p85 DHA is critical for nerve conductivity by virtue of...its ability to conduct nerve impulses...

p110 Generally Reliable and Safe (GRAS)... (The phrase is Generally Recognized as Safe.)

p122-3 Table A.4 tells how much of various things some foods contain but fails to tell the sample size of the foods it is based on.

A few of the crowds of copy-editing errors:

p24, 35, 77 gamma linoleic acid (for gamma linolenic acid)
p35 alpha linoleic acid (alpha linolenic acid is meant, as is shown on the same page)
p80 acetile, for acetyl (the punctuation around it is messed up pretty badly, too)
p98 attach, for attack (resulting in a confusing, almost-sensible sentence)
p99 L-acetyl carnitine (for acetyl L-carnitine)

Bottom line: Get your information about DHA and related matters elsewhere. Almost any elsewhere will be better.

This is very unfortunate because the topic is an important one, and a competently written book on the subject would be a useful contribution to the health of Americans. It is doubly unfortunate in that the author can do better, as his The Eye Care Revolution demonstrates.