Customer Reviews

The Real Vitamin and Mineral Book, 4th edition: The Definitive Guide to Designing Your Personal Supplement Program

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book based on the stellar reviews on Amazon. I'm very happy with it and refer to it constantly. I particularly like that the doses recommended are above and beyond the RDA, which is the MINIMUM needed for optimal health (the book cover says: RDAs "are designed only to prevent the most obvious deficiency diseases -- they are the 'minimum wages' of nutrition. RDIs are not adequate for anyone looking for optimal health." The book has handy tables for each vitamin and mineral and breaks down the maximum doses for optimal health. It also lists side effects. Turns out most vitamins are not toxic unless taken at levels that most humans really have to try hard to attain. Most side effects are completely reversible by simply not taking the vitamin any longer.

I trust this book over other sources because it has data backed by clinical studies from reputable organizations such as the American Medical Association and New England Journal of Medicine. Fro example, the book says it's okay to take 400-800 IU of vitamin E daily for heart health. I've seen other sources say it's too much -- presumably based on a study that the media jumped all over that said high doses were unsafe, but the study was flawed by several variables as they were not comparing apples to apples. I think when others recommend daily doses, they are referring to the RDA, the "minimum wage" needed, and not the dose needed for optimal health.

This is the best book there is on nutritional supplements, and well-documented to boot. Buy one for yourself and give one to your doctor and any other health professionals you work with who have not caught on to the real power of nutritional medicine. This healing modality can no longer be tossed aside, as the 100 pages of research summaries in the back of the book show. I teach nutrition to physicians, and if there is one popular press book I insist they all read, this is it. Superb.

Great book with lot's of great info on Vitamins. This book really helped me figure out how much to take and which ones to focus on.

I have extensively used a past edition of this book. Am now happy to have updated version. I find this info very helpful when planning my approach to wellness needs. The book arrived in good shape and in a timely manner.

This is one of the better reference books on Vitamins and Minerals. I highly reccommend it. I have several books on Vitamins and Minerals and this really is right up there as a #1.

Shari Lieberman and Nancy Bruning are right on the topic of paramount concern to humanity; and that is, the best nutrition. Their knowledge of nutrition imparted in this book--The REAL VITAMIN & MINERAL BOOK--is astonishingly complete and invaluable. Read it and you'll forever after eat like a gourmand with a life wish.

I purchased this book based on the high reviews that it received. Although it contains a lot of useful information on supplements, there is no mention of food allergies, which is curious, as they can cause malnutrition and discomfort, causing people to purchase books like this in the first place. There is a lot of valuable information in this book, but it does not stand by itself. I'd recommend a book like Dangerous Grains: Why Gluten Cereal Grains May Be Hazardous To Your Health or a recent food allergy book in combination with this book.
As a mis-diagnosed celiac, with autoimmune disease, I found out the hard way that wheat has no place in vitamins or medications.
I have gone on the advice of books like this in the past and if you go to the vitamin store and look at the fancy mega or ultra packs, you'll see that some of the most expensive ones contain wheat, and if you didn't know you were allergic to it, you'd think that you were helping yourself out by buying them. You might even feel better for a week or two, but unless you address the food allergies, you won't sustain it.
So arm yourself with the information in this book, but it is not complete information, and if it is your only source of information, you might not feel as good as you can.

This review is of the fourth edition of THE REAL VITAMIN AND MINERAL BOOK, 2007. There are lots of books in the market about vitamin and mineral supplementation but this one makes a better case than most that Americans, on the whole, should be taking a lot more vitamin and mineral supplements. For one thing, says author/researcher Shari Lieberman, the FDA's RDI's (until recently RDA's) are defensive measures designed to guard against certain diseases but not to enhance health. For instance, the suggested amount of B vitamins we need are calculated to keep beriberi, rickets and pellagra at bay, when many other health benefits accrue by taking more of these substances. For another, those usually minuscule RDI amounts are calculated for an imaginary genderless human being of about 160 lbs, truly a statistical straw person. Worse yet, the quality of the food we Americans eat is steadily eroding under the impact of over-processing, fast food, and soils weakened by generations of chemical (nitrogen-based) fertilizers.

So basically the author dispenses with the "common wisdom" along the lines of "Eat a good balanced diet every day and if you like, take a multivitamin-mineral supplement." Lieberman patiently discusses the role of every vitamin of human use and most of the minerals. This book held a lot of surprises for me. Did you know that Niacin (Vitamin B3) can help lower blood cholesterol? It is even called the "best-kept secret in American medicine," especially when so many people are taking vastly more expensive statins to lower their LDL's. (Many people take both Niacin and statins, and shrug and smile when the doctor credits only the precription drug for any improvement in blood cholesterol.) And men -- before you go to the doctor with complaints of a swollen prostate gland (which may be "BPH", benign prostate hypoplagia), try getting more zinc into your diet.

What I like most about THE REAL VITAMIN AND MINERAL BOOK is its intellectually honesty. Lieberman backs up her advocacy by discussing the most recent and relevant studies of vitamins and minerals. Usually her suggested doses of vitamins and minerals are many times the government's straw-man RDI amounts, but really you have to read this book. Someimes the amounts of supplementation for a particular substance is about the same or a little more than the government recommends; and in at least one case I can think of (phosphorus), she recommends no supplementation at all; i.e., nothing compared to the FDA's RDI of a small dose.

So the reader has to pay attention -- gorging on multivitamins, B-complex vitamins and fish oil may do us more harm than good. Also, frequently, the form in which a nutrient gets to us is key. To help reduce cholesterol Vitamin B3 (Niacin) has shown to be helpful, but it needs to be taken in the form of "straight" Niacin, not the Niacinamide that usually winds up in multivitamin or B-complex pills. But ingesting the straight Niacin can lead to a flushing effect -- to counter that, it is necessary to take an aspirin half an hour before taking the straight Niacin (an easy habit for those of us who practice "daily vitamin therapy" of a small aspirin tablet each morning), OR to pay extra for "flush-free" Niacin. This book is packed with such helpful strategies and approaches, which make good common sense and are based on scientific data.

In fact, THE REAL VITAMIN AND MINERAL GUIDE has quickly become my "go-to" book about the benefits of the various nutrients discussed in them (there are also a few herbals the author discusses and approves of). If the recommendations in this book continue to work for me as well as they have for the past several months of implementation, it may well become my "bible" of greater health. Highly recommended. This book has a history of slipping in and out of print, so don't be afraid to go for a good used copy as long as it is fairly recent.

My first exposure to The Real Vitamin & Mineral Book was the previous edition as a textbook in nutrition college.

It is one of only two books that I found to be invaluable enough from my school days to buy the new edition when it became available.

This edition is as clearly written and well researched as the previous editions, with the added bonus of updated information.

As a holistic health consultant I still think it is important to seek professional advice before you start making changes to your wellness plan, but this book will help you to understand what supplements truly can and cannot do.

Enjoy!

I thought I pretty much knew all I needed to know about Vitamin and Minerals; I was wrong. This is the best book I have read on the subject in a long time. The author is so detailed on each vitamin that when you go to purchase them you know exactly what they should contain.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get the most for their money when buying vitamins.