The Vitamin Pushers: How the "Health Food" Industry Is Selling America a Bill of Goods (Consumer Health Library) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Victor Herbert (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a trenchant, authoritative expose based on extensive research, psychiatrist and consumer advocate Barrett, and Herbert, a professor at New York City's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, accuse the health-food industry of scaring the public into purchasing vitamins and other dietary supplements, which, they contend, are not only unnecessary but often dangerous. They cite the 1989 outbreak of a disabling disease (EMS) traced to the amino acid L-tryptophan, used as a supposed cure for multiple sclerosis, now banned by the Food and Drug Administration. The authors decry alternative medicine and debunk myths such as that mega-protein makes better athletes. They explore the role of powerful lobbies and industry associations like the National Health Alliance-which, they say, regularly defy the FDA and other government agencies-and list 30 ways to spot "quacks and pushers." Also useful are some simple truths about nutrition, including advice for those on the run that a balanced meal takes no more time to prepare and eat than an unbalanced one. Illustrations.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

"Having observed the health-food industry for many years, we consider it a form of organized crime." With this as their ruling belief, Barrett and Herbert amass case studies, statistics, and reports to make an overwhelming argument against the production, marketing, and use of vitamin supplements and therapeutic health foods, scoring such current useless or harmful fads (they say) as antioxidants and extra proteins and vitamins for athletes. Well known for their battles against quackery, Barrett and Herbert don't shrink from naming individuals and businesses--Adelle Davis, Earl Mindell, and Kurt Donsbach, for example, and Enzymatic Therapy, Shaklee, and Sunrider International, all of which are subjects for dissection and exposure. In addition, Barrett and Herbert turn the spotlight on such organizations as the Council for Responsible Nutrition and the National Health Federation. Anyone who eats a balanced diet has no need for supplements, they say: "If humans needed to eat pills for nutrition, pills would grow on trees." William Beatty

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 536 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; 1 edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879759097
• ISBN-13: 978-0879759094
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #290,205 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #66 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Alternative Medicine > Vitamins
  #83 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Nutrition > Vitamins & Supplements

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barret is Great! Ignore The Critics, Buy The Book , April 15, 2007

By	Healthcare Regulator (Bethesda, MD) - See all my reviews

Barrett's book is a worthwhile read for anyone with an interest in the subject matter. As a critic of several modes and practitioners of alternative medicine, Barrett has been a natural lightening rod for criticism by those whose scams he has exposed. The negative Amazon reviews here should be taken with a huge grain of salt. Many of these reviews reflect ideologically opposition to criticism of alternative medicine; they don't even discuss the content of Barrett's book...the critics probably never even read it. Barrett's most outspoken critics have been involved in court cases against him and most of what they say is just slanderous mudslinging. Sources that matter, like the Journal of the American Medical Association and Canadian Medical Association, give Barrett the thumbs up. We need more people like him guarding consumers against healthcare fraud. Buy this book and learn how to protect yourself against con artists.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Educated Technical Professional without a Dog in the Fight, April 2, 2009

By	Thomas C. Stoddard "connoisseur" (Wilmington, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am not, nor have I ever been, involved in a health-related profession. I am in technology by training and career. So, I don't have a dog in this fight, as it were.

What I do know, though, is that there is a "standard of truth" -- the double-blind study.

If the modality is valid, if the benefits real, then they should be able to be demonstrated. Line up 1000 folks in one group and offer the remedy. Line up 1000 folks in a second (control) group, and offer them the fake (placebo is the operative word). Then, let the experiment run....

In three years, five years, ten years, the group receiving the remedy should be able to show quantifiable, statistically significant, differentiation. ("X" percentage less of occurrences of cancer, "Y" percentage less incidence of diabetes, or whatever outcome.) Elsewise, there is no basis whatsoever to claim a "cause" leading to an "effect".

Without this, we are at liberty to disregard the claims. This is COMPLETELY lacking in the "Health Food" industry. As I have read their, yes, I will say "so-called" research; it is anecdotal at best, relying on a small group of people relating how they "feel," possibly a result they "want", with no documentable, measurable outcome. It is academically dishonest at best. For some people making a ton of money on these products, one would expect someone, somewhere would be forwarding the cash to actually conduct the definitive study, subject their findins to critical, juried review, as I've laid out in the paragraphs above. Then, we can plant the flag and claim "truth". But, still, we hear nothing but crickets chirping.

As I have read Dr. Barrett in this treatise, he simply points this out. Nothing more. His lengthy references and annotations are legitimate as I've looked those up and corroborated.

Quality of the food supply? Depleted soil? Nah. It is the DNA and RNA combination which determines the outcome of the growth of a carrot. Postulating a dearth of the chemical building blocks (atoms and molecules) available, then, these processes are aborted, and the carrot simply does not materialize. The fact it even exists means that the vegetable has all the same molecular make-up, ergo, the same nutritive quality, per cubic inch of product, as any "parent" carrot from time immemorial.

Read this book. It is a great read, and you will be innoculated against hype and advertising. Let the Buyer Beware. Or, as P.T. Barnum once should have said, "A fool and his money should have never gotten together in the first place."

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book will save the World from being OD by Vitamin, August 30, 2008

By	Atam - See all my reviews

Supplement means to supply a deficiency. Essential means absolutely necessary or indispensable.

Health Food Industry has made the Vitamins from supplements to essential to all normal human being. Being normal is 100% healthy and it is okay.