Review by Rose M. MacPherson
Note: The following information is not intended as medical advice, but simply a distillation of the recommendations given in the book which has been reviewed.
Thesis
Orthomolecular nutrition, or vitamin therapy, is “the basis for effective medical practice” (1).
Unique Points
• Vitamin C, because it destroys histamine, can effectively prevent and remove swelling from insect bites. High amounts of vitamin C also lessen fevers, destroy cancer, and offer protection from radiation.
• Honey harvested in the fall is much healthier, as bees are quite often fed sucrose syrup all winter. This honey is just as bad as eating sugar, while fall honey can be nutritious in small amounts.
• In all of recorded history, only about three deaths were reported that might possibly have been from vitamin overdose. On the other hand, acetaminophen alone killed 147 people in just one year.
Worldview
Sadly, the authors of this book are clearly not Christians. I noticed at least six references to Evolution. These included “millions of years” as well as our “animal ancestors.”
Recommendations
• Take as much vitamin C as you can.
• A little too much of a vitamin is much, much better for a person than a little too little.
Compare/Contrast with Other Books
This book reminds me a lot of Fertility, Cycles & Nutrition in that it emphasizes the importance of taking vitamin and mineral supplements. Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone says that food must be “nourishing and palatable” (216). This is similar to Nourishing Traditions, which says, “To make us healthy, our food must taste good; it must be digestible, and it must be eaten in peace” (73).
My Critique
A few parts of this book were a little bit too hard for me to understand, but I like that it included stories of real people who were helped or healed by orthomolecular medicine. I was a little confused, though, why the front cover would advertise “5 rules for healthy eating” when the book only lists two – the avoidance of junk food, and the avoidance of foods one is allergic to. “The longer a food is stored, the less nutritious it becomes,” is another claim made by this book (22). But, I thought, what about fermented foods? The process of fermentation enhances the nutrition of a food by increasing the vitamins and adding probiotics. While I am quite sure that freshly harvested vegetables are healthier than vegetables which sat in the refrigerator for two weeks after being shipped in from halfway across the country, I do not believe that this claim is universally true.
