Customer Reviews
Worth buying if you're studying nutrition or even just keen to improve your health - By: In the know, 06 Mar 2007 
This is a very good book, which is clearly thoroughly researched & contains a lot of fascinating information. It gives you the science behind all the "magazine diet" info on fats. The book goes into the biochemistry, how fats are produced, history (including how the corrupt food giants misguided the public about certain fats & oils), fatsin your food & how they affect your body or can lead to disorders.
There are quite a lot of grammatical errors, but I was willing to overlook them because the information is presentedin an easy to understand way. The most interesting aspects were about the oil manufacturers (another example of how industry created urban myths to boost their sales) cholesterol theory & the most nutritious oils available for consumption: hemp seed & oil flax seed oil. I would have liked more detail on the therapeutic use of fats, for example how much of what type of oil for how long to see a difference etc. But clearly more research needs to be done, especially into the therapeutic benefits of hemp & flax.
Essential reading for anyone who really cares about health - By: , 24 Apr 2001 
Udo Erasmus spent 6 years researching the nutritional & industry literature to properly understand the effects of oils & fats on human health. Udo's book presents these findingsin clear English, so allowing all of us to understand what the scientists & nutritionalists have been discovring but but not telling anyone!
Udo writes that oil & fats have a profound effect on health, with highly processed oils, such as those commonly found on the Supermarket shelf, being highly detrimental - leading to long term degenerative diseases. Udo also explains that two oils are essential (i.e. humans cannot manufacture them they have to be takenin as part of a healthy diet), these being Omega 3 & Omega 6 oils. When the body has enough of these (an essential oil mix of a least a tablespoon a day or equivilentin crushed seeds or oily fish)there are a whole number of good things which allow the body to function properly & healthily.
Udo presents a well rounded picture by including the role of vitamins & mineralsin helping essential oils to do their good work. If you know someone who suffers a degenerative disease & wants to get back to full health, this book provides useful guidance on appropriate & drug free diets & (vitamin / mineral)suppliments.
Udo is perhaps at his most entertaining when he damns the Medical profession for being being uneducatedin the realms of health (they are educatedin the realms of disease), & their propensity to dish out drugs which deal with symptoms instead of using nutrition to deal with the cause.
The edible oil industry gets a scathing review, as they seem intent on pumping out millions of gallons of nutritionally questionable fats & oils, knowing that their manufacturing processes damage the product.
At his most profound level, Udo discusses the effects of poor nutrition leading to criminal behaviour, uncontrollable children, moods & poor temperament. When the diet of these disturbed people is re-orientated towards being balanced & healthy, includingin particular the provision of Omega 3 oils, their behaviour transforms away from their previous antisocial activity. One wonders at the benefits of transforming school & prison kitchens to centers of healthy food to help create healthy & well adjusted people - read the book if you think this too far fetched.
If there is one thing which is suprising, if not shocking about the Udo's book, it was publishedin its current updated formin 1993. Shocking becuase all the issues of big edible oil business, ignorant Doctors, chronic disease & people behaviour problems are as relivant today (if not more so) thanin late 80's & early 90's when the book was being put together. This is a book politicians should be forced to read, so as to better help the populations who voted them into power.
Udo's book is an excellent read. For those of you serious about good nutrition & excellent health, then a good companion book is 'The Optimum Nutrition Bible' by Patrick Holford. Patrick covers Vitamins & Minerals & their relationship to healthin more detail than Udo, but both books work well together.
Foot Note: Udo got fed up of poor oils on offer & set up with an edible oil manufacturer. Look out for 'Udo's Choice' oilin good health food shops. Its expensive but worth it. Use your coffee grinder to mill the seeds that Udo mentions & sprinkle this on your breakfast cereal (preferably non wheat) to have a really healthy start to the day. Here's to Good Health!
Excellent summary of the whys and hows of oils and fats - By: , 07 Jul 2000 I work halftime as a teacherin chemistry. In the other halftime I am a researcher & I am trying to understandin what way experiments contribute to student's learning. I am also extremely interestedin finding the areas within chemistry that makes students really interested. I have found that for example cosmeics & food chemistry are such areas. This book is a goldmine. I attended a coursein applied lipidsin may & now I have found all the facts about omega3 & omega6, about gammalinolenic acid & which oils are good to eat. I changed my own diet & make an oil mixture that does all the difference - it gave me a lot of energy. My husband suffers from diabetes & heart trouble & this book gives us a lot of help with his diet. Thank you so much Udo Erasmus, you did an excellent work doing all the research & the book is so well written!
If you buy only one book on nutrition, let it be this one! - By: Svein Olav Nyberg, 29 Dec 1999 When I first saw this book, I thought food was essentially carbohydrates, protein & fats, plus of course minerals & vitamins. My "knowledge" of fats was "avoid them!" plus "eat cod liver oil for omega-3". So why anyone would bother with a whole book on the subject was beyond me.
Yet, one idle day I opened the book in the bookstore, & behold - by the time it had left my hands I had somehow gone through the cash registry, paid for it, gone home, & had put it on the bedside table.
This book explains deep dietary issuesin a straightforward manner. After reading it, you feel you KNOW how different factorsin the diet work. You will not only know what to eat & what to avoid, but also why you are doing so, & which replacements you can use if some items are temporarily or permanently unavailable. Most of all - you will know how to eat healthy, to minimize risks of cancer, heart disease & other diseases down to dry skin. Read it!
