MEGA-NUTRITION FOR WOMEN

A hash of nutrition, health, and beauty advice--much of it either incomplete or unreliable. Kunin's Mega-Nutrition had the same problems, and now he's passing them along to women, having decided that they can't be healthy ""on a man's diet."" To be sure, women are different--childbearing, breastfeeding, cyclical changes in the reproductive system--but readers will be hard pressed to figure out exactly what Kunin's remedies are. The basis is a proposal of possible merit (but difficult to decipher here) that women manipulate their intake of protein, carbohydrates, and some other specific nutrients, and then ""listen"" to their bodies to find what combination makes them feel best. (There is some indication that diet can be manipulated to control premenstrual problems, for example.) But Kunin also discourses on ""larger, social issues that meganutrition can deal with"" (healthy women as a political force), and--closer to home--makes some dangerous suggestions: he recommends one diet to put the body into ketosis, and a ""Crisis Diet"" (presumably to cure said crisis) consisting of protein, powder, nonfat milk, Morton's Lite salt, and safflower oil. With shelves and shelves of good guides to choose from, readers needn't pause over this one.