FOOD: FACTS, FOIBLES AND FABLES

Dr. Simeons (Man's Presumptuous Brain--1962) is a British clinician-investigator and the alliterative allure of the title notwithstanding, his book deals much more with the past than the present and with the anthropological background of current dietetic habits. That is to say that both in earlier eras and forms of life he relates feeding to evolutionary patterns and that much of this is specialized in its induction (""No one has ever seen the brain of an australopithecine; and though it has been claimed that some conclusions on the convolutions can be drawn from the conformations of the inside of the cranium,"" etc. etc. etc.). Proceeding through the ""neolithic revolution"" which changed everything, and the peculiarities of various civilizations, only the last quarter deals with modern man and some of the fables are certainly well known facts--we have been polyoversaturated with the cholesterol notion, supplementary vitamins are just that. . . . This then is more serious background material for the educated tastebud in the abovementioned disciplines, and while the book is only casually documented, Dr. Simeons has been earlier accredited as sound.