DIET AWAY YOUR STRESS, TENSION AND ANXIETY

Essentially Palm is advocating the use of fructose--a simple sugar which is absorbed slowly and, unlike glucose, does not trigger the release of insulin--in the diets of persons who suffer from hypoglycemia, that most common (faddish?) though difficult to diagnose condition in which a deficiency of blood sugar mobilizes the homeostatic mechanisms of the body, generally precipitating the release of adrenalin to counter ""stress."" Palm's detailed, rigorously scientific presentation of the complex biochemical mechanisms by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins and sugars are metabolized, stored, converted and released into the bloodstream will daunt all but the most intrepid readers. There is more, some of it quite controversial. Palm proposes that many behavioral disorders--impotence, alcoholism, obesity, hyperkinesis, even schizophrenia--are either aggravated or actually caused by the severe stress hypoglycemia imposes on the nervous system. Even though Palm is careful to note that ""many other stresses are involved"" in this perceptual disorder which he treats with a special eggnog laced with fructose. A high-protein diet and 75 to 100 grams of fructose daily constitutes Palm's basic regimen, with a miscellaneous group of recipes thrown in to ease the stress of the high-concentrate, not to say intimidating prose.