THE WOMAN DOCTOR'S DIET FOR WOMEN

Shrewdly aimed at all those women who rue their metabolic misfortune, this tart little item could find itself a prime place in the cafeteria line of weight control books. Contending that female physiology makes weight loss more difficult--a valid point--Dr. Edelstein rejects most popular diets as male-centered and elaborates instead the advice she dispenses to her Connecticut (mostly female) patients. She genially tosses around references to low blood pressure and the hypometabolic state, differentiates between hyperplastic and hypertrophic obesity, and succinctly discusses diet pills, fluid retention, irritability factors, low blood sugar, etc. The specific, rather traditional menu tips are geared to lower, more complex calorie-processing ability and overall body requirements; combined with regular exercise (especially long-distance walks), they form a cautious, balanced program. Once the desired weight is attained, maintenance is essential: women over 25 must continue to be watchful and swear off flour and refined sugar forever. But mixed in with the observations on constitutional differences and prudent recommendations are careless statements that seriously diminish the book's effectiveness: a dismissal of every male diet doctor except Blackburn, silly motivational ideas (""Buy clothes two sizes too small, and pay a lot for them""), and unguarded generalizations (of pregnancy weight gain theories: ""the bigger the baby, the more intelligent""). Intermittently instructive, then, but not when Edelstein chews the fat.