The Optimum Nutrition Bible: The Book You Have to Read If You Care About Your Health

"I first read this book in 2005 and have referred to it on many occasions since. It is an excellent guide to a range of health conditions.

I recommend it as an absolute must for anyone interested in improving and maintaining their health. Holford separates myth from fiction, tackling subjects such as The Fats of Life, The Protein Controversy, Sugar - the Sweet Truth and Conquering Cancer. Whether you are reviewing your nutrition from a prevention, maintenance or therapy perspective, Holford tackles the many key questions and provides detailed guidance on how to put together a balanced diet. Vitamin and mineral supplements are put under close scrutiny, their synergistic and antagonistic effects are explained and a nutrient fact file describes the effect, deficiency signs, Optimum Daily Amounts and nutritional sources of the main vitamins and minerals. If Glycaemic Index, EFAs and Homocysteine are all a mystery to you, get this book and learn how you can optimise your diet to feel well, now and in the future. "
~ Written on 2008-09-17

"This book is ideal for those who are fed up of feeling lethargic, tired, stressed,depressed and generally unhappy with their well being.

Patrick Holford tells you how to lose weight and lose those binge eating
cravings by balancing blood sugar levels, fight modern day disease epidemics like heart disease and cancer by opting for an organic based diet and supplementing with power packed antioxidants and even how to reduce "female" problems...heavy, irregular periods, PMT and montly migraines by eating more whole grains and essential fatty acids.

There are indepth chapters explaining how vitamins and minerals are vital and how lack of these can affect our health and well being, making us prone to illness and disease.
Holford does get verbally thrashed for this on several anti-supplement sites on the internet, claiming that he advocates supplements for financial gain rather than sound medical advice...(he has links to several companies that sell health supplements).
However what these ill informed hacks appear to forget is that in
todays modern climate of pesticide riddled foods, pollution, questionable tap water, daily over exposure to toxic chemicals, smoking, drug taking (illegal and legal) and excessive drinking etc, the body is consistently depleted of it's vitamin and mineral supply leaving little to defend against cancer causing free radicals, obesity causing blood sugar irregularities and cardio vascular disease promoting trans-fats.

Food alone can no longer give us all the nutritional va va voom that we require.
A top quality range of supplements is the only way to protect and fully energise the body in such a toxic world.

This book is easy to read, full of interesting nutritional facts, giving inspirational tips and guidance and most importantly leaving the reader
feeling upbeat and optimistic...It's never to late to improve your health, re-engerise your body and become your very best physical self."
~ Written on 2007-11-26

"Although, this book has some good advice such as eating oily fish and fresh fruit I do feel its use for the general reader is rather limited.

Rather worryingly Mr Holford concludes many of the chapters with advice to take supplements. This is contrary to the view of most dieticians and the Food Standards Agency who do not think there is any reason for a healthy adult to spend money on vitamin and mineral pills. He does not make clear in the book that he has big financial interests in promoting supplements. Until recently he was an advisor to supplement company "Higher Nature" and devised a range of products for them such as "the optimum nutrition formula". Although, he mentions them in his "Directory of Supplement Companies" he forgets to inform us of his own involvement ....

He claims that taking supplements can dramatically improve conditions such as schizophrenia. What he does make not clear is that most specialists dealing with, for example, schizophrenia do not share his views. Many references in "The Optimum Nutrition Bible" are to the Institute of Optimum Nutrition (ION) and the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine (JOM). His mentor, Abram Hoffer, was one of those involved in setting up the JOM back in 1967. These two organisations can hardly be regarded as trusted sources of information! It is little wonder that on two occasions - March 2003 and September 2007 - Mr Holford's companies have been taken to task by the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading the public.

A much better book is "Nutrition for Dummies" written by two registered dieticians. The book is extremely easy to read and sums up the latest scientific evidence in a way the average person in the street can understand.
"
~ Written on 2007-11-21

"After reading some of the criticism which is now surfacing on the net about the validity of Patrick Holford's claims I felt compelled share my own experience with this book.
I bought the first edition some 3 years ago with a view to finding some help with my asthma. I read the first 4 chapters and put the book down as I felt there was enough information to try a few things out. I then followed the recommendations and was able to do without my inhalers after 2 months. After 3 months I was completely free of any asthma symptoms and was able to walk and run without attacks coming on. Now, almost 4 years on I am still free of asthma.
I am 49 and have been asthmatic since 2 years of age. Therefore the advice offered in the first 4 chapters was enough to change my situation in a way which conventional medicine denies even to be possible.
A person should have enough discernment to separate the wheat from the chaff and benefit thereby. I believe the critics should take some time to ask those who have been helped by Holford's approach and not harp on about clinical trails which generally prove little in any case. Nothing compares to personal experience when trying different approaches to health.
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~ Written on 2007-10-18

"Coming to the end of my first year of an NTC approved Nutritional Therapy course, this has been the most useful budget book in my collection. I refer to it constantly as it is easy to understand and informative about a broad spectrum of nutritional areas. Well worth a look."
~ Written on 2007-09-21