This book is brilliant! Its chapters are short, clear, and packed with wisdom. They cover all the obvious food angles, within the larger context of Shelton’s Hygienic program. Discussed are digestion, food combining, fasting, vitamins, food additives, superfoods, oxidation and fragmentation of foods, sulfured foods, amino acids, proteins, and many other issues pertaining to nutrition. The all-important difference between organic and inorganic minerals in the diet. No surprises here for Shelton followers. Consistent with his other books.

The theme is stated on page 168: “Want of nourishment results from lack of power to digest as often as from lack of food.” Because food is not nutrition. Nutrition is food plus digestion plus assimilation plus utilization. This book is about more than food.

Much like Shelton’s 1926 book, “Food and Feeding,” but this is a more mature work. More up-to-date; but not so up-to-date as to include mention of acrylamides, those toxins in cooked starches, which are more recent discoveries. One wonders what Shelton would have said about acrylamides. And why does he neglect to mention aflatoxins in nuts? His menu suggestions do include cooked starches, but rarely. Raw foods predominate. Vegan foods. His chapter on salt is better, in its unqualified denunciation of salt, than any book I have found on the subject. I wish he had included a separate chapter on the role of greens in the human diet.

The text is technical at times, but intelligent readers should have no difficulty following it. It makes good sense, and debunks many common misconceptions about food and nutrition. I wish the type fonts were larger, easier to read, but they are readable. Highly recommended to people who want to base their diets on the true needs of their bodies. ( )