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[jikeda]

A Review of "Dispensing with the Truth," Authored by Alicia Mundy


If you are a dietitian or a nutritionist, you will find the book, Dispensing
with the Truth, by Alicia Mundy (St. Martin's Press), fascinating reading
because it documents how the diet drug combination, Phen-fen, was approved
by the FDA and then withdrawn from the market because of adverse side
effects. This book confirms what I have suspected for too many years. Greed
and avarice have become integral to the value system that drives decisions
and actions even in the field of nutrition, which purports to be about
keeping people healthy. The end result of making money justifies any means
one uses to get it, including jeopardizing the health and welfare of
thousands of women in this country.

If you think you can trust academic researchers, especially those from
elite, well-known Universities, read this book. At it's best, it will make
you very cautious about the advice you give to patients and consumers, and
at it's worst, it will turn you into a cynic wondering if you can believe
anything you read in academic journals.

If you are looking for heroines, you will find one, albeit an unsung heroine
who didn't even get her name on the research paper that published her
findings. If you are looking for archenemies, they are there in droves
businessmen, government bureaucrats, academic researchers, physicians, and
attorneys. But most of all, there are the victims of avarice and greed; the
women who died simply because they wanted to be thinner. And the loved ones
left behind in bewilderment asking the question, "How could this have
happened?" Perhaps the best way to memorialize them is to read this book and
make the promise, "Never again."

Reviewer: Joanne P. Ikeda, MA,RD
Cooperative Extension Nutrition Education Specialist
Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3104