Book review: Schauss's nutrition program for academic and athletic improvement

Eating for a's: A Delicious 12-Week Nutrition Plan to Improve Your Child's Academic and Athletic Performance

Alexander Schauss, Arnold Meyer, Barbara Friedlander Meyer

Year Published: 1991

Publisher: Pocket Books

Thesis Statement and Literary Introduction

This book report reviews the work of noted author and doctor, Dr. Alexander Schauss, et al., in his work "Eating for a's: A Delicious 12-Week Nutrition Plan to Improve Your Child's Academic and Athletic Performance." This book was originally published in 1991, in collaboration with Barbara Friedlander Meyer and Arnold Meyer. In this report, an overview of the book's general concept will be given, followed by a background of "why" the book was written. Additionally, the particulars of the program will be highlighted, touching upon the week by week guidelines of the dietary changes that the program requires. Salient concepts are then discussed, drawn from the major ideas that the author incorporates into the book, including scrutiny of the conversational tone the authors take with the intended reader, a note on children's intake of sugar, and the relationship between the diet, the brain, concentration, and improvements in academics and athletics. Finally, this report will offer a conclusion as well as a comment on the efficacy of these types of approaches espoused by nutrition books such as "Eating for a's."

Program Highlights

Schauss et al. posit that through following a 12-week program of dietary changes, families can help their children reach those 'valued' societal ideals of high academic achievement, and improved athletic performance. The 'program' that Schauss and his colleagues designed, is meant to offer the nutrients that are otherwise lacking in a modern diet, in order for children to achieve their personal best. Cornerstones of this program lay in the enrichment of the brain by daily consumption of "learning nutrients." These nutrients include vitamins a, c, b1, b2, b3, b6, niacin, iron, potassium, zinc, magnesium, and folic acid. The key in creating the diet, is to phase out processed foods and foods high in sugar, as well as those of low nutrient density like white flour, and instead offer foods that are fresh, unprocessed, and nutrient dense.

Through the program, which begins with a "week 1" and goes through a full 12 weeks, the authors