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83 of 85 found the following review helpful:
I Love Gary Null, but... Nov 28, 2000
By Marcus T. Brody Gary Null is a very intelligent man. His radio program is fantastic, and he is a walking encyclopedia of information. I am amazed at how much information he has on such a variety of topics from nutrition, to politics, to even sports. With that said, let's get to the review.. I too purchased this book after seeing his show on PBS. I had already known Gary, and had heard him talk on his radio program for years before the PBS special. I had decided to purchase the book at the local book store upon seeing the special because it was so convincing. I got home, and dove right into the book. I was greatly disappointed at how disorganized this book is, as I am with a lot of Gary's books. He seems to big a HUGE fan of footnotes, and posting results from various trials and protocols from peer review journals. There is very little information in this book that actually teaches you how to Anti-Age. Upon completion of the book, and getting nothing out of it, I thought I might have read it wrong, so I read it again. To my dismay, I was incorrect. This book is certainly not a wealth of information by any means, and you can get more out of listening to Gary's radio program for 10 minutes than you can get from reading this book from cover to cover.
97 of 103 found the following review helpful:
Null's book is a waste of time and money! Mar 18, 2000
By mike Null's book is a complete waste of time and money. Instead of fulfilling the promise of the title with the "Ultimate Anti-Aging Program", Null simply regurgitates old vegetarian homilies. Null waste the entire first half of the book by telling us that he has developed a program, that everyone ages, but that his program will help you defeat the clock. He then fills nearly 80 pages with testimonials. The second half of the book is supposed to give us the Program. It does nothing of the sort. Null fills page after page with the tired rhetoric of low fat, low sugar, low meat, low salt, low caffeine, and low dairy. When he discusses the specifics of vitamins and supplements, it's done in a form that renders the discussion useless. Null cites studies from various journals, then prints in bold type the particular supplement whose use the study is to have supported. The problem here is that for each supplement Null cites so many studies with so many different dose recommendations that the poor consumer's head is spinning. Under the B-Complex vitamins, Null cites over 30 studies and over a dozen different dose levels for B1 alone. These range from 10 mg/day as supported by a study about the Irish elderly with thiamin deficiency, to 200 mg/day he culled from a study about patients with chronic liver disease. He continues this foolishness for 80 pages! The bottom line: Don't waste your time or your money with this book. Null simply assembles a warmed over collection of cliches that you've all read before. I only regret that I bought the book at an airport and, therefore, cannot return it until I fly through Detroit again.
48 of 50 found the following review helpful:
Don't waste your time & money. Sep 29, 2000 Like many of the reviewers, I bought this book after seeing Null on PBS and had really high hopes for it. It is horribly written, disorganized, contradictory and he never really lays out the "program". The actual program section is 8 whole pages long and doesn't go into nearly enough specifics. A cornerstone of the program is to drink lots of vegatable juice, but he doesn't specify what vegatables. In the program section he says to cook with olive oil and yet three pages later in the detoxification section he says to only cook using macadamia nut oil. His vitamin/mineral/herb recommendation tables are bizarre and difficult to understand, with each table in a different format. At the back of the book he lists a "general sampling" of the peer review journal articles. Would someone teach Gary how to properly footnote and write a bibliography. Assuming for a second that all the citing he does is actually correct, having a proper footnote would strengthen his claims greatly. Way too much of this book is spent in listing testimonials, both supposed users of the program as well as Gary himself. He sure likes to write about himself and how healthy he is. By the way, just what marathon did he win a gold medal in, "Mom & Pop Null's Backyard Barbeque and Marathon"?
46 of 51 found the following review helpful:
Thoroughly disappointing Dec 09, 1999 This book was very poorly organized and seemed to be fraught with inconsistencies. His 'research' seemed to consist of telling us the names of various grains, legumes, vitamins, etc and some of their beneficial properties. I could do that type of 'research' myself, and I don't have a background in nutrition. There is really no set *program*, or at least one I could find. Some segments seemed to be painfully detailed, and other parts seemed to be written in a hurry, without much information. He never mentions where he studied or what his PhD is in....I'm pretty sceptical. Also, I have seen him on PBS and think he looks kind of old. He never reveals his age. But he looks gaunt, his hair seems dyed (!) and it appears as if he's wearing a good deal of make-up. For someone who eats "the equivalent of several hundred pounds of vegetables a day" (come on! who has the time or money to even afford this?) he's not looking too well. Maybe if he's in his 80s, but somehow I doubt it.
18 of 18 found the following review helpful:
Info overload, yet no actual PROGRAM! Jan 23, 1999 Gary Null talks over and over in this book about how much more energy people have after drinking vegetable juice regularly. He cites his own case, where he can work "22 hours a day". Gary, I think you need to get some more sleep! This book seems like it was hammered out in two fevered days of talking into a tape recorder, with the majority of the remaining work being done by assistants. There's no real order to any of the topics; he feels free to jump from one item to another, then come back to the first one 50 pages later. I'm EXTREMELY angry because I waited a month for this book to arrive, and I believe in his program -- the problem is that despite the title, there is no program anywhere to be found in this book. Yes, there's a lot of info on vitamins, minerals, fruits, vegetables, etc., but reading this book and expecting someone to really change their life from it is like throwing a Spanish-English dictionary at someone and expecting them to learn Spanish. The book really deserves three stars because there *is* a good deal of information here, but I'm giving it only one star because Dr. Null (sounds like a James Bond villian!) commits the unforgivable sin of making a promise in the title, and not delivering on it. There's not a single meal recipe in here. Not a single juice recipe either. Not even a hint. It really makes me wonder about his motives in writing this book. How can you possibly write a book that spends hundreds of pages talking about how great juicing is, and not include a single juice recipe????? It's absolutely maddening.
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