Brain Boosters : Foods & Drugs That Make You Smarter
This book has some good points: it calls alcohol a "Make-You-Stupid" drug and gives Gerovital low marks. But mostly it promotes the rapidly growing fad fueled by the likes of a product line called Designer Mind Foods and individual products such as "Go For It," "Memory Fuel," and Earth Girl's "Psuper Psonic Psybertonic." The idea behind it is to get people to patronize smart bars and to down such conglomerations, which are said to improve memory, fight off diseases, and, best of all, give the energy to dance 'til dawn. Potter and Orfali point to many benefits from such programs, including less institutionalization and higher profits for drug companies; the latter point is certainly inarguable. A veggie cocktail provided "for preventing Alzheimer's" should sell like hot cakes, as, provided the publicity hits the target, might the whole book. An appendix gives the addresses and phone numbers of physicians who engage in "life extension," one-fifth of whom are in California.William Beatty