The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure; How To Lower Your Cholesterol: A Simple Dietary Approach

Although both of these programs cover much of the same material, they do so in very different ways, and at very disparate prices. The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure is based on Robert Kowalski's best-selling book of the same title, and features talk show host Larry King, and Dr. Carter Newton, a professor at UCLA's School of Medicine. King, himself a victim of a heart attack, is a vociferous pro­ponent of Kowalski's program for lowering cholesterol as much as 40% in eight weeks. There are several ongoing interviews with people who have benefited from the program--which accounts for the tape being twice as long as the other video. Informative, important, and well-produced, this home video is a good choice for libraries. Two further items of interest: 1) the scene of a string of cholesterol being removed from an artery in the heart will absolutely send patrons running to their doctors for a check-up, and 2) this may be the first video in history to have a commercial (Pam cooking spray) in the content of the program. The other tape is not nearly as glitzy, and therefore has a much stronger informational punch, minute for minute. Dr. Don Rogers, a family practitioner, and Eileen Paul, a registered dietician, cover the same information as the above tape, but spend more time talking about proper ways to shop and prepare food (as opposed to the other program's penchant for flashing a number of brand name items in front of the camera.) Because the cost would be prohibitive for most public libraries, this would have to be a second choice. If a library wanted to use it for in-library programming however, it would be the preferred choice because of the public performance rights. (The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure is available from most distributors; How to Lower Your Cholesterol is available from: Allen & Associates, P.O. Box 6147, Olympia, WA 98502.)