China has banned 104 health books officials say contain pseudoscientific information of little or no value to readers. The General Administration of Press and Publication created a system last year to certify books in the health and medical field, Xinhua, the official government news agency, reported Saturday. Officials said checks on a sample of 50 books found almost half making claims that appeared to be dubious.
"Through a variety of means, some phony doctors and experts have been writing books and misleading the public by spreading their unscientific healthcare methods for quite some time," Liu Binjie, the agency's head, said.
One example cited by officials was "Eat Out the Disease You Have Eaten." The author, Zhang Wuben, said most diseases could be cured with a diet of mung beans, a theory that attracted so many people the price of the beans went up in Beijing.
