Synopsis
Nutrition is pivotal to every aspect of human health. In psychical and mental development and from conception to death, good nutrition ensures optimum human performance in all areas of life. The consequences of poor nutrition are clearly seen in developed and developing countries alike, in the types of illness that prevail and the most common causes of premature death.
Essentials of Human Nutrition has already astablished itself as the most reliable and accessible textbook for students embarking on courses in human nutrition. It has been adopted as a course textbook in several countriers and has proven to be an invaluable reference work for medical students, doctors and other health professionals requiring up-to-date, authoritative information on the role of nutrition in monitoring human health, in the causes and treatments of human illnesses and chronic disease prevention.
This new edition builds on the success of the first by keeping the information contained as current as possible. All the sections have been thoroughly revised and updated and a new chapter on 'Functional Foods' has been added to this comprehensiveness of the coverage. Other topics include: Detailed analysis of all the major food groups; Disorders related to inappropriate food intake; Measuring nutrition; Exploration of changing needs through the life stages; Public health issues; Individual case studies.
Doody Review Services
Reviewer:Dale A. Schoeller, PhD(University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Description:This third edition of an introductory human nutritional science textbook incorporates both nutrient by nutrient material and clinical information on nutritionally related disease and nutritional assessment. The previous edition was published in 2002.
Purpose:The authors indicate the purpose is "providing essential information required by students embarking on a university course in human nutrition and professionals where the importance of nutrition is being increasingly recognized." This combined, yet basic, approach to human and clinical nutrition is of value as many institutions are expanding their nutritional sciences course offerings and many disciplines are adding material on nutrition to their curricula and cross-discipline books are needed to meet the needs of diverse student populations.
Audience:This is a textbook intended for a first course in human nutrition. It is designed for use in both health profession majors and undergraduate programs in nutrition. Students are expected to have an introductory background in biology, chemistry, and health.
Features:The revised edition includes 18 new authors and a complete rewrite of 14 of the 40 chapters to provide up-to-date human nutritional science. The various nutrients are clearly delineated and their properties adequately described. Appropriate chapters integrate the basic material with modern concepts of human clinical nutrition and disease. Tables and figures are sufficiently detailed to support the text, ample illustrations are provided, and there is a short but pertinent bibliography or suggested reading list at the end of each chapter.
Assessment:This book is inclusive and complete with respect to traditional nutrient biochemistry and physiology, but it is shorter than many other textbooks in nutritional sciences. It is best suited for programs in the health professions because of the inclusion of an above average amount of clinical nutrition. No fault can be found with its general makeup, but the book is not as elaborate as many of the traditional introductory texts. Although it is not intended as an advanced book for graduate students, both the history of nutrition and the new frontier in nutrigenomics receive too little coverage.