Gibney MJ, Vorster HH, Koh FJ, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2002, 342 pages, $88.00, ISBN 0-632-056...

1. Introduction to human nutrition. (Book Reviews).
Gibney MJ, Vorster HH, Koh FJ, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2002, 342 pages, $88.00, ISBN 0-63-
-05624-X
The cover shows the logo of the (British) Nutrition Society and states that this is one of the Nutrition
Society's Textbook Series-actually the first. Another three textbooks in the series will be Nutrition
and Metabolism, Public Health Nutrition and Clinical Nutrition. This means that the material
omitted in this first Introduction may be provided in the other volumes scheduled to appear in 2003
and 2004. Quoting the Preface, this introductory textbook 'is designed for students of nutrition and
also for the many students who take nutrition as part of their coursework but who major in other
subjects, such as pharmacy, food science or nursing'. The former will presumably
pre·sum·a·ble Â
adj.
That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the
disaster. Â need two or three of the forthcoming textbooks in the series while for students not
majoring in nutrition the questions have to be whether this provides enough of the practical,
everyday nutrition that would be useful for pharmacy, food science and nursing.
This volume has an international authorship, from 11 countries plus FAQ. The largest number of
chapter authors are from Ireland and the second largest from North America. The 15 chapters start
with 'A Global Perspective'. There are expected chapters on Body Composition, Energy Metabolism,
Proteins and Amino Acids, Carbohydrates, Lipids, Vitamins and Minerals. The other chapters are on
Measuring Food Intake, Dietary Reference Standards, Food Composition, Food Policy and
Regulation, Nutrition Research Methodology, Food Safety and the book concludes with 'The Global
Challenge'. The references after each chapter range in number from two to 16. For a book published
primarily in Oxford and for the Nutrition Society it is perhaps a sign of the times A Sign of the Times
was a 1966 single by Petula Clark. Written by Tony Hatch, the uptempo pop number juxtaposed
Clark's driving vocals with a powerful brass section. She introduced the tune on the Ed Sullivan
Show on February 27, 1966. Â that US spelling is used for 'anemia', 'fiber', and 'lipemia'.
A textbook should have (most of) its statements correct, but at a superficial reading I was surprised
to find that the capacity of the human intestine to absorb fructose fructose (fr?k`t?s),
levulose (l?v`y?l?s'), or fruit sugar, simple sugar found in honey and in the fruit and other parts of
plants.  is enormous (page 70), that human milk oligosaccharides oligosaccharides (ol´ig?sak´
r?dz),
n.  are absent from the Carbohydrate chapter, that squalene squalene (skwä?·l?n),
n a popular traditional Asian remedy derived from the liver oil of sharks. Â reduces plasma
cholesterol (page 176), that wet beri beri produces chronic heart failure (page 145), that almost all
the dietary intake of tryptophan tryptophan (tr?p`t?f?n), organic compound, one of the 20 amino
acids commonly found in animal proteins. Only the l-stereoisomer appears in mammalian protein.
 goes to NAD NAD: see coenzyme.  synthesis (page 150), that soluble fibre lowers plasma
cholesterol by a similar mechanism to phytosterols (page 111). The paragraph on assessing

2. potassium status (page 193) seems to imply that clinicians should monitor patients' potassium by
whole body counting Whole Body Counting
In Health Physics, this term refers to the measurement of radioactivity within the human body. The
technique is only applicable to radioactive material that emit gamma rays, although in certain
circumstances, beta emitters can be measured also. Â rather than measure plasma potassium.
A textbook ought to be rather conservative and be cautious about the latest fashionable idea, but, for
example, the Lipids chapter links atherosclerosis mainly to postprandial
postprandial /post·pran·di·al/ (-pran´de-al) occurring after a meal.
post·pran·di·al
adj.
Following a meal, especially dinner.  lipaemia Li`pae´mi`a  Â
n. 1. (Med.) A condition in which fat occurs in the blood.
Noun 1. lipaemia - presence of excess lipids in the blood
 (page 93). For undergraduates a textbook should explain the main points in simple language but
the paragraph on salt and blood pressure (page 190) must leave the reader puzzled about why there
are dietary guidelines about this. 'Dietary guidelines' incidentally are not in the index or in the food
policy chapter. Other words I noticed to be missing from the index are breast milk, coronary heart
disease coronary heart disease:Â see coronary artery disease.
coronary heart disease
 or ischemic heart disease
Progressive reduction of blood supply to the heart muscle due to narrowing or blocking of a
coronary artery (see atherosclerosis). , carotenoids Carotenoids
Carotenoids are yellow to deep-red pigments.
Mentioned in: Vitamin A Deficiency
carotenoids (k , food allergy and fruit.
Textbooks, like lectures for undergraduates, at their best make some of their points with stories that
students remember long after they have forgotten the scientific minutiae. The late Reg Passmore
was a master of doing this, and some American textbook writers use cartoons. But I could not find
any stories, cartoons or poetry to make the text here more memorable.
Against these disappointments there are some good and original chapters here, including 'Body
Composition' by Deurenberg and Roubenoff, 'Measuring Food Intake' by Rutishauser and Black.
'Food Composition' by West and Schonfeldt, 'Food Safety' by Reilly et al. and 'The Global Challenge'
by Shetty.
In our new millennium, with the internet, photocopying and students in debt, I would think there is a

3. place for two levels of nutrition textbooks: an upper level of collected scientific reviews for the
teachers, like Shil's Modern Nutrition, and a simpler, cheaper, 'student friendly' book for
undergraduates. The first volume of this four-volume new textbook seems to be somewhere in
between.
Having also written for textbooks of nutrition, I suggest that ultimately it will be the students, not
reviewers, who vote whether a textbook is adopted or not.
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