点击显示 收起
2123 Cumming Road
Augusta, GA 30904-4333
Correspondence: E-mail: efeldman7{at}home.com
In this book, through 20 chapters written by experts, the editors endeavor to convey the impressive effect of new and exciting nutritional advances on disease prevention. The experts express their opinions in clear and concise reviews of some controversial topics. They imply that appropriate nutritional approaches will reduce chronic diseases by up to 30% and specify the programs to advocate. Topics include strategies for community and government interven-tions; associations between nutrients, phytochemicals, and foods (for example, calcium, sodium, soy isoflavones, antioxidants, fat, n—3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and fish) in relation to diseases (for example, osteoporosis, hypertension, cancer, ischemic heart disease, and diabetes); and reviews of homocysteine, exercise and sports, herbs, fetal nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, biotechnology, and the Internet. In many chapters, the authors' reviews were taken mainly from their prior publications; however, the chapter references are abundant and current. A major advantage of the book is that it is a compilation of many reviews of topics in preventive nutrition.
Noteworthy topics include a definition of cause in the context of the relation between diet, nutrients, and disease; a model discussion of antioxidants and cardiovascular disease; an informative discussion of homocysteine; and a provocative discussion of the effect of fetal malnutrition and catch-up growth on cardiovascular disease in adult life. The book contains helpful tables summarizing the ergogenic potential of nutrients in theory and in practice. However, the 5-page chapter on sodium and other dietary factors in hypertension, which has 10 references, does not do justice to this important topic. Missing from the chapter on epidemiology is information on data management and analysis. The chapter on biotechnology should have included a discussion of its possible adverse effects on the environment (for example, the problem with kudzu in the southern United States). The reader might differ with the editors' conclusion in the concluding chapter on nutrition in the 21st century that mechanistic complex research be disregarded in favor of simple epidemiologic research.
All in all, this is an interesting book and could serve as an introductory text or reference for many of the topics relating nutrition to health promotion and disease prevention and may provide a baseline of information for more extensive exploration.