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Where was this book when I was a nutrition graduate student? Replete with principles and practical examples, Public Health Nutrition provides good foundational knowledge for those who enter the public health nutrition field. After starting with an overview, the book proceeds to cover under- and overnutrition and then maternal and child health before finishing with chronic diseases. Each chapter is similarly organized to provide key messages, evidence-based content, case studies from peer-reviewed published research, future perspectives, suggestions for additional reading, and recommended websites.
The chapters on nutritional epidemiology and assessment alone are worth their weight in gold. In chapter 2,"Nutrition Epidemiology", the student is walked through a sample-size calculation for testing a treatment of anemia. In the same chapter, a detailed table outlines the possible sources of error for 3 types of nutritional measurements (body weight, self-reported dietary intake, and blood analyte) for each major component of a simple regression equation (slope, constant, random error, and biased error). Chapter 3,"Assessment of Nutritional Status in Individuals and Populations", offers recommendations on when to use the major measures of nutritional assessment, which include single or replicate daily measures, food-frequency measures, biomarkers, and anthropometric measures. Chapter 8,"Food Choice", adds luster to the gold. This chapter touches on the human aspect of public health nutrition by spanning methodology, culture, media and advertising, access, sociodemographics (including religious, moral, and ethical influences), individual preferences, genetics and taste sensitivity, economics, beliefs and attitudes, satiety, and stress and mood.
Throughout the book, the authors strengthen certain information by focusing on principles—and in a sense add platinum to the already present gold to create a longer-lasting product. For example, in chapter 14, "Fear of Fatness and Fad Slimming Diets", the authors present a checklist of sound slimming diets rather than a list of currently popular or fad diets. In chapter 21,"Cancer and Diet", the authors present a figure that shows the dietary influences on carcinogenesis by using the principle-based column headings of cancer stage, dietary related factors, metabolic response, carcinogenesis-enhancing effect, and preventive response.
Some chapters may become outdated more quickly. Chapter 20,"Diabetes Mellitus", is one such chapter. Any discussion of diabetes would be incomplete without presenting the criteria for the diagnosis of diabetes, which the authors provide; however, these criteria have been evolving rapidly as new evidence emerges.
Discussion questions at the end of each chapter would have been helpful additions to the book. However, this suggestion is directed more at the organizers and editors of the Nutrition Society Textbook Series, which Public Health Nutrition is a part of, than at the authors. A series of web pages that includes links to teaching aids, project ideas, content updates, and sample test questions is promised to come. The framework exists already (www.nutritiontexts.com), but, as of May 2005, the links had not been activated.
This book grabbed my attention and held it. The content was trustworthy. As John Mathers wrote in the series forward, "Read, learn, and enjoy."