ABC of nutrition. Fourth edition.

ABC of nutrition. Fourth edition

Truswell AS, BMJ Books, London, 2003, 133 pages, $61.95, ISBN 0-7279-1664-5

ABC of nutrition is one of the most usable, concise, clearly written, and unambiguous sources of information about the science and practice of nutrition. In the preface, Professor Truswell explains that the book 'was started when Dr Stephen Lock, previous editor of the BMJ asked me to write a series of weekly articles for an imagined general practitioner, in an unfashionable provincial town who had been taught almost no nutrition at medical school. They now felt the need to use nutrition in the practice, but could spare only 15-20 minutes per week to read about it'. The result is a book that should be in the library of any health professional with the slightest involvement in advising clients about nutrition. Moreover, nutritionists and dietitians would find the wisdom and evidence-based approach of the advice immensely useful.

The book's chapters focus on the conditions and issues practitioners are likely to deal with in their work and answers the following questions: what essential scientific facts or nutrition principles need to be known, what is the evidence upon which a course of action can be based, and what advice or action should be taken? In this day of instantaneous access to a comprehensive array of quality nutrition web sites the greatest challenge is to discern what are the important nutritional issues. This is where the book offers the most. A compact book of this size cannot cover everything and considerable thought must be given to sacrificing the important for the most important in deciding what are the vital pieces of evidence upon which practice should be based. Professor Truswell, as one of the world's leading nutrition scientists, draws on his tremendous breadth of knowledge, experience, and wisdom to present the essentials: nutrition and heart disease, obesity, blood pressure and other chronic diseases; nutrition for infancy, pregnancy, children, adolescents; food sensitivity, food poisoning, therapeutic diets, nutritional support. This is not a book about fads and controversies, or an analysis of the myriad popular health claims that are of minor significance. It is a reasoned manual of what is important about nutrition in health and a clear description of what can be done. Professor Truswell writes with no discernable vested interest, agenda, or lessons to tell, and presents the information in matter of fact style for the reader to judge.

The book requires no prior nutrition knowledge to understand; the level is appropriate for nutrition experts as well as scientifically-trained health care practitioners such as nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, dentists, and midwives. Science, physical education and health studies teachers would also find the book useful. The main text is divided within each chapter using informative headings. Text boxes are interspersed to provide additional information that can be understood independently of the main text, and tables and figures are used throughout. Photographs are used, but are few in number. The text boxes, tables, and figures have been carefully selected to convey key results of definitive research, important definitions, patient checklists, summaries of advice, nutrient composition of food, and nutrient intake recommendations. The balance of coverage between text, text boxes, tables, and figures adds considerably to the readability of the book, as does the quality of paper, type, and colour scheme. Furthermore, this softcover A4 size book seems to be quality bound and should withstand the constant use for which it is intended.

For readers who want to delve into specific topics in greater detail there is a list of key references at the end of each chapter. It is here that Professor Truswell's encyclopaedic knowledge of the nutrition literature pays greatest dividends in directing the reader to carefully selected material that is most relevant to the practitioner. Other authors contribute two chapters, food poisoning, which is particularly informative and well written, and nutritional support. The book, written for the United Kingdom but entirely relevant to Australia and New Zealand, often refers practitioners to food and nutrition manuals prepared by public health bodies in the UK. It would be useful if Professor Truswell could provide the Australian distributor with an insert of equivalent publications in Australia and New Zealand. There are a few changes from the third edition of this book: colour has been added to most of the graphs, the reference lists have been updated, and new developments and discoveries have been inserted where appropriate. However, the number and titles of the chapters remains unchanged,

ABC of nutrition ranks as one of the most concise, well written, and useful books for those healthcare professionals who want to know how nutrition should best be practiced.

Murray Skeaff

Associate Professor in Human Nutrition

University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand