Visualizing Nutrition: Everyday Choices provides the rigor needed in the study of science while integrating photography and illustrations into the learning process. Information that would be buried in the text of other books is presented within the context of colorful illustrations and vibrant photographs. The images grab students’ attention and, along with the text, tell the absorbing story of nutrition. The text captures the interest of college students from every background and engages them by demonstrating the applications of the science of nutrition to everyday choices.

This book is intended to serve as an introductory text for undergraduate students. The accessible format of Visualizing Nutrition: Everyday Choices, which assumes that readers have little prior knowledge of nutrition, allows students to easily make the connection between their individual experience with food and nutrition concepts and the science of nutrition. The text uses a critical thinking approach to teaching human nutrition, bringing nutrition out of the classroom by asking students to apply the logic of science to their own nutrition concerns. Visualizing Nutrition: Everyday Choices educates students about the functions and sources of individual nutrients and also focuses on the total diet, so students understand that no one food choice determines the healthfulness of their overall dietary pattern. The examples and exercises throughout the book allow students to think critically while exploring the similarities and differences in the diets and health concerns of the diverse ethnic and cultural mix of the population of the United States and the rest of the world. The text presents information using a clear, concise writing style and addresses the most recent advances in nutrition science. Each chapter extensively references the most current literature. In addition to supplying unique photographs, the National Geographic Society has performed the invaluable service of fact-checking Visualizing Nutrition: Everyday Choices. They have verified every fact in the book with two outside sources, to ensure that the text is accurate and up–to–date.

Visualizing Nutrition: Everyday Choices is unique in its integrated approach to the presentation of nutrition science. While the chapter organization follows the traditional format of nutrition books, this book integrates metabolism and health and disease information throughout the text. To make the study of metabolism more accessible, Visualizing Nutrition: Everyday Choices provides a simple overview of metabolism in Chapter 3 and then builds on this base with more complex discussions in subsequent chapters. In Chapter 4, the discussion of carbohydrate metabolism presents the basics of inter–mediary metabolism. Chapters 5 through 10, which cover lipids, proteins, micronutrients, energy balance, and exercise, review and add to this information. The integration throughout the text of discussions of nutrition, health, and disease serves to consistently engage student interest. By incorporating this information, students can see that a nutrient’s function in metabolism is related to its role in health and disease. This integration continuously reinforces the applicability of nutrition science to students’ lives and helps them appreciate how and why their food choices affect their health.

The first two chapters of this book introduce nutrition science.

• Chapter 1, “Nutrition: Everyday Choices,” begins by discussing the U.S. diet–how it has changed and how healthy it is–and emphasizing the fact that food choices affect current and future health. This chapter provides an overview of the nutrients and their roles in the body and defines the basic principles of balance, variety, and moderation that are key to a healthy diet. It also introduces the scientific method and the steps students need to follow to sort accurate from inaccurate nutrition information.
• Chapter 2, “Guidelines for a Healthy Diet,” begins with a history of nutrition recommendations and a discussion of how valuable these recommendations are for assessing the nutritional health of populations and individuals. It then takes the science out of the laboratory and shows how advances in nutrition knowledge have been used to develop the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs), the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and tools for diet planning, including the new 2011 MyPlate food guidance system food labels, and exchange lists.
• Chapter 3, “Digestion: From Meals to Molecules,” provides the background students need to understand how nutrients are used by their bodies. It discusses how food is digested, how nutrients from foods are absorbed into the body and transported to the cells where metabolism occurs, and how wastes are removed. This chapter provides an overview of metabolism that serves as a launching pad for the more in-depth metabolism information presented in subsequent chapters.

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 feature the energy-yielding nutrients carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. Each of these chapters begins with a discussion of the respective macronutrient in the food we eat. The body of each chapter then illustrates the digestion and absorption of these nutrients, their functions, and the impact of each on health and particular disease states. Each chapter ends with a discussion of how to choose a diet that meets recommendations. Emphasis is placed on the types and proportions of these nutrients that are optimal for health.

• Chapter 4, “Carbohydrates: Sugars, Starches, and Fibers,” discusses the health impact of refined grains and added sugar versus whole grains and foods that naturally contain sugars.
• Chapter 5, “Lipids: Fats, Phospholipids, and Sterols,” points out that Americans are not eating too much fat but are often choosing the wrong types of fat for a healthy diet.
• Chapter 6, “Proteins and Amino Acids,” discusses animal and plant sources of protein and points out that both can meet protein needs, but these protein sources contain different combinations of nutrients. In addition to discussing how to meet protein needs, this chapter includes information on how to plan a healthy vegetarian diet.

The next two chapters present the micronutrients and water.

• Chapter 7, “Vitamins,” begins with a general overview of vitamins: where vitamins are found in the diet, factors affecting their bioavailability, and how they function. The chapter then discusses each of the vitamins individually, providing information on sources in the diet, functions in the body, impact on health, recommended intakes, and potential for toxicity. The chapter ends with a discussion of dietary supplements, who might benefit from using them, and risks associated with their use.
• Chapter 8, “Water and Minerals,” addresses water, a nutrient often overlooked, and the major and trace minerals. The chapter presents information on the sources of these nutrients in the diet and discusses their functions in the body, relationships to health and disease, and recommended intakes. A discussion of hypertension illustrates the importance of certain minerals in blood pressure regulation and the impact of the total diet on healthy blood pressure. A discussion of nutrients and bone health includes a section on the relationship between nutrition and the development of osteoporosis. Sections on trace minerals engage students with discussions of health concerns related to both deficiencies and excesses.
• Chapter 9, “Energy Balance and Weight Management,” begins with a discussion of the obesity epidemic and the effect of excess body fat on health. The chapter explains energy balance, illustrates the impact of small changes in diet and behavior on long–term weight management, and presents up–to–date information on how body weight is regulated and the role of genetic versus lifestyle factors in determining body fatness. The chapter includes recommendations for healthy body weight and composition and equations for determining energy needs. It also discusses weight–loss options that range from simple caloric restriction to potentially risky surgical approaches. The chapter ends with a comprehensive discussion of eating disorders and their causes, consequences, and treatment.
• Chapter 10, “Nutrition, Fitness, and Physical Activity,” discusses the relationships among physical activity, nutrition, and health and includes the most up–to–date activity recommendations including those from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. It emphasizes the importance of exercise for health maintenance as well as the impact nutrition can have on exercise performance. Because nutrients fuel activity, this chapter serves as a review of metabolism. By this point in the text, students have studied all the essential nutrients, so this chapter includes a complete discussion of the macronutrients and micronutrients needed for ATP production. A discussion of ergogenic aids for competitive athletes directs students to do a risk–benefit analysis of these products before deciding whether to use them.
• Chapter 11, “Nutrition During Pregnancy and Infancy,” addresses the role of nutrition in human development and discusses the nutritional needs of women during pregnancy and lactation as well as the nutritional needs of infants. The chapter also discusses the benefits and risks of breast versus bottle feeding.
• Chapter 12, “Nutrition from 1 to 100,” travels through the life cycle, discussing the energy and nutrient needs of growing children, adolescents, and adults. The chapter discusses the importance of learning healthy eating habits early in life, particularly in relation to the rising rates of obesity and other chronic diseases in today’s youth. The chapter then addresses how nutrition affects aging and how aging affects nutrition. It presents the interrelationships between aging and nutritional status and the impact medications and chronic disease can have on nutritional status. The chapter ends with a discussion of alcohol: how it affects metabolism and impacts health at all stages of life.
• Chapter 13, “How Safe Is Our Food Supply?” discusses the risks and benefits associated with the U.S. food supply and includes information on the impact of microbial hazards, chemical toxins, food additives, irradiation, and food packaging. It addresses the directives of the Food Safety Initiative and the Food Safety Modernization Act, including the use of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) to ensure safe food and advances in technology that help identify the sources of food–borne illness. The chapter ends with a discussion of biotechnology, including an explanation of how plants are genetically modified and the potential benefits and risks associated with this expanding technology.
• Chapter 14, “Feeding the World,” discusses the coexistence of hunger and malnutrition along with obesity in both developed and developing nations. It examines the causes of world hunger and potential solutions that can affect the amounts and types of food that are available.