Perspectives in Nutrition

8th Edition

Gordon M. Wardlaw, PhD, RD, LD, CNSD

Jeffrey S. Hampl, PhD, RD

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Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Chapter 1:
The Science of Nutrition

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Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Nutrition and Your Health
• What actually is nutrition?
– The American Medical Association defines nutrition
as “the science of food, the nutrients and the
substances therein, their action, interaction, and
balance in relation to health and disease, and the
process by which the organism ingests, digests,
absorbs, transports, utilizes, and excretes food
substances”
• Ideally nutrients come from food

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 Why Study Nutrition?
• To promote optimal health
• To prevent and treat disease
– Poor diet and sedentary lifestyle are risk factors
for chronic diseases such as:
• Cardiovascular disease
• Cancer
• Cerebrovascular disease
• Diabetes

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Connection of Diet to Disease

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 Classes and Sources of
Nutrients
• Macronutrients
– Carbohydrates
– Fats
– Proteins
– Water
• Micronutrients
– Vitamins
– Minerals
 Phytochemicals (plant chemicals)?
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 Energy Sources and Uses
• What is a calorie?
– the amount of heat it takes to raise the
temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1
degree Celsius
– Food is measured in kilocalories (kcal) = 1000
calories
– “Calories” on the nutrition label are in kcal
• Kilocalories, kcal and Calories are equivalent
terminologies

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Bomb Calorimeter

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 Energy Yielding Nutrients
• CHO: 4 kcal/g
• Protein: 4 kcal/g
• Fat: 9 kcal/g
• Alcohol: 7 kcal/g
– Adjusted for digestibility

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 Calculating Total Calories of a
Food

• Per serving
– CHO: 15 g x 4 kcal/g = 60 kcal
– PRO: 3 g x 4 kcal/g = 12 kcal
– FAT: 1 g x 9 kcal/g = 9 kcal
– TOTAL: 81 kcal, rounded down to 80
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 Acceptable Macronutrient
Distribution Range (AMDR)
• Carbohydrate
– 45-65%
• Fat
– 20-35%
• Protein
– 10-35%

• Recommended by the Food and Nutrition Board

of the National Academy of Sciences
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 Calculating the Contributions of
Carbohydrate, Fat and Protein

• Assume your daily requirement is 2000 kcal and we want to

determine the amount of carbohydrate, fat and protein to be eaten
based on a 50-30-20% distribution.

Carbohydrate
50% of 2000 = 1000 kcal
1000 kcal ÷ 4 kcal/gram = 250 grams of carbohydrate

Fat
30% of 2000 = 600 kcal
600 kcal ÷ 9 kcal per gram = 67 grams of fat

Protein
20% of 2000 = 400 kcal
400 kcal ÷ 4 kcal per gram = 100 grams of protein

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 Assessing the Current Diet
• Surveys
– Continuing Survey or Food Intake by Individuals
(CSFII)
– National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
(NHANES)
• Conclusions; Americans eat
– Excess Calories
– Excess Sodium intake
– Inadequate Fruit and Vegetable intake
– Lack individual nutrients in their diet
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 What are Americans Eating?

• 50% of kcals as CHO

– ~50% from simple sugars
• 33% of kcals as fat
– ~60 % from animal fats
• 16% of kcals as proteins
– ~66% from animal sources

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Soda, Juices and Juice-Drinks

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Large portion sizes

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 Improving Our Diets

• Lower intake of saturated fats, trans

fats, sugars
• Include a variety of foods
• Try not to overindulge
• Active lifestyle
• Use supplements wisely

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 Healthy People 2010
• Guidelines created by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services
• To promote healthy lifestyle that reduce
preventable death and disability

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 Nutrition Health Status
• Malnutrition; poor nutritional intake
– Undernutrition; inadequate intake of nutrients
– Overnutrition; excess intake of nutrients

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Pg 20

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 Using Scientific Research
to Determine Nutrient Needs
• Observe and ask
questions
• Generate
hypotheses
• Conduct a study
• Determine
findings
• Report findings in
peer reviewed
journals
• Follow-up studies

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 Types of Studies

• Descriptive (data collection only)

• Epidemiology (correlations)
• Experiments (cause and effect)
– ‘Test tube’ (in vitro)
– Animal studies
– Human experiments
• Double-blind study

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 History of Nutrition
• Hippocrates (400 BC)
– “Growing bodies have the most innate heat; they therefore require the most food, for otherwise their bodies
are wasted. In old persons the heat is feeble, and therefore they require little fuel, as it were, to the flame,
for it would be extinguished by much.”
• Dr. Sydenham (1674)
– Iron filings in wine used to treat anemia
• Dr. Lind (1740’s)
– Citrus fruits used to treat scurvy in sailors
• Magendie (1816)
– Protein needed for survival of dogs
• Eijkman, Grijns (1880’s)
– Found whole grains can treat the thiamin deficiency disease beriberi
• Atwater (1890’s)
– Determined the Calorie content of a gram of carbohydrate, fat and protein
• Willcock and Hopkins (1906)
– First amino acid shown to be essential in mice (tryptophan)
• Funk (1912)
– Vitamins first discovered
– By 1949 all necessary vitamins had been determined
• Recommended Dietary Allowances determined (1943)
• Dudrick (1968)
– Dogs can survive on intravenous feeding alone

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 Reliable vs. Unreliable Nutrition
Information

• Credentials
• Use of testimonials
• Lack of evidence
• Dramatic results; “quick”, “easy”, “magic”
• Reputable journal or website?
– Is the journal peer reviewed?
– Are they selling the product?
• List of good and bad foods
• Beware of megadoses

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The Dietary Supplement Health
and Education Act (DSHEA) ‘94
• Classifies vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbal
remedies as “foods”.
• Dietary supplements can be sold without Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) approval.
• Product label can claim a functional benefit but not a
disease benefit unless it meets very specific FDA
criteria. Printed information can be displayed separately
in the store.
• FDA must prove this “food” is unsafe before it can be
prevented from being sold whereas if it were classified
as a drug the drug company must prove safety and
efficacy before it is put on the market.

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Figure 1.8

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Influences on Food Choices

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What is your family health history?

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 Content Review
• What is nutrition?
• What are the classes and sources of nutrients?
• What are the energy yielding nutrients? How many Calories per
gram do they provide?
• What is Healthy People 2010?
• What is AMDR and what is the recommended amount for each
macronutrient?
• What is involved in scientific method and what types of studies are
there?
• Who are the key contributors to our understanding of the science of
nutrition?
• What is DSHEA and what power does it give to the FDA? Do we
know that all dietary supplements are safe to take?
• What influences our food intake?

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