Customer Reviews

Understanding Nutrition (with Dietary Reference Intakes Supplement and InfoTrac)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Overall, I found this text to be chocked full of helpful knowledge. I was required to purchase this book for a course I took in beginning nutrition, but I will keep it forever because of the wealth of knowledge. The concepts are suburbly explained and illustrations make understanding the information easier. Even though most people buy this for a class, I believe it is easy to read and assimilate the information. The Appendices are chocked full of useful facts about the current diet and exchange lists, including food pyramids and such.

The only information I disagree with is the section on vegetarianism. Surely they could have done a better job and included more than four pages! However, there are plenty of books dedicated solely to vegetarians/vegans that would be more important and informative.

It would also have been nice to see more updated information on fad diets such as Atkins or South Beach with respect to health issues. Or even more recent scientific studies throughout the book would contribute significantly to the reading.

Since the 2004 edition is just coming out, if you can pick up a cheap copy of this edition it is well worth the investment.

Francis Bacon said that some books are meant to be chewed, some swallowed, and some digested. This book is meant to be spit out.

I recently returned to the college classroom as a student of Human Anatomy and of Nutrition (preparing for entrance into a nursing program). For those classes I read, respectively, Marieb's "Human Anatomy and Physiology" and Whitney's "Understanding Nutrition." The contrast between these two widely-used textbooks could not be greater. The one is clearly written, lucidly organized, and filled with revealing graphics; the other is horribly opaque, repetitive and senseless in organization, and replete with distracting charts and photos.

Comparisons are odious, so I will just amplify my main points and have done. This book reads as though written by someone who is more anxious to prove the scientific merit of her field or her own expertise in the latest research than by someone interested in helping the reader understand major concepts for further study. Virtually every paragraph has the main point--if there is one--obscured somewhere in the fourth sentence, with irrelevant detail draped around it, so that the reader is forced to do the work the writer should have done. You can learn about nutrition by reading this book in spite of the style, not because of it.

The last three or four chapters on nutrition in the life cycle and diet and health repeat what was presented in various places in earlier chapters on digestion and on nutrients. After reading a popular book on nutrition by a professor at Cambridge(Brown's "Energy of Life") that was clear, concise, and not condescending, I inferred that Whitney has succumbed to the disease afflicting many textbook writers: the structure and content are dictated by the editors' anxiety to keep up with the competition rather than by the author's own insight.

On virtually every page, there is a photo, chart, or graphic that distracts or insults the reader's efforts to learn about nutrition. A stray "factoid" about calories crams the margin or a photo of a vegetable pulls the eye away from the discussion. Evidently the editors feel the subject itself is not interesting enough to keep my attention. They're right, when it's presented in such a haphazard and condescending way.

If this book were not used regularly around the nation as a textbook in many courses, it would long ago have disappeared from the market, since no ordinary intelligent person would voluntarily wade through its turgid, repetitive, and insulting bulk. I'm outraged that this book is so expensive and so lousy. I sold my copy on Amazon the instant the course was over (whereas I cherish my copy of Marieb's book and can't wait to read it again). It's a shame, because now I must look for another book on nutrition, one that I can read and gain insight from with pleasure on an important subject.

I just received this book today. I got the ninth edition which is what I ordered. Unfortunately, Amazon has a review for the 10th edition on the 9th edition page. I didn't read carefully enough and therefore received no CD ROM. The book seems to be very nice, but I do feel ripped off because I expected the CD ROM. Just wanted to warn others!

I loved reading this book as the language used is very attractive.Information introduced in a very reader friendly way and different colours are used to stop you falling asleep.This book explains even tiny things and avoids complicated pionts by referring the in depth reader to Appendices at the back of the book.I recommend this book for any body intrested to get significant information in a short time.This book is very useful and easily digestible specially if English is not your first language.

Really good price for this book. I paid 80 cents. :D it got here in about a week and was in perfect condition. No writing no highlighting. I really couldn't tell that it was used.

I recieved the wrong book. It was about 3 versions older than it was supposed to be, but it still works!!

This is a balanced nutrition textbook that combines the concepts of nutrition with exercise, disease states that are caused by nutrition deficiencies, eating a balanced meal, glycolysis cycle and other concepts. This book also has helpful tables in the inside cover of the book and all throughout the chapters of the book.

What makes this book so good is that it goes beyond a textbook. This book can also be used by any individual looking to find ways to eat healthier, lose weight and exercise. This book goes beyond the expectations of a learning textbook and that is what makes this nutrition textbook so good. Of course its primary use is as a textbook for the professor to teach basic concepts of nutrition to its students but IMHO, it can be used for more than that.

Additonally, this book makes the concepts easy to understand to the point that any person can follow the concepts easy. The infotract CD was also helpful as well.

In all for a book that is primarily focused on the concepts of nutrition, it goes beyond its primary focus. It is a great book. Sometimes I wonder if the officials at Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centers fashion their diet plans by just using this book and charge you a ton on money. With this book anyone can eat more healthy and you won't have to spned a ton of money at Jenny Craig Weight Loss centers to do it

A great book. I learned a lot about nutrition with this book. Kudos to the author. :)