This textbook offers a concise, yet comprehensive account of human nutrition, food and nutrition-related health problems, based on the curricula of top universities around the globe. Nutrition is a multidisciplinary science, and as such, the book discusses various aspects of physiology, biochemistry, pathology, immunology, medicine, food science, and other fields related to nutrition, it focuses on the role of nutrition in the maintenance of health. The various chapters explore highly relevant issues, such as, addiction-related health problems, lifestyle-related disorders, social health problems and poor-maintenance of food hygiene and food safety. It also addresses the role of nutritional therapies for mental disorders, and includes an integrated perspective on cognition, oxidative stress and nutritional interventions in aging.
Other topics include, the role of gut microbiota on human health, nutraceuticals as therapeutic agents and ketogenic diets. It also highlights malnutrition (protein energy malnutrition, starvation, malabsorption syndrome, eating disorders and overnutrition/obesity) and adipose tissue as an active endocrine organ. Moreover, it examines key concepts concerning the role of vitamins in the citric acid cycle (gluconeogenesis, ketogenesis, oxidative deamination and transamination) and precursors of coenzymes, as well as calorigenic hormones, appetite-stimulating/appetite-inhibiting hormones, anabolic and catabolic hormones affecting protein metabolism, and lipogenetic/lipolytic hormones.