Understanding Nutrition, 5th Edition

Whitney’s Understanding Nutrition is a comprehensive and balanced undergraduate text for introductory nutrition courses.

Along with clear scientific principles, the reader-friendly text teaches students about how science affects healthy diet choices. The market-leading ANZ edition of Understanding Nutrition has a solid reputation for making it easier for students to understand nutrition science and application via metric units and regional issues, images and foods.

Instructor resources include instructor's guide, PowerPoints and Test Bank. Premium online teaching and learning tools are available on the MindTap platform. Learn more about the online tools au.cengage.com/mindtap

What's New

NEW end-of-chapter highlights include updates to Vitamin D supplementation, Covid-19
NEW content on ultra-processed food, nutrient profiling, diet and mental health, metabolic disorders caused by nutrient excess, the gut microbiome in obesity
NEW content on nutrition inequality

Features

Each chapter opens with a set of questions called 'Putting common sense to the test' to assess the students' intuitive beliefs about the content of the chapter. Answers appear in the margins when the topic is discussed in the chapter, and are explained fully at the end of the chapter so that learning is consolidated
Chapter feature boxes include 'Current research in nutrition', which provides details of up-to-date nutritional research; and 'Applications of nutrition research' which demonstrate the practical applications of nutritional science so that students understand the application of theory
'How to …' step-by-step guides take students through common tasks related to understanding nutrition, such as calculating energy intake, to equip them for their future careers
'Review it' allows students to check their understanding as they progress through the chapter; and 'Extend your learning' in the margins provides additional information on key topics
Australian Dietary Guidelines connect students with the science of health and nutrition they are learning in each chapter, and up-to-date New Zealand guidelines have been included, covering eating and activity as well as nutritional fortifications
At the end of the chapter, the Nutrition Portfolio prompts students to consider whether their personal choices are meeting the dietary goals introduced by the chapter

About the Authors

Ellie Whitney grew up in New York City and received her B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English and Biology at Harvard and Washington Universities. She taught at both Florida State University and Florida A&M University, wrote numerous newspaper columns on environmental matters for the Tallahassee Democrat, and coauthored almost a dozen college textbooks on nutrition, health, and related topics, many of which repeatedly reappear as new editions. She spent three decades exploring outdoor Florida and studying its ecology, and then co-wrote PRICELESS FLORIDA: NATURAL ECOSYSTEMS AND NATIVE SPECIES. Now retired, and more concerned about climate change than any other issue, she volunteers full-time for the nonpartisan national nonprofit Citizens Climate Lobby.

Sharon Rady Rolfes is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and founding member of Nutrition and Health Associates, an information resource center that manages a research database of more than 1,000 nutrition-related topics. Previously, Ms. Rolfes taught at Florida State University and coauthored several college textbooks, including Understanding Nutrition, and Understanding Normal and Clinical Nutrition. In addition to writing, Ms. Rolfes consults on educational projects and volunteers in her community. A member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, she received her M.S. in Nutrition and Food Science from Florida State University.

Dr Tim Crowe BSc(Hons), MNutrDiet and PhD is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian who has spent most of his career in the world of university nutrition teaching and research. He now works chiefly as a health and medical writer and scientific consultant and speaks on many health topics to the public through both the media, social media and writing for consumer publications.

Dr Adam Walsh is a senior lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics in the School of Behavioural Science at ACU Melbourne, and an Accredited Practising Dietitian. He teaches into the undergraduate and postgraduate nutrition and dietetics programs in the areas of clinical dietetics, nutritional physiology and paediatric health. Adam’s area of research is the influence of fathers on young children’s nutrition and physical activity behaviours.