Clinical Nutrition is part of a suite, which includes Introduction to Human Nutrition, Nutrition and Metabolism and Public Health Nutrition. In Gibneys words Clinical Nutrition is aimed at “those with an interest in nutrition in the clinical setting” such as dieticians, medics, nursing staff or other allied health professionals.
Michael Gibney, who headed the Editorial team, is a former President of The Nutrition Society, well known for his outstanding work and forward vision within Nutrition.
As someone who is not a Clinical Nutritionist, I found this is a very useful and interesting textbook containing 25 chapters on a range of clinical nutrition aspects.
The contents cover a wide range of topics with its contributors providing a useful level of knowledge. Each chapter begins with Key Messages which set the scene and then ends with a list of references and further reading. The chapters are clearly presented, concise and also give important considerations for the future.
The range of subjects includes the principles of clinical nutrition, metabolic disorders, eating disorders, adverse reactions to foods, nutritional support considerations and ethical considerations. The role of various parts of the body, water and electrolytes, along with nutritional aspects of surgery, trauma and infectious diseases, cancer patients, cystic fibrosis are all presented. Paediatric nutrition is also considered.
All the chapters are well presented. Chapter 9 on ethical considerations has particular importance for the present and the future in view of worldwide challenges to legal systems for end of life decisions in terminally ill patients and human rights issues. The book ends with chapter 25 presenting case studies, which help to make relevant all the individual components of the book.
My only suggestion for this text, which I would class as an excellent read, would be to include a small section with a glossary of terms, thus extending the usefulness of the work to a wider range of interested readers. I would recommend this book for anyone with an interest in clinical nutrition, particularly those from a nutrition background moving into clinical nutrition.
