Food and Nutrition

Through the prism of public health, climate change, and global sustainability, the fifth edition of this long-standing textbook provides a comprehensive understanding of diet, nutrition, and the place of food and food production within the broader ecosystem.

Now framed through an international perspective, the book gives a detailed overview of food components and the biochemistry of foods and digestion, outlining nutrition needs across the lifespan, as well as dietary disorders. But unlike other textbooks in the field, it also connects the human body to the complex and dynamic systems of our environment, as well as the social and cultural influences on food selection and consumption. Updated to cover issues such as food labelling, the determinants of eating, and sustainable diets, it also explores the increasing influence of technology on agriculture and food preparation, and the recent research into intergenerational nutrition and nutrigenomics.

Extensively illustrated with informative graphs, diagrams, and data, and with examples, glossaries, and reflective exercises, Food and Nutrition is the ideal introduction to the field of nutrition, dietetics, and sustainability, and a valuable professional reference for early career dietitians.

Author Biography

Danielle Gallegos is Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at Queensland University of Technology. She has lectured in community and public health nutrition, the sociology of food, and nutrition and research methodologies. Her research focuses on families, children, and household food and nutrition security. Danielle acknowledges the Yugera and Turbal peoples as the First Nations custodians on the lands where she currently lives and works.

Naiyana Wattanapenpaiboon (also known as Tikky) is a graduate of Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and Monash University in Australia. She is a researcher at the Monash Asia Initiative, Monash University, with research interests in human nutrition, ecohealth disorders, and food chemistry. Tikky honours both the past and present generations of the Siamese people in her motherland, Thailand, and acknowledges the people of the Kulin Nations, on whose land she currently resides.

Mark L. Wahlqvist, an Adelaide and Uppsala Universities’ graduate, pioneered nutrition education as Australia’s first Chair of Human Nutrition at Deakin. In senior academic positions across Australia, Sweden, Indonesia, Taiwan, and China, he has led scientific and policy organisations. As International Union of Nutritional Sciences President and Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition Editor-in-Chief, his research focused on socio-econutritional approaches to cross-cultural health. He acknowledges First Peoples of Australia and his global ancestral connections.