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1: Nutrition Basics

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    The field of nutrition is dynamic. This means that our understanding and practices are constantly changing and being updated. Some of nutrition’s dynamic nature may be due to the fact that nutrition, as a discipline, is relatively young (many vitamins weren't isolated until the 1930s) compared to many other scientific fields. New research is always being conducted and the findings are continuously being reported to the public. With so much information, discernment must be exercised. In order to interpret these new findings, you need to understand how the research was conducted and the nutrition research hierarchy. Everyone eats, so people are going to face nutrition choices and questions on a daily basis. This section will provide you with an integrated understanding of the different forms of nutrition research and how to evaluate them relative to one another.

    • 1.1: The Basics
      This page discusses nutrition as the science of food's impact on biological systems, detailing macronutrients and micronutrients and their dietary roles. It explains calories' measurements, the energy contributions of various nutrients, and highlights the significance of phytochemicals, zoochemicals, and functional foods in promoting health. The content emphasizes the scientific basis guiding nutrition research.
    • 1.2: Epidemiology
      This page discusses the role of epidemiology in examining the link between diet and disease through three main study types: cross-sectional, case-control, and prospective cohort studies. Cross-sectional studies offer a snapshot of dietary impacts, illustrated by the "French Paradox." Case-control studies analyze past dietary exposures, while prospective cohort studies, such as the Framingham Heart Study and the Nurses' Health Study, offer long-term insights into diet and health outcomes.
    • 1.3: In Vitro and Animal Studies
      This page discusses the differences between in vitro and in vivo nutrition research. In vitro studies utilize sterile cell cultures to examine cellular responses to nutrients but lack physiological context. In vivo research, often involving rats and mice, offers better physiological relevance through controlled dietary interventions, yet results may not directly translate to humans. Both approaches are essential for advancing nutrition science, each possessing unique strengths and weaknesses.
    • 1.4: Human Intervention Studies
      This page discusses the importance of clinical trials in nutrition research, highlighting their status as the "gold standard" due to rigorous design elements like randomization, blinding, and placebo control. These methods minimize bias, allowing for reliable assessments of treatment safety and effectiveness, while also demonstrating the placebo effect's influence on outcomes.
    • 1.5: Nutrition Research Statistics
      This page explains statistical significance in epidemiological research, focusing on p-values, with a threshold of less than 0.05 indicating non-chance results. It addresses measures of risk such as odds ratios (ORs), relative risks (RRs), and hazard ratios (HRs). The use of 95% confidence intervals is also highlighted, stating that intervals not including 1 suggest statistical significance.
    • 1.6: Publishing Research
      This page discusses how nutrition researchers publish findings in journals, structured into sections such as introduction, methods, and results. Submitted articles are peer-reviewed by experts to ensure quality, with notable journals like the Journal of Nutrition and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showing acceptance rates of 25-40%. The emphasis is on the necessity of high-quality research, highlighting that much online information is not peer-reviewed.
    • 1.7: Interpreting Research
      This page emphasizes the significance of systematic literature reviews in synthesizing nutrition research, contrasting them with epidemiological studies and clinical trials while warning about the risks of deviating from established research methods. It advocates for focusing on whole foods for better health outcomes.

    This page titled 1: Nutrition Basics is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Brian Lindshield via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.