Professional Documents
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1642
esting and illustrative. For example, inflammatory bowel disease is an area of high research interest with regard to nutritional effects on immune modulation of this disease. In
addition, the chapter on dietary fat should have included a
discussion of the role of lipid rafts and their modulation by
dietary fat. This is in area of intense research interest, particularly because many immune receptors require lipid rafts for
their function.
The final section, Environmental Stressors, includes chapters
on the effects of exercise, air pollution, drugs, and undernutrition in the context of military training. These sections add
a unique component to this book, and demonstrate that the
effects of nutrition on the immune response may be different in
the context of these other stressors.
All of the chapters in this book, with the exception of the
introductory one, have a take-home message section that
provides key points delivered in short bullet summaries. This
is quite helpful in summarizing the overall intent and highlights of the chapter. Although a different author(s) wrote each
chapter, in general, the writing style is easy to read and
comprehend. The tables and figures provided are helpful,
although as mentioned previously, more descriptive figures
would have increased the usefulness of this book.
Overall, this book does a good job of reaching its target
audience, and will be useful both for nutritionists, physicians
who are interested in understanding the relationship between
diet and immune function, as well as immunologists who want
to delve into the area of nutrition. It provides enough detail for
researchers to get a handle on the field, but provides the
information in a clear and easily understandable way. The
influence of diet on immune function is a rapidly expanding
field as more and more research is carried out in this area.
Because nutritionists do not often learn immunology, and
because immunologists and infectious disease specialists do not
often study nutrition, Diet and Human Immune Function serves
a basic primer in this area and provides both specific references
and related books and websites for the reader who wishes to
study further.
Bottom Line: A basic primer on diet and immunity.