Introduction

The first edition of Nutrition For Dummies in 1997 began by noting that once upon a time, people simply sat down to dinner, eating to fill up an empty stomach or just for the pleasure of it. Nobody said, “Wow, that cream soup is loaded with calories,” or asked whether the bread was a high-fiber loaf or fretted about the chicken being served with the skin still on. No longer. Today, the dinner table can be a battleground between health and pleasure. You plan your meals with the precision of a major general moving his troops into the front lines, and for most people, the fight to eat what’s good for you rather than what tastes good has become a lifelong struggle.

The five editions since then have added new information designed to end the war between your need for good nutrition and your equally compelling need for tasty meals, with the facts and figures from nutrition researchers who continue to make it ever more clear that what’s good for you can also be good to eat — and vice versa.

About This Book

Nutrition For Dummies, 6th Edition, doesn’t aim to send you back to the classroom, sit you down, and make you take notes about what to put on the table every day from now until you’re 104 years old. You’re reading a reference book, so you don’t have to memorize anything — when you want more info, just jump in anywhere to look it up.

Instead, this book means to give you the information you need to make wise food choices — which always means choices that please the palate and soul as well as the body. Some of what you’ll read here is really, really basic: definitions of vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and, yes, plain (and not so plain) water. You’ll also read tips about how to put together a nutritious shopping list and how to use food to make meals so good you can’t wait to eat them.

For those who know absolutely nothing about nutrition except that it deals with food, this book is a starting point. For those who know more than a little about nutrition, this book is a refresher course to bring you up to speed on what has happened since the last time you checked out a calorie chart.

For those who want to know absolutely everything, this edition of Nutrition For Dummies is up-to-date, with hot new info from the 2015 revisions of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, new recommended daily allowances for all the nutrients a healthy body needs, plus all the twisty “this is good for you” and “this is not” bits and pieces of food info that nutrition scientists have come up with since, well, the last edition.

Wherever you are on your nutrition-information journey, know that some small parts of this book are fun or informative but not necessarily vital to your understanding of nutrition. For example:

Text in sidebars: The sidebars are the shaded boxes that appear here and there. They share personal stories and observations but aren’t necessary reading.
Anything with a Technical Stuff icon attached: This information is interesting but not critical to your understanding of nutrition.

Foolish Assumptions

Every book is written with a particular reader in mind, and this one is no different. As I wrote this book, I made the following basic assumptions about who you are and why you plunked down your hard-earned cash for an entire volume about nutrition:

You didn’t study nutrition in high school or college and now you’ve discovered that you have a better shot at staying healthy if you know how to put together well-balanced, nutritious meals.
You’re confused by conflicting advice on vitamins and minerals, protein, fats, and carbs. In other words, you need a reliable road map through the nutrient maze.
You want basic information, but you don’t want to become an expert in nutrition or spend hours digging your way through medical textbooks and journals.

Icons Used in This Book

Icons are a handy For Dummies way to catch your attention as you slide your eyes down the page. The icons come in several varieties, each with its own special meaning.

The information tagged with this icon is important enough for you to highlight, write down and post it where you’ll see it often, or flag for later reference.

This icon points to clear, concise explanations of technical terms and processes — details that are interesting but not necessarily critical to your understanding of a topic. In other words, skip them if you want, but try a few first.

Bull’s-eye! This is time- and stress-saving information that you can use to improve your diet and health.

This is a watch-out-for-the-curves icon, alerting you to nutrition pitfalls, such as (oops!) leaving the skin on the chicken — turning a low-fat food into one that is high in fat and cholesterol. This icon also warns you about physical dangers, such as supplements to avoid because they may do more damage than good to your health.

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

Icons Used in This Book

Beyond the Book

Where to Go from Here