Cambridge Scholars Publishing Nutrition and Disease: Prevention and Therapy

Nutrition is an essential part of life. It affects our health and can be applied in the prevention and treatment of disease. Substantial interventions in dietary intake and lifestyle changes have been demonstrated to cause significant decrease in disease risk in in the general population and also in patients suffering from various diseases. Traditional plant-based diets and medicines have received much attention as an alternative to modern science-based drugs, while recent technology development in bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics has provided a better understanding of plant-based drugs, improved quality assurance and allowed the acceleration of clinical trials to bridge the gap with Western medicine. Moreover, research in nutrigenomics and epigenomics has further enhanced the knowledge of the association between nutrition and disease. The book deals with the concerns of the future well-being of our planet, the health of the global human population related to the worldwide obesity epidemic, the issues related to sustainable food production, and the need for a switch to a healthier, more plant-based diet. Review “In his book Nutrition and Disease, author and scientist Kenneth Lundstrom provides the reader with a wealth of information on the association between nutrition and disease, the role of nutrition in the prevention of disease, and the use of nutrients as therapeutic agents. The information is based on epidemiological data and clinical trials, accessible through the PubMed database. Summary tables within chapters allow for quick orientation and review, and the data provided are well referenced, allowing the reader to turn to the original publications for more detailed information. Furthermore, the book contains chapters on nutrigenomics, epigenetics and drug development. […] In Chapter 2, we learn about the important role that nutrition plays in the development of various diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric diseases, and infectious diseases. It is estimated that an unhealthy diet might contribute to one-third of cancers in the US and that two-thirds of cancers worldwide might be preventable by significant diet and lifestyle modifications. […] Chapter 3 deals with the effects of nutrition on disease prevention and analyses several tailor-made diets such as the Mediterranean diet, the vegetarian diet, the paleo diet, the planetary health diet, and other diet types. […] In Chapter 9, we learn that people following a strictly vegetarian diet or vegan diet do not suffer from protein deficiency, because plant-based diets contain all the essential amino acids needed for protein synthesis. The millions of people worldwide following a vegetarian diet can now be definitely reassured.”Gérard Schockmel, MD, PhD“Dr. Lundstrom’s latest book, Nutrition and Disease, is a comprehensive review of the literature condensed into 170 pages. It is packed full of brief synopses of hundreds of scientific studies, organized in a way that allows the reader to select a specific topic and go into it as deeply as desired. Especially useful is the format of each chapter which includes an abstract and summary, as well as a section called “layman’s view” which explains this complex subject in a very approachable manner. There are tables throughout the book that make it easy for the reader to directly locate a specific disease, diet, supplement, plant compound, or drug. Dr. Lundstrom has compiled well over a thousand scientific studies to explain the relationship between nutrition and disease. […] The author describes, in great detail, numerous examples of the ways in which diet can reduce the risk of disease onset and similarly improve the health status among those already coping with various diseases. Dr. Lundstrom covers the topic comprehensively, beginning with a fascinating discussion of social and ethnic aspects of nutrition, and ri