Nutrition and Gastrointestinal Disease

The intimate connection between the gastrointestinal tract and nutrition justifies a practical volume dedicated to detailed descriptions of nutritional assessment and management of care for patients with pathological conditions of the gastrointestinal tract. Mark H. DeLegge edited Nutrition and Gastrointestinal Disease as part of the Clinical Gastroenterology series published by Humana Press. Dr DeLegge believes that gastroenterologists should be “the experts” in nutrition because of their understanding of gut physiology and because the diseases of gastrointestinal tract require management of nutrition to improve outcomes. He bemoans the deficiencies in nutrition education in many US gastroenterology training programs and aims to compensate for the perceived deficits with this volume. While he is generally successful at presenting important information about the nutritional management of hepatic, pancreatic, and bowel pathology, the volume suffers from insufficient editing and spotty attention to practical details. Of the 13 chapters, 6 are dedicated to the major gastroenteropathies. The remaining chapters cover general topics related to nutrition assessment, obesity, and enteral or parenteral nutrition.