Quick Look Nursing: Nutrition (second edition)

Marian L. Farrell and Jo A.L. Nicoteri. 288 pp. Jonesand Bartlett Publishing, Sudbury, MA, USA. ISBN:9780763737399. Price: $36.95 (paperback).

This book is one of a series of Quick Look Nursing

titles and is well set out and organized into punchysections with Quick Facts, Closer Look and checkingquestions at the end of each chapter. The layout is itsstrong point. The content is disappointing.

The book has been written for a US audience, orone using dietary reference values, dietary guidelinesand the food pyramid from the USA. These recom-mendations and tools differ from those used in theUK, Europe and internationally, and although thisneed not be a constraint, the concepts underpin all ofthe practical information in the book. A non-USA-based reader needs to constantly keep in mind thatthe recommendations and the assumptions about thedietary habits of the population do not entirely tallywith those at home. This can involve subtle differ-ences; for example, USA recommendations for adultfat intake, is that intakes should be between 20% and35% of total calories with less than 300 mg/day ofcholesterol. In the UK, there is no lower recommen-dation on fat intakes, and in WHO reports the figuresare lower at 15–30% total calories. Neither UK norWHO makes specific recommendations on dietarycholesterol because this is considered to have a rela-tively minor impact on cardiovascular disease riskcompared with saturated fat intakes. In other places, itis the dietary pattern of the USA that limits the appli-cability of the book, for example, the suggestion thatfruit and vegetable intakes may decline in middle age(40–65 years) because of issues of ‘access and denti-tion’ is not borne out in the UK where these agegroups tend to have higher intakes.

Sadly, the book also contains inaccuracies andsometimes fails to provide information in a logical

sequence. The information on infant feeding is par-ticularly alarming and sufficient to undermine confi-dence in the rest of the chapters. Mothers are to beencouraged to ‘allow the baby to nurse 5–10 minutesat each breast and schedule feeding every 3 or 4hours!’ ‘Routine’ is the recurrent theme in the infantfeeding chapters, and this is so much at odds withlong-established understanding of the physiology ofbreastfeeding that the book is misleading and poten-tially dangerous.

There are very few diagrams in the book, and theQuick Facts seem to contain a miscellany of informa-tion as if selected for trivia rather than for a cleareducational purpose. Similarly, the multiple choicequestions at the end of each chapter have limitededucational value, for example, how useful is it. Ask:‘What is an average amount of food to be fed to aninfant?’ Answer: 1–2 tablespoons, 2–4 tablespoons,etc. Clearly the answer should depend on the age ofthe infant, their appetite and how far along theprocess of starting solid foods they have come.

Overall, the book seems to have been written bynon-experts and fails to deliver an insightful coverageof the subject. The authors give just seven references,three of which are manuals or text books themselves.There is no doubt that a quick-reference practicalguide on nutrition would be useful, but accuracyshouldn’t be thrown out in the name of brevity. Forreaders of Maternal and Child Nutrition, the pooradvice on infant feeding is probably enough to makemany of you give it a wide berth.

Carol WilliamsUCL-Centre for International Health and

Development

Institute of Child Health

UK

E-mail: c.williams@ich.ucl.ac.uk

Book Review

234 © 2008 The Author. Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Maternal and Child Nutrition (2008), 4, p. 234