The importance of nutrition in the prevention and treatment of disease and the maintenance of good health is being increasingly recognised. Nutrition is an area that all health professionals need to be aware of and yet one in which few are specifically trained. However it is now becoming a valued topic in many curricula. The Oxford Handbook of Nutrition and Dietetics makes this information more accessible to dieticians, doctors, nurses, nutritionists, and other healthcare professionals by providing a practical, easily accessible, concise and up-to-date evidence-based guide in a user-friendly portable handbook. It covers the entire life cycle from preconception to old age. As the general public is increasingly aware of the food they eat and the role nutrition plays in health and disease, health professionalsmust have the kind of knowledge in this book at their fingertips.

Obesity represents one of the major global health challenges of the twenty-first century. Its occurrence has now reached epidemic proportions, not only in industrialized nations, but increasingly in less developed countries too.

Written by world-leading specialists in public health nutrition, Globesity cuts straight to the underlying nature and causes of this devastating trend. It shows that the causes of obesity are primarily socio-economic and the result of a distorted agricultural and food production and supply system. To address this problem, we must learn how to better manage the physical, social and economic environment rather than simply focusing on individual lifestyle choices. The authors draw startling parallels between the obesity crisis and climate change, both of which are characterized by the over-consumption of increasingly scarce resources and require radical, urgent and sustainable solutions. The authors argue that if we are to deal with the twin crises of our climate and our waistlines, action must be taken now. Drawing on a wide range of sources and disciplines, including anthropology, economics, sociology, epidemiology, medicine and nutrition, Globesity provides a vital treatment of the issues for general readers, health professionals, policy-makers and students alike.