Preface<br > A number of fine textbooks exist that contain much nutritional<br >information of interest to the intelligent and inquisitive reader，<br >but they also have a wealth of technical discussion that makes<br >them uninteresting or even unintelligible to those not well versed<br >in science. On my desk there is a good text on nutrition and it has<br >581 pages. In my opinion， however， the information on only 219<br >of those pages would be interesting and useful to the reader 1<br >have in mind. So， at the suggestion of Dr. Richard H. Barnes，<br >Dean of the Graduate School of Nutrition at Cornell University，<br >1 tried to write a book that gives a broad view of the field of<br >nutrition. And， 1 have omitted detailed discussions of biochem-<br >istry， clinical dietetics， public health， education， and sociology.<br > Every bookstore has many books on nutrition. Some are<br >written by capable nutritionists. 1 have not yet found a book like<br >this one. Often these books are limited in scope， or contain con-<br >clusions without giving enough background discussion to allow<br >the reader to understand these conclusions， and why nutritioalsts<br >think as they do. Most books on nutrition unfortunately must be<br >classified as fad books that certainly do nothing to advance<br >knowledge in the field of nutrition. On the contrary， they do a<br >great deal of harm.<br > Dr. Jesse F. McClendon has devoted most of the years of this<br >，century to the laboratory investigation of nutrition. He was the<br >