RECENT ADVANCES IN NUTRITION AND METABOLISM

Abstract

NUTRITIONAL investigation during the past year has uncovered many findings of interest to the practicing physician. Medical aspects of nutrition have received increasing attention, as is exemplified by studies of obesity, of the therapeutic usefulness of low-salt diets, and of the role of nutrition in changes associated with the aging process. Research on many of the basic aspects of protein metabolism has been continued. The presence of food surpluses in some areas of the world ¹ and of food shortages in others poses problems of socioeconomic and political as well as of nutritional importance. Discussions of the Food and Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations relative to this and to other problems of food distribution and utilization have been described by Akyroyd.² MEASUREMENT OF BODY COMPOSITION The assessment of the nutritional status of an individual or of a population group has always been on somewhat tenuous grounds because of