Lecture 3 - Biology, Nutrition and Health I: What We Eat

This lecture focuses on how people measure nutrition and what it means for health. Professor Brownell reviews methods to track food intake, from a population level to an individual level, emphasizing methods and measurement error as well as portion underestimation. The definition of a calorie and how it is measured are also discussed, as well as people's changing relationships with macronutrients and micronutrients in food and with water. Reading assignment: Brownell, Kelly D. and Katherine B. Horgen. Food Fight, chapter 2 (pp. 21-52) Jenkins, David J.A., Cyril W.C. Kendall, Augustine Marchie and Livia S.A. Augustin. "Too Much Sugar, Too Much Carbohydrate, or Just Too Much?" American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 79 (2004), pp. 711-712 Casagrande, Sarah S., Youfa Wang, Cheryl Anderson and Tiffany L. Gary. "Have Americans Increased Their Fruit and Vegetable Intake? The Trends Between 1988 and 2002." American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 32 (2007), pp. 257-263