Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Articles & podcasts
    • Blog posts
    • Collection
    • News
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • Classified ads
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
    • Career Ad Discount
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Articles & podcasts
    • Blog posts
    • Collection
    • News
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • Classified ads
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
    • Career Ad Discount
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
Commentary

Clinical nutrition: a new series

John Hoey
CMAJ November 13, 2001 165 (10) 1343;
John Hoey
Dr. Hoey is the Editor of
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

[T]he art of medicine would not have been invented at first, nor would it have been made a subject of investigation … , if when men are indisposed, the same food and other articles of regimen which they eat and drink when in good health were proper for them … .

—Hippocrates, On Ancient Medicine

Now to perform a true physician's part, And show I am a perfect master of my art, I will prescribe what diet you should use, What food you ought to take, and what refuse.

— Ovid, The Remedies of Love

For Hippocrates, the gradual invention of a diet fit for humankind in health and in sickness, one that improved upon the “brutish diet” available, unrefined, from nature, was the earliest foundation of medicine. For centuries, dietary prescriptions were no less a part of “physic” than bloodletting or the prescription of draughts. Nowadays, although few things tend to preoccupy us more constantly than what we ought to be eating or not eating, there are few subjects of less interest to medical school curriculum planners than nutrition. For there is a contrary and equally long-standing belief that a healthful diet is a matter of common sense and need not be complicated by science.

Clearly, there is room for science in such matters. Epidemiologists have described associations between dietary habits and disease rates in different countries — for example, rates of gastric cancer were found to be high in Japan and low in North America, whereas prostate cancer showed reversed patterns,1 and Japanese people who migrated to the United States were shown to adopt disease rates along with the diet of their new country.2,3

Physicians are often asked for advice about nutrition. Why can't I lose weight? (“You're not following your diet” might be the wrong answer.) Will oat bran lower my bad cholesterol? (Yes, a little.4) Will eating tofu decrease the chance that I'll get prostate cancer like my father? (Perhaps.5) Patients ask their physicians to make sense of conflicting dietary admonishments and advice in the popular media, and of research reports that always seem to cancel out findings reported the week before. Now, physicians are beginning to field questions about the brave new world of “functional foods,” products engineered to alter risk factors for diseases such as atherosclerosis.

The sick, not least, have nutritional concerns. In her famous Notes on Nursing, Florence Nightingale observed vitamin C deficiency (scorbutic sores) among patients cared for by nurses who “depending on meat alone, had allowed the patient to be without vegetables for a considerable time, these latter being so badly cooked that he always left them untouched.”6 We know that there are patients starving in our hospitals7 but appear to be unable to recognize them or to do much about it. And we know that patients with chronic conditions ranging from kidney failure to inflammatory bowel disease have specific dietary requirements that they — and we — neglect at their peril.

In this issue (page 1345),8 we launch a new series on clinical nutrition. Edited by John Hoffer and Peter Jones, the series focuses on aspects of nutrition that affect patient care. John Hoffer begins with an overview and practical guide to the management of protein–energy malnutrition in inpatients (page 1345).8 Other topics include nutritional aspects of the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, nutrition and psychopharmacology, functional foods and nutritional management of patients with Crohn's disease.

We thank the Danone Institute of Canada for providing an unrestricted educational grant to cover the cost of colour illustrations.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests: None declared.

References

  1. 1.↵
    Day NE. Cancer incidence in Five Continents. Cumulative rate and cumulative risk. IARC Sci Publ 1992;(120):862-4.
  2. 2.↵
    Haenszel W, Kurihara M. Studies of Japanese migrants. 1. Mortality from cancer and other diseases among Japanese in the United States. J Natl Cancer Inst 1968;40(1):43-68
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  3. 3.↵
    Severson RK, Nomura A, Grove JS, Stemmermann GN. A prospective study of demographics, diet and prostate cancer among men of Japanese ancestry in Hawaii. Cancer Res 1989;49(7):1857-60.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  4. 4.↵
    Brown L, Rosner B, Willett WW, Sacks FM. Cholesterol-lowering effects of dietary fiber: a meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr 1999;69(1):30-42.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  5. 5.↵
    Gallagher RP, Fleshner N. Prostate cancer: 3. Individual risk factors. CMAJ 1998;159(7):807-13. Available: www.cma.ca/cmaj/vol-159/issue-7/0807.htm
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
  6. 6.↵
    Skretkowicz V. Florence Nightingale's notes on nursing. Harrow (UK): Scutari Press; 1992. p. 94.
  7. 7.↵
    Azad N, Murphy J, Amos SS, Toppan J. Nutrition survey in an elderly population following admission to a tertiary care hospital. CMAJ 1999;161(5):511-5. Available: www.cma.ca/cmaj/vol-161/issue-5/0511.htm
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  8. 8.↵
    Hoffer LJ. Clinical nutrition: 1. Protein–energy malnutrition in the inpatient. CMAJ 2001;165(10):1345-9. Available: www.cma.ca/cmaj/vol-165/issue-10/1345.asp
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

CMAJ
Vol. 165, Issue 10
13 Nov 2001
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Clinical nutrition: a new series
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Clinical nutrition: a new series
John Hoey
CMAJ Nov 2001, 165 (10) 1343;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
Clinical nutrition: a new series
John Hoey
CMAJ Nov 2001, 165 (10) 1343;
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • A “No More Waves” strategy for COVID-19 in Canada
  • The case for relaxing no-visitor policies in hospitals during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
  • Transforming race-based health research in Canada
Show more Commentary

Similar Articles

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions

Copyright 2021, Joule Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

Powered by HighWire