On the Making of a Clinical Nutritionist

Abstract

Clinical nutrition may be defined as the application of the principles of nutrition science and medical practice to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of human disease caused by the deficiency, excess, or metabolic imbalance of nutrients. At present, many physicans do not appreciate the great traditions established by their forebears in this field (Hippocrates, Lind, Eijkman, Glisson, Casal, Livingstone, Hopkins, and Goldberger). They have tended to avoid nutritional problems, plead ignorance of nutrition principles, and delegate the nutritional care of their patients to paramedical personnel. Only by changing this situation can members of the medical profession offer adequate care to their patients. In this chapter, I have attempted to present the duties and responsibilities of a clinical nutritionist in an academic environment. A well-trained academician in such a position can improve the education of medical students in nutrition, attract well-motivated graduates into nutrition training programs, and establish clinical nutrition as a bona fide subspecialty of medicine.

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“…Previous prefatory chapters in the Annual Review of Nutrition have covered the scope of nutrition from science to policy, and almost all are cast in the autobiographical mode. Among those who have preceded me as authors are Bill Darby (1), who was the founding editor of this series and a former chairman of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt while I was a graduate student there; Esmond Snell (5), my postdoctoral mentor at the University of California-Berkeley and the person who helped to focus my attention on vitamins and coenzymes; and Bob Olson (4), who was the preceding editor of this series and who shared my belief that science is the foundation upon which nutrition should stand.…”