Preface

There is a close association between food and health. Metals, inorganic compounds, and their elements that act as cofactors for enzymes that play an essential role in the various biological processes constitute mineral nutrients. During biological processes, inorganic metals are transformed into mineral (organic) forms. Written by international experts from India, Taiwan, Kenya, Nigeria, the United States, and Brazil, this book, over eight chapters, focuses on "mineral deficiencies" in patients with different diseases. The book offers important information for agricultural experts, chemists, biochemists, physicians, internists, surgeons, human clinical nutritionists, and food industry experts.

The editors thank the contributors for their excellent work and cooperation during the preparation of this book. The editors are also especially thankful for the excellent support of Ms. Romina Rovan, Author Service Manager at IntechOpen.

> **Gyula Mózsik** University of Pécs, Hungary

**Gonzalo Díaz-Soto** University of Valladolid, Spain

**1**

Section 1

Introduction

Section 1 Introduction

**3**

**Chapter 1**

**1. Introduction**

**nutrition"**

Introductory Chapter: Mineral

Disturbances, Genes, Diet and

This book, *Mineral Deficiencies - Electrolyte Disturbances, Genes, Diet and Disease Interface*, discusses mineral deficiencies in human nutrition. It is a followup to our previous book, *Nutrition in Health and Disease - Our Challenges Now and Forthcoming Time* [1], which detailed problems of malnutrition, starvation,

**2. Early histological backgrounds of "scientifically approach to** 

malignant conditions in the population coming from Europe.

Research Reviews. 2017;**30**:149-190).

For more than 200 years, the fibre in plant foods has been known by animal nutritionists to have significant effects on digestion. Its role in human nutrition began to be investigated towards the end of the nineteenth century. Denis Burkitt (1911–1993), a surgeon, brought back to the United Kingdom from Africa ideas from a range of disciplines along with his own observations to propose a radical view of fibre in human health. Later, Burkitt met with three physicians in London, Cleave, Campbell, and Trowell, who collected observations on fibre consumption and the distribution of different diseases in Africa. Trowell worked in London at St. Thomas' Hospital and had visited Uganda in 1948, 1958, and 1970, and Kenya in 1929. He observed that the distribution of different diseases changed along with changes in the population during the observed periods. Namely, the numbers of different diseases increased in people who came from Western countries, whereas the numbers remained unchanged in the African populations. In addition, he noted the emergence of entirely new diseases like diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and

Burkitt built on the work of Cleave, Campbell, and Trowell to develop the "fibre

research (e.g., "Dietary Fibre in Europe. Current State of Knowledge on Definitions,

hypothesis" [2, 3], the main point of which is that fibre consumption decreases the risks of obesity, diabetes, dental caries, various vascular disorders, large bowel cancer, appendicitis, and diverticulosis, particularly in the UK population. This hypothesis was considered groundbreaking at the time, and spurred further

Sources, Recommendations, Intakes and Relationships to Health." Nutrition

Deficiencies - Electrolyte

Disease Interface

*Gyula Mózsik and Gonzalo Diaz Soto*

economics, and society across four continents.
