The newly published 10th edition of Modern Nutrition in Health & Disease, the nation's leading comprehensive clinical nutrition text, honors the late Roland Weinsier, MD, a professor of nutrition sciences at UAB for 27 years.

The text's lead editor, Maurice Shils, MD, ScD, had asked Dr. Weinsier to serve as the new edition's associate editor. Dr. Weinsier recruited six UAB Department of Nutrition Sciences faculty members to write chapters for the book, but then fell ill and passed away while the project was still in early development. Dr. Shils included a memorial to Dr. Weinsier in the completed book.

First written in 1955, Modern Nutrition in Health & Disease is considered the authoritative text on clinical nutrition. "It is the most exhaustive and comprehensive book on human nutrition available to medical professionals, on the magnitude of the Cecil or Harrison textbooks of medicine," says Douglas Heimburger, MD, UAB professor of nutrition sciences and a chapter author.

Other UAB faculty who contributed to the book include Sarah Morgan MD, Christine Ritchie, MD, Joe Baggott, PhD, and Gary Hunter, PhD. Former UAB postdoctoral student Margarita Treuth, PhD, also contributed.

Dr. Weinsier joined the UAB faculty in 1975 as director of the Division of Clinical Nutrition, following service in the U.S. Air Force and medical education at the Universities of Florida and Virginia. His research into the relationship between food intake and physical activity led to new understanding of the causes of obesity and associated medical conditions. He served as chair of the UAB Department of Nutrition Sciences from 1988 to 1999 and in 2000 received a National Institutes of Health grant to create a clinical nutrition research unit on campus. He died in November 2002.

The 10th edition of Modern Nutrition in Health & Disease includes information on nutrition's role in disease prevention, international nutrition issues, public health concerns, the role of obesity in a variety of chronic illnesses, genetics as it applies to nutrition, and areas of major scientific progress relating nutrition to disease. It is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, and can be purchased at www.lww.com/product/?0-7817-4133-5.