Dietary Sugar, Salt and Fat in Human Health

Divided into four main sections, Dietary Sugar, Salt and Fat in Human Health explores the biochemical, pharmacological and medicinal aspects related to the overindulgence of dietary salt, sugar, and fat, along with possible remedies. Beginning with a general overview, the text outlines aspects associated with advancing age and human physiology, such as different aspects of insulin resistance, the advancing age phenomenon, central fat accumulation and metabolic perturbations and the role of the modern Western diet and the influence of dietary sugar, salt, and fat, with particular focus on their relation to multiple biochemical pathophysiological pathways. The second section of the book focuses on the roles of dietary sugars and their correlation with the chronic disease epidemic, with an emphasis on carbohydrate metabolism and its biochemistry, GI absorption, the glycemic index and the influence of fructose. The historical background of dietary sugars is discussed alongside Atkin’s hypothesis, and an overview of the correlation between dietary fibre and the glycemic index, including a chapter on sugar addiction. Section three contains an exhaustive review of the influence of dietary salt and its diverse mechanistic aspects, including salt-sensitive hypertension, contribution of two steroid receptor pathways, vascular NO, intrarenal RAAS system and angiotensin. The fourth section highlights the biochemistry of dietary saturated, polyunsaturated and trans fat and its influence on human health and various diseases, and further explores NAFLD and gender specific problems. Chapters in this section also investigate the benefits of the Mediterranean diet as well as myths related to cholesterol. Collected and carefully organized for researchers in nutrition, physiology, epidemiology, or sensory science, this book will also benefit general practitioners, surgeons, nurses, health professionals and practitioners, and students studying the role of diet in cardiometabolic disorders and disease.