Kansas State University Human Nutrition Flexbook
This book is comprehensive in its coverage of topics related mainly to macro- and micro-nutrients. The table of contents is appropriately detailed. Though it provided interesting information, I found Chapter 5: Common Digestive Problems, to be randomly included in this text. This entered a space of medical nutrition therapy which I did not think belonged in this book given that the main focus was the biochemistry of nutrients and not the study of nutrition-related disease. An additional issue I had was the use of Wikipedia as main references in the text.
The content in this book, for the most part, appears to be accurate, error-free and unbiased. That being said, rather than using references from Wikipedia, I do wish the author had used the original citations listed within the Wikipedia entries.
The content is in PDF form so is only as up-to-date as the publication date (2018) and the revision date (January 2020). I would hope that the author might migrate the text to an online format so that updates can be made more readily.
This textbook was written relatively clearly for a college-aged audience with a basic science background. One issue I had was with the levels of organization in the book. There were the chapter numbers (for example 12). Then, there were subsections (for example 12.1 – 12.9). However, then there were subsections of subsections (for example, within 12.1, there was 12.11 – 12.16). I think it could be less confusing if you used something like: 12.1a – 12.1f.
The book was very consistent in terms of formatting. Each unit started with indicating the general topic and then specified individual sections/topics that would be covered.
There are 13 units, which easily could be arranged as 1 unit per week of class in a semester.
The topics in this textbook are presented in a way that makes sense as you move through important basic topics of nutritional science. It flowed from Macronutrients to Micronutrients.
Navigation was relatively smooth. I do believe it would be easier if it was a true online resource as opposed to a PDF.
I did not come across any grammatical errors.
The text does not seem to have any culturally insensitive or offensive material. That being said, nothing stood out in terms of the promotion of cultural sensitivity.
This textbook contained a lot of really great information, links and fun graphics. My main complaints are the author's numbering system and the use of Wikipedia links as main references.