Nutritional Toxicology Volume 2

Book excerpt: Nutritional Toxicology, Volume II, discusses the various interactions between nutritional phenomena and toxicologic processes. It addresses particular subjects that have become substantially more important through the development of new knowledge, significant increases in knowledge, or increased awareness of potential effects on human health and well-being. The implications of such knowledge have impact on basic research, toxicity testing, public health, food, and agriculture programs, and food safety regulation. The book begins with a review of the role and importance of macro- and micronutrients on detoxification processes of foreign compounds after absorption. This is followed by separate chapters on mixed-function oxidation in the liver; the metabolic and nutritional effects of ethanol; the effects of malnutrition on drug metabolism; interaction of nutrient intake with DNA and chromatin; and how such interactions may affect the process of toxicogenesis in the nucleus. Subsequent chapters cover mutagens in cooked foods; food sensitivities; anatomical, cardiovascular, and behavioral effects of dietary caffeine; the toxicology of dietary tin, aluminum, and selenium; and the toxicology of pesticides in foods.