Issue 22.3 of Topics in Clinical Nutrition provides a fresh perspective on the nutrients in today's American diet and includes a lengthy article that is both a review and a qualitative survey by Maurer Abbot and Byrd-Bredbenner. Other authors examine educational approaches for working with consumers and the importance of estimating the consumption of selected foods in ethnic populations.

Reed et al show the opportunity for partnering with supermarkets to help educate consumers about the importance of fruit and vegetable intake and the availability of nonfresh alternative sources to help meet recommended intake levels. Flexibility, variety, price, and convenience are all factors when promoting frozen, canned, and dried varieties of fruits and vegetables to patients and clients.

A project to increase the food and vegetable consumption of American Indian children was conducted in South Dakota by Govula, Kattelman, and Ren. They found that their culturally appropriate educational intervention was a potential tool for increasing fruits and vegetables and nutrition knowledge of American Indian children.

Lv and her colleagues detail the reasons that contribute to the low intake of dairy among Chinese in Pennsylvania. According to their findings, health educators need to consider the cultural food preferences, social influence, traditional dietary habits, skills, and barriers when designing appropriate interventions to increase dairy product consumption and calcium intake. The authors also suggest strategies for increasing dairy consumption for this population.

King's review of medical literature of the Health At Every Size Approach brings attention to the limitations of widely used strategies to find effective, long-term treatment and prevention of obesity. Although the literature review does not expose successful methods definitively, it does suggest that studies of alternative approaches to traditional weight loss, such as physiological measures of health and standardizing intervention methods for Health at Every Size, may be helpful in comparing treatments.

Miller and Lindberg investigate the use of computer-based games to study the knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavioral intention for adopting a lower glycemic index (GI) diet. With increased popularity and time spent using media, a game-based approach may be effective in facilitating the adoption of lower GI food choices.

Samuels et al tested and evaluated the usability of http://MyPyramid.gov with 35 female nonnutrition students in their project. Results suggested improvement in site organization and content and functionality may increase effectiveness as an education tool, although a diverse population and non-Internet users were not examined.

This issue also includes 2 book reviews. Bridget Wardley reviewed The Complete Food and Nutrition Guide, 3rd ed, as an excellent and informative book on nutrition and healthy eating aspects. Lauri Metzger reviewed Nutrition Almanac, 6th ed, by John Kirschmann et al, and deems it an organized update on their well-known informational resource, while giving suggestions for further improvements in upcoming editions.

Thank you for your feedback and contributions to Topics in Clinical Nutrition. Please let us know if you want to be an author or a reviewer for future issues. Special appreciation to our Associate Editor, Elizabeth Young, MA, for the excellent job that she did in assembling this timely issue.

Judith A. Gilbride, PhD, RD, FADA, Editor