Nutrition For Dummies
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Like every discipline, nutrition has its own particular language. This chart clues you in to several prefixes and suffixes that can make deciphering nutrition-speak a cinch.

Element Meaning
amyl- starch
an- without
anti- against
-ase an enzyme
di- two
-emia found in the blood
gastro- referring to the stomach
gly- referring to sugars
hydr-, hydro- water (also: hydrogen)
hyper- above normal
hypo- below normal
lact-, lacti-, lacto- milk
lip-, lipo- fat
macro- large
micro- very small
mono- one
-ose sugar
tri- three

About This Article

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About the book author:

Carol Ann Rinzler is a former nutrition columnist for the New York Daily News and the author of more than 30 health-related books, including Controlling Cholesterol For Dummies, Heartburn and Reflux For Dummies, The New Complete Book of Food, the award-winning Estrogen and Breast Cancer: A Warning for Women, and Leonardo’s Foot, which the American Association for the Advancement of Science described as “some of the best writing about science for the non-scientist encountered in recent years.”

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