ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides such a multidisciplinary approach to one determinant of nutritional status-eating behavior. It discusses factors that affect the nutritional status of cancer patients and the role of nutrition in cancer etiology. The book explores basic biobehavioral research into selective processes underlying eating behavior is reviewed. Robertson and Garcia review the animal research on learned taste aversions. It discusses how this basic learning process may occur in cancer patients who receive radiation or chemotherapy. The book describes the role that learning can play in altering the eating behavior of organisms who are exposed to aversive radiation or chemical substances, and thus how psychological or behavioral factors can interact with biological processes to disrupt eating patterns. It argues that learned taste aversions provide only a partial explanation for the altered eating behavior patterns shown by cancer patients.
