ABSTRACT
The assessment of nutritional status would be easier if one could always associate a specižc symptom or characteristic with a given nutrient dežciency or excess. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions (e.g., enlargement of thyroid in iodine dežciency), the lack of specižcity of clinical signs and the unlikelihood that an individual is dežcient in only one nutrient make a direct association impractical; however, any sign or symptom can help direct further investigation toward the assessment of nutritional status.
