Try Jane Brody's _Nutrition Book_  (_Good Nutrition Book_?),
    which should be available in any mainstream bookstore and is
    IMO an excellent book for the layman.  Flip through one:  It
    sounds just like what you are looking for.

    Jane Brody is the author of the bestelling _Good Food Book_,
    and had a food column in the _New York Times_.  She has also
    published more hard-core reference books on nutrition research
    (my sister lugged one home while studying to be a Registered
    Dietician).  She comes across as a food weenie that has done
    her homework.  

    Her books are thick but very readable (standalone chapters,
    well-cross-referenced) and her general philosophy is tempered
    by common sense.  The _Nutrition Book_ covers fat, caffeine,
    salt, cholesterol, childhood nutrition, osteoporosis, digestion
    in omnivores vs. carnivores (feel free to give your egg yolks
    to your dog or cats), pregnancy, et al.  There is vitamin/mineral
    table that gives 1) dietary sources, 2) known metabolic function,
    3) deficiency disease and 4) megadose effects (if any).  She
    throws in sample recipes here and there.

    This book is not the be-all, end-all.  It does not address
    exercise (check out Covert Bailey's _Fit or Fat_ books), nor
    does it aim at making you live forever.

    I would appreciate hearing from anyone WHO HAS READ THIS BOOK
    who can suggest one that has better/comparable coverage of this
    subject.

    Hope this helps.

One was her statement that all diets should contain at least one
tablespoon of polyunsaturated fat.  If one follows the guidelines of
eating a diet with equal amounts of mono, poly, and saturated fat,
this would mean that all diets should contain at least 39 grams of fat
(26 grams if you eliminate all saturated fat).  Granted very very few
people would get this low, but some diets on the market today
recommend 10% of calories from fat, which wouldn't yield 1 tablespoon
of polyunsaturated fat unless the individual was consuming 2340
calories or more per day (3510 calories if saturated fat is also
consumed).  This would make these diets actually dangerous if 1
tablespoon was indeed the bodily requirement.

Another is her very strong bias against msg, saccharin, and aspartame.
She presents the anti case in some depth, but only comments on
dissenting opinions in a backhanded way.  E.g.: when commenting on
complaints about aspartame, she says "...the Council on Scientific
Affairs of the [AMA], *an organization not noted for aggressive action
to protect the public health*, has concluded that ' available evidence
suggests that consumption of aspartame by normal humans is safe and is
not associated with serious adverse health effects.'"  Also, in
discussing MSG she tells a long tale about Chinese Restaurant Syndrome
but fails to mention that no double blind study has been able to
support the complaints.

And one last dig at an otherwise great book: the index is horrid.  Try
looking up aspartame.

I also assume that what she means is essentially 10-15g of fat per day,
from the foods one eats, not 1T of oil taken separately.  Given that
most people are hard pressed to consume only 30% of their calories in
fat, I'm not so sure what is outrageous about her 1T number.

What makes polunsaturated fat a requirement is that it is a source of
linoleic acid, which the body needs to make fats.

I'm not saying that its theoretically impossible to get 1T of
polyunsaturated fat in a 10% fat diet, just that you'd really have to
work hard at it.  Most vegetables have some of their fat as
monounsaturates, some with more mono than poly.  People who try to
keep a 10% fat diet (they do exist) have enough of a restriction as it
is, to add to that the restriction that almost all of the 10% be
polyunsaturated might leave them with other nutritional deficiencies.

Thus, I'm left with one of two alternatives:

1. A 10% fat diet is very unwise
or
2. Most people don't need a full 1T of polyunsaturated fat per day.

However, 1T of polyunsaturated fat is probably what most people
who follow a diet that is 30% fat wind up with anyways. A 30% fat diet
allows for close approximately 600 calories of fat a day, which easily
enables one to get 1T of polyunsaturated fat in addition to the other
fat in their diet.

I still think you are taking Brody too literally.  She probably meant
that you need 1T of fat a day to get the essential fatty acids, and she
recommends the polyunsaturated kind.

Anyways, it's not that I figure Brody cannot be mistaken, it's just that
I think you are being a bit nit-picky here.  The woman writes several
hundred pages and the worst thing you can say is "she says you need
1T of fat!"

Now, if she had said amino acids helped cure depression, then you might
have a point :-).

The Tufts Guide to Nutrition by Dr. Jean Meyer is also very readable.

[ Note, these refs are from memory, please feel free to correct my errors. ]