The Story of Nutrition

The Story of Nutrition ELIZABETH NEIGE TODHUNTER THIS is the story of man's long of physics, medicine, agriculture, and search for exact knowledge of biology. the food his body needs. Because it is a ''new" science, then, It is a story of laboratories, experi- let us begin with the man who has ments, failures, successes, and dis- been called *'the father of American coveries. It is even more a story of men nutrition" and later go back to the and women with curiosity, ideas, per- men and ideas that preceded him—for sistence, and a driving desire to help nutrition, like every science and almost people live better. every other great development, has It is a story of a ñght against igno- been built on things that went before. rance and superstitions and the strange Wilbur Olin Atwater was born in ideas people always have had—now, 1844 in Johnstown, N.Y. He attended too !—about the things they eat. the University of Vermont and Wes- It is an old story that could begin leyan University in Middletown, with the first man and the little he Conn. For his thesis for his doctor's knew beyond the fact that he liked to degree at Yale University in i86g eat. he—for the first time in this country— It is, though, primarily a story of used modern methods to analyze corn accomplishments in this century— fodder. indeed, in the last few years; a story He went to Europe in 1869 to study so new that it is far from its end. agricultural and physiological chem- Although for centuries people tried istry at the Universities of Leipzig and to solve some of their problems of what Berlin. When the first experiment sta- to eat and how much and why, they tion in the United States was estab- made little progress until chemistry lished at Middletown in 1875, ^^ was well developed and we could became its first director. He later analyze foods and know what they are became director of the Connecticut made of. We also had to wait until Agricultural Experiment Station at physiology became a science that Storrs when it was organized in 1887. could provide understanding of the His studies on the acquisition of human body and how it functions. We atmospheric nitrogen by plants and on needed as well the contributions the composition of feeds, begun several TEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1959 years earlier, he continued as part of of Experiment Stations under Dr. the work at Storrs during the 14 years Atwater, who was designated "chief he was director. These investigations of nutrition investigations." led to his interest in the composition of From that time forward, biochem- man's food. ists, nutritionists, home economists, Dr. Atwater made a series of analyses and investigators in animal and poul- of fish for the United States Fish Com- try husbandry at agricultural experi- mission and of the flesh of domestic ment stations throughout the country animals for the Smithsonian Institu- have steadily and continuously helped tion between 1879 ^^^ 1883. He con- build the newer knowledge of nutrition. ducted studies of the dietaries of people Headquarters for the work were in Massachusetts and Canada. established at Middletown, and Dr. Dr. Atwater returned to Europe in Atwater was made chief. He and his 1887. He worked in the laboratory in colleagues investigated the diets of Munich where Carl Voit was doing hundreds of persons of different occu- outstanding work in studies of respira- pations and compared the results of tion—the exchange of gases between similar studies in other countries. They the blood and the tissues—and calo- made many experiments with men on rimetry, the measurement of heat, the digestion and carried on special studies first steps toward quantitative knowl- of the nutritive value of cereals, meats, edge of nutritional requirements. vegetables, fruit, and nuts and the Another American student who effects of cooking and other forms of worked in Dr. Voit's laboratory was preparation on nutritive values. Graham Lusk, who brought back with He and his coworkers demonstrated him a small model of a calorimeter that the amount of heat—energy—a Voit had made and later built others person develops during a given period at Cornell University Medical College is the amount that can be derived from in New York City for studies with the energy liberated in the oxidation dogs and children. We shall come back of food materials during the period. to Dr. Voit later. Dr. Atwater studied digestibility of Dr. Atwater also returned to this food, made numerous dietary studies, country inspired to do further calorim- and analyzed many foods. He pre- etry studies at Wesleyan University. pared in 1896 the famous Bulletin 28 With his coworkers be built a calorim- of the United States Department of eter for studies on man and designed Agriculture. It was the first extensive a bomb calorimeter for measurement table of food values ever prepared in of caloric value of foods. He made ad- this country. justment for the indigestible fraction Atwater sought to find what was the in food and the incomplete oxidation best and most economical diet for of protein in the body and gave the man. At that time only protein and values, widely used ever since, of 4, 9, Calories, as supplied by fat and carbo- 4 Calories per gram of carbohydrate, hydrate, were considered of impor- fat, and protein in a mixed diet. tance, and such foods as green, leafy The Congress in 1894 appropriated vegetables and fruit were regarded as 10 thousand dollars "to enable the expensive purchases or luxuries. Secretary of Agriculture to investigate A chapter Dr. Atwater wrote for the and report upon the nutritive value of 1894 Yearbook of Agriculture has the various articles and commodities meaning for us today. I quote a few used for human food, wdth special sentences from it: suggestion of full, wholesome, and "Materials for the food of man make edible rations less wasteful and more up the larger part of our agricultural economical than those in common production and the largest item of our use." export abroad. Our food production This work was assigned to the Office is one-sided. It includes a relative THE STORY OF NUTRITION excess of the fat of meat, of starch, and in the less expensive materials. of sugar, the substances that serve the The maxim that 'the best is the body for fuel to yield heat and muscu- cheapest' does not apply to food." lar power, while the nitrogenous substances, those which make blood and LET US GO BACK now for a glimpse muscle, bone and brain, are relatively at the beliefs and knowledge on which deficient. What is needed is Atwater and other scientists of the 20th more nitrogen in the soil for plant century built. Such a quick survey food, more nitrogen in plants to make will help us to understand better the better food for animals and man, and growth of the science of nutrition— more nitrogen in the food of man. and the speed with which it has grown. Better culture of the soil and bet- Back in the days of the Greeks, ter manuring will bring not only before the birth of Christ, man's larger crops, but crops richer in inquiring mind was asking questions nitrogen. about the world in which he lived. "The power of a man to do work The "science" of that day believed depends upon his nutrition. A well-fed that there were four elements—earth, horse can draw a heavy load. With air, fire, and water; four qualities— less food he does less work. A well-fed dry, cold, hot, and wet; and four man has strength of muscle and of humors, or liquids, that comprised brain, while a poorly nourished man the body—blood, phlegm, black bile, has not." and yellow bile. He defined food as "that which, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, when taken into the body, builds up its taught the value of diet, but he tissues and keeps them in repair, or believed in one universal aliment, an which is consumed in the body to idea that prevailed until the early yield energy in the form of heat to part of the 19th century. keep it warm and create strength for Galen, a Greek physician who settled its work. ..." in Rome in A.D. 164, wrote many "The most healthful food is that books about anatomy, diet, and which is best fitted to the wants of the health. His word was accepted without user. question through the centuries that "The cheapest food is that which saw the decline of Rome, the Dark furnishes the most nutriment at the Ages, and the first light of the Renais- least cost. sance, until Andreas Vesalius (1514- "The most economical food is that 1564), a Flemish student of anatomy, which is both most healthful and overthrew some of Galen's ideas and cheapest. dared to investigate for himself, rather "To make the most out of a man, to than follow blindly the master's dicta. bring him up to the desirable level of One original thinker in Italy tried to productive capacity, to enable him to study nutrition. He asked the right live as a man ought to live, he must be questions, but he could not get the well fed. answers because he had neither a "One of the ways in which the worst knowledge of chemistry nor the neces- economy is practiced is in the buying sary tools. Santorio Sanctorius (1561- of high-priced foods.

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