nutrition and food history
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The Discovery of a Vitamin Role for Carnitine
The discovery of carnitine as an essential nutrient for one species of insect led rapidly to the elucidation of its central role in fat oxidation
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Contributions of Women to Human Nutrition
Women have played a special role in the development of the field of human nutrition. Although the origin of nutrition as a science is usually
Minnesota Starvation Study during World War II
During World War Two, conscientious objectors in the US and the UK were asked to volunteer for medical research. In one project in the US,
How Apples Became a Weapon Against the Great Depression
Joseph Sicker, chairman of the International Apple Shippers’ Association, had an idea: Why not use the apples to help unemployed men? He worked with members
Herbert McLean Evans, who discovered vitamin E in 1922, invited a faculty colleague to lunch to help him name this alcohol that was necessary for laboratory animals to bring their offspring to birth. Evans, a professor of anatomy at the University of California in Berkeley, was being urged by his colleagues to name the substance. "I promptly invited George M. Calhoun, our professor of Greek, to luncheon in Berkeley in our small Faculty Club," he recalled. Calhoun asked him what the substance does. "It permits an animal to bear offspring," Evans replied. "Well, 'childbirth' in Greek is tocos," said Calhoun, "and if it confers or brings childbirth, we will next employ the Greek verb phero. You have also said that the term must have an ending consonant with its chemical--'ol,' being an alcohol; your substance is 'tocopherol'."
from J Nutr. 1985 Jul;115(7):837-41. Gladys Anderson Emerson (1903-1984). A biographical sketch. Folkers K.
Herbert Mclean Evans
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