Nutrition: The Health Industry and Its Practices

The process of providing food necessary to support life is called nutrition. It is both a science and a practice and being in nutritional balance involves consuming the right amount of micronutrients, macronutrients, and calories from a diet. As a science, it focuses on how a healthy diet can lessen or prevent health problems, conditions, and diseases.

Nutrition Has Biblical Roots

The Book of Daniel in the Bible contains the first recorded nutritional experiment. Daniel refused to consume fine foods and drink offered by the King of Babylon, opting instead for water and vegetables. After ten days, Daniel and his friends

were healthier and more physically fit than the men in the King's court so they were allowed to continue their diets while serving the ruler.

Nutritional Theories Emerge

One of the earliest nutritional theories was presented by Hippocrates of ancient Greece. He mistakenly believed that since humans were the same regardless of what they consumed, every food must contain the same nutrient. It was not until the late 1700s when the French scientist Antoine Lavoisier designed the calorimeter that things changed. Considered the father of this field, Lavoisier noted that the body produced different amounts of heat based on the type and amounts of foods consumed.

Lavoisier called life "a chemical process" and this belief was continued by Dr. James Lind who discovered that fresh fruit had a curing effect on scurvy. In the nineteenth century, Dr. William Beaumont got a first-hand view of the inside of the stomach courtesy of a bullet wound that would not heal. French trapper Alexio St. Martine allowed the doctor to make periodic observations of his innards and Beaumont went on to conduct many related experiments, resulting in new nutritional discoveries.

The twentieth century is referred to as the golden age for nutritional factors due to discoveries of multiple nutrients. Dr. Stephen Babcock ushered in this era by testing for milk fat and his associates experimented with different diets for cows. Vitamin A was thus discovered and Vitamins B, C, and several minerals followed. These discoveries led to changes in human eating habits, which continue to this day.

For more than a century, the United States Department of Agriculture has issued recommendations regarding diet and nutrition. These have evolved over time based on new research discoveries and the changing patterns of human activity and food consumption. Consumer education and food policies are responsible for eliminating many U.S. nutritional deficiencies.