Nutrition Research: State of the Art

Many have suggested that nutrition became a science with the work of Lavosier in the mid‐18th century. The importance of diet, however, had been recognized and taught by the scholars of ancient Greece and Rome and most of the dietary deficiency diseases were known prior to Lavosier's research efforts. By the mid‐ 19th century protein, fat, and carbohydrate were determined to be sources of energy and to provide calories. During the ensuing years a tightly designed ex perimental approach evolved for determining a nutrient's essentiality and re quirements under varying growth conditions and with differing dietary mixtures.