Research Catalog

Title

Protein and energy : a study of changing ideas in nutrition / Kenneth J. Carpenter.

Author

Carpenter, Kenneth J. (Kenneth John), 1923-2016.

Publication

New York : Cambridge University Press, [1994], ©1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiii, 280 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

• This book reviews the long-standing debate over the relative merits of a high-protein versus a low-protein diet. When protein (or "animal substance") was first discovered in vegetable foods, it was hailed as the only true nutritional principle. Justus Liebig, the leading German chemist of the mid-nineteenth century, believed that it provided the sole source of energy for muscular contraction. In contrast, health reformers argued that high intakes were overstimulating, leading to dissipation and decline.
• U.S. government publications in the 1890s recommended that working men receive 125 grams of protein per day, but work at Yale indicated that men maintained their strength on half that intake.
• In the 1950s kwashiorkor, a disease of infants in many Third World countries, was judged to be the result of simple protein deficiency. The United Nations declared a world protein shortage. But the causes of kwashiorkor were reassessed, and projects to produce novel protein sources were eventually abandoned. Today there is again concern that overconsumption of protein in affluent societies may damage health.
• This book puts the protein controversy into a historical perspective that sheds light not only on the subject itself, but on the scientific process as well.

Subjects

• Proteins in human nutrition
• Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
• Proteins in human nutrition > Government policy > History
• Energy metabolism
• Energy Metabolism
• Proteins

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-270) and index.

Contents

1. Nutritional Science before the Chemical Revolution, 1614-1773 -- 2. Nutrition in the Light of the New Chemistry, 1773-1839 -- 3. Protein Discovered and Enthroned, 1838-1845 -- 4. Things Fall Apart, 1846-1875 -- 5. Vegetarian Philosophies and Voit's Standards, 1875-1893 -- 6. Chittenden versus the U.S. Establishment, 1883-1912 -- 7. Vitamins and Amino Acids, 1910-1950 -- 8. Protein Deficiency as a Third World Problem, 1933-1957 -- 9. International Efforts to Produce High-Protein Supplements, 1955-1975 -- 10. Reappraisals of the Third World Problem, 1955-1990 -- 11. Adult Needs for Amino Acids: A New Controversy, 1950-1992 -- 12. In Retrospect -- Appendix A: Chemical Structures of Amino Acids -- Appendix B: The Measurement of Protein Quality -- Appendix C: Calculations of Amino Acid Balance Using an Isotope Label.

ISBN

0521452090 (hc)

LCCN

93032130

OCLC

• 501429341
• ocn501429341
• SCSB-4722296

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries