Introduction

1. Introduction What is the value of nutritional science?

2. Nutritional Science The science of food, the nutrients and the substances therein, their action, interaction, and balance in relation to health and disease, and the process by which the organism ingests, digests, absorbs, transports, utilizes, and excretes food substances. • Council on Food and Nutrition of the American Medical Asscociation

3. Food • The items consumed by the organism that provide nutrients • Diet • The collection of foods consumed by the organism

4. Classification of Nutrients • Macronutrients • Carbohydrates – CHOH compounds commonly known as sugars, starches and dietary fiber. • Lipids – CH compounds that are soluble in organic solvents, but not water. • Proteins – CHON compounds made up of amino acids. • General Atwater factors 4:9:4 kcal/g

5. Classification of Nutrients • Micronutrients • Vitamins – Compounds needed in very small amounts that help regulate and support chemical reactions. • Minerals – inorganic elements that promote chemical reactions and provide structure. • Water – H2O - the solvent of life.

6. Other Chemicals in Food • Phytochemicals • A chemical found in plants. Often used to refer to chemicals that may provide a positive health benefit, but are not otherwise essential nutrients • Anti-nutrient • A phytochemical that interferes with a nutrient in the diet • Food toxin • A chemical in food capable of producing injury, illness or death

7. Importance of nutrition has long been known • Hippocrates • fifth century B.C. • the father of Medicine • Hippocrates’ principles of health • “Food is power that reaches into every sinew of the body” • “When more food than is proper has been taken, it occasions disease” • “Hard work is undesirable for the underfed” From a presentation by Koursoumpa Thalia – Irini

8. RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.

9. Discovery of a sea route to India - Vasco da Gama • Goal • find trade route to India • Voyage • Left Portugal July1497 • India May1498 • Left India Aug. 1498 • Home Sept. 1499 • Problem • Many sailor died of scurvy

10. Dozens of similar maritime stories • Cure for scurvy is now known • Travel time to India now too short for scurvy • Is travel no longer a nutritional problem?

11. Some UW history

12. John Steuart Curry (1897-1946)Artist in Residence, CALS, University of Wisconsin

13. Protein-Calorie Nutrition

14. Micronutrient Nutrition

15. Discovering Vitamins and Trace Minerals By feeding diets of single grains to sixteen dairy heifers, University of Wisconsin scientists under the direction of biochemist E.B. Hartin 1907 set the stage for the discovery of vitamins and essential trace minerals. These feeding experiments revealed that micro-components other than fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and salts were necessary for life and reproduction. These missing components were later shown to be vitamins and essential minerals such as iron, copper, and iodine. The single-grain experiments, inspired by biochemist Stephen M. Babcock, changed forever the way scientists viewed diet and nutrition in animals and humans.

16. Discovery of Vitamins A and B In 1913 University of Wisconsin biochemist Elmer V. McCollum and associates used rats to conduct nutritional studies that led to the discovery of vitamin A in butterfat and cod liver oil. In 1917 his group discovered the vitamin B complex in milk whey. Scientists first named these "fat-soluble factor A" and "water-soluble factor B." Incorporating C. Funk's term of "vital amine," McCollum later named them "vitamine" A and "vitamine" B. This opened the field of nutrition for the identification of all the vitamins, a search completed in the 1940s.

18. Vitamin D Production Ends Rickets The discovery of how to produce vitamin D stands as a critical event in the history of vitamin research. In 1924, University of Wisconsin biochemist Harry Steenbock discovered that ultraviolet light converts an inactive material in food to vitamin D. Application of this discovery virtually eliminated rickets, a debilitating bone disease once common among children. Steenbock used the proceeds from his invention to originate and fund the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

20. Treatment of Iron Deficiency Anemia Biochemists in the 1920s conducted studies leading to improved understanding of the roles of minerals in animal and human diets. University of Wisconsin biochemists E.B. Hart, C.A. Elvehjem, and Harry Steenbock discovered that copper, in addition to iron, is necessary for making hemoglobin, a component of blood that carries oxygen from the lungs to tissues, and carbon dioxide from tissues to lungs. This led to the use of copper to treat iron deficiency anemia.

22. Nutritional deficiency syndromes are understood • Means of prevention are known • So what is left for nutritional science?

23. Nutritionally related diseases • Obesity • Type II diabetes • Cardiovascular disease • Digestive diseases • Some cancers • Prevention - What diet reduces risk? • Treatment-What diet reduces complications? • Public Health - Can foods be improved? • Individualized medicine - Can the diet be optimized to genotype?