Terrors of the Table: The Curious History of Nutrition

Vitalism is a profoundly science-ejected concept, though many CAM or 'natural health' cabals falsely claim that vitalism survives scientific scrutiny. I quote: "Galen taught that life derived from pneuma -- the cosmic breath [...which] entered the body in the form of air [and] underwent transformation in the brain, the heart, and the liver. The first turned it into animal spirit [...] the last into natural spirit [...] the venous blood was transformed by a 'vital spirit,' derived from the pneuma in the inspired air [p.038...for] Paracelsus [...] living matter, and in particular the organs of the body, were pervaded by vital forces, or archei, reminiscent of Galen's pneuma [p.042...] Muller [...also] was a vitalist, who believed that living organisms were governed by an elan vital, or lebenskraft, that was not derived from material, animal, or plant sources [...overall,] vitalism was the belief that reactions in the living body required the participation of a 'life force' or elan vital, on the lines of Galen's pneuma, and could never be reproduced in the laboratory. This theory should have been buried once and for all by an experiment performed in 1828 by Friedrich Wohler [p.074]." -r.c.

This book tells a fascinating story of man's stumbling search for proper nutrition. One would think that the knowledge of a healthful diet would not be so difficult to achieve by God's most intelligent creature, but the absence good analytic methods and measurements as well as philosophical, political factors and the power of entrenched authorities, had a woeful effect. Even when physical sciences were quite well developed, the biological sciences lagged way behind. This is probably due to the complexity of biological systems, leading to much idle speculation, opinion and authoritarian doctrine and dogma. Then when true scientific advances were achieved, quacks and charlatans quickly moved in, attracting hordes of the gullible as they continue to do today. This book details the history of malnutrition, not just in the general sense, but the exposes the specific miseries caused by each of the many individual deficiencies to which humans are subject. The fact is that humans are not like plants and bacteria that can live on simple substances. This is provided by a varied diet. Due to economic and particularly cultural reasons specific nutrients have been lacking, giving rise to mysterious and horrible ailments. The recognition of the cause, prevention and treatment of these was not completed until the mid 20th century. Even now the optimal diet is not settled. Toxic and alleged beneficial effects of food substances are still being discovered along with new marketing and quack dietary schemes, new ones of which are promoted daily. This book tells this story but in a rather choppy manner with sometimes boring and sometimes fascinating digressions consisting of mini-biographies of numerous pioneers in the field of nutrition and the physical sciences. The book is marred by a surprising number of errors of fact. For instance Arthur Hassall is erroneously said to have had bodies in the thyroid named after him. Hassall's corpuscles are actually located in the thymus. He implies that "Waterloo Teeth" were implanted in the gums when they were actually used to construct dentures. He states that many animals are subject to scurvy when it is only presenting a few such as humans, guinea pigs and monkeys. Polar bear liver toxicity is erroneously and repeatedly attributed to vitamin D rather than vitamin A. Tuna liver is erroneously called a superior source of vitamin D than cod liver oil. Who knows how many of the other eye popping facts he brings to the reader's attention are off kilter? Still I don't know of a better book about this subject so I recommend buying it.

For the most part, I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the romp through the history of biochemistry/physiology/nutrition. I learned a lot of meaningless facts to impress people with at cocktail parties. I found the last chapters to be a little tedious. At this point the author's own opinions creep into what has previously been a pretty unbiased presentation. I think, though, that Gratzer provides the nail in his own coffin. He spends many chapters elucidating how the 'experts' are sometimes proven right, sometimes proven wrong, and sometimes quacks or downright criminals. If we didn't know everything 100 years ago, we probably don't know everything now, either, so the pronouncements of the 'experts' of 2006 should be taken with a grain of salt (and a dash of lime juice, to prevent scurvy).

There are some New-Age types designated "Breatharians" who claim they don't have to eat. Perhaps they just get by on the air they breathe, or on sunbeams. Breatharians are unlikely to be willing to be scientifically tested for this ability. I don't know of any analogous group that says they are also free from drinking water, or from breathing oxygen, but for the rest of us, taking in a bit of daily nutrition is a habit we cannot break. Since eating is something that has been on the mind of members of our species ever since we had minds, it is something we ought to know plenty of facts about, and we do. Facts in scientific style, however, have only come with difficulty over the past couple of centuries, and along with them have come a lot of fads and foolishness. All are topics within _Terrors of the Table: The Curious History of Nutrition_ (Oxford University Press) by Walter Gratzer. The author is a biophysicist and an emeritus professor at Kings College, London, who values the way we have come to some scientific understanding of nutrition, but he also enjoys telling about human folly, and it seems that eating is so essential to us that both are on generous display in this exhaustive historical survey. Nutritional theorizing began, like everything, with the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates stressed moderation of intake and the need for exercise. Galen took up Hippocrates's theory of the bodily humors in the second century CE, and enlarged upon it, and his unquestioned (and often unwise) teaching lasted for centuries. The eventual understanding of how vitamins are essential to health forms many chapters of this book. There is a surprising adherence to a pattern of understanding for each vitamin. Doctors would have spotted a particular disease condition, but were reluctant to accept that it was due to a nutritional deficiency, explaining it instead as an infection or an intake of toxins. Different experts at diverse times would come to some understanding about what foods would clear up the problem, but the inertial resistance to change would condemn sufferers to illness for years, while authorities in the rearguard criticized (sometimes with acid vituperation) what turned out to be healthful suggestions. We groped our way toward a nutritional understanding of what was good for us, but there has never been any lack of self-appointed experts to tell us. For some reason, the United States has been the region from which the most durable food fads have sprung, with famous names like Graham, Kellogg, and Post all implicated in the silliness. The most amusing crackpot was Horace Fletcher who at the turn of the 20th century proposed that all ills could be banished by chewing food thoroughly. Just chew every bite 32 times (one for each tooth), ordered the Great Masticator, a man who had an imposing stage presence and was an accomplished liar about his qualifications. Chewing parties became a fashion among some diners, with a conductor who coun