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Table of Contents

I. Reasons to study Nutrition

To avoid disease
To achieve/maintain optimal health
Unusual circumstances

II. What we need to eat

What is an essential nutrient?
What makes a nutrient essential?
Different species have different requirements
Nutrients essential for man
Conditional requirements

III. Ways of quantitating nutrient requirements

Methods
Maximum growth in the young
Prevention/cure of deficiency diseases
Saturation of tissue
Balance studies
Changes in a secondary variable
Amounts in typical diets
Summary:

IV. A Brief History of the Development of Nutrition

The pre-investigative days
Failure to act on evidence:
Early scientific studies of nutrition
Lavoisier
The 19th Century
The discovery of vitamins
The 20th Century
Quantitative requirements
Conclusion
The oat bran story
The vitamin E story
Maximum reliability