www abdopublishing com Published by Abdo Publishing a division of ABDO PO Box 398166 Minneapolis Minnesota 55439 Copyright 2015 by Abdo Consulting Group Inc International copyrights reserved in all countries No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher Essential Library is a trademark and logo of Abdo Publishing Printed in the United States of America North Mankato Minnesota 102014 012015 Cover Photos Nixx Photography Shutterstock Images Shelby Allison Shutterstock Images Shutterstock Images Sergiy Kuzmin Shutterstock Images Interior Photos Nixx Photography Shutterstock Images 1 3 Shelby Allison Shutterstock Images 1 3 83 Shutterstock Images 1 3 19 90 Sergiy Kuzmin Shutterstock Images 1 3 Bettmann Corbis 7 51 54 76 Farm Security Administration Office of War Library of Congress 9 69 Library of Congress 11 Alex Proimos 12 Anton Ivanov Shutterstock Images 15 Peter Paul Rubens 17 Tim Ur Shutterstock Images 24 Juan Gaertner Shutterstock Images 27 World History Archive Newscom 29 39 43 Brand X Pictures Thinkstock 31 Zastolskiy Victor Shutterstock Images 33 Markus Mainka Shutterstock Images 34 Austrian Archives Corbis 41 Public Domain 45 Everett Collection Newscom 49 AP Images 57 64 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 61 United Kingdom Government 62 Harris Ewing Collection Library of Congress 67 US Agriculture Department 71 Digital Vision Thinkstock 79 Thanamat Somwan Shutterstock Images 87 Elena Shashkina Shutterstock Images 89 Ira Bostic Shutterstock Images 92 Edward Parsons EPA Newscom 95 Editor Jenna Gleisner Series Designer Craig Hinton Library of Congress Control Number 2014943871 Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lanser Amanda Food science you are what you eat Amanda Lanser p cm History of science ISBN 978-1-62403-560-9 lib bdg Includes bibliographical references and index 1 Food science History Juvenile literature 2 Nutrition Juvenile literature I Title 664 dc23 2014943871
Contents Chapter One Rickets Putrid Meat and Plumpy’Nut 6 Chapter Two Ancient Theories to Renaissance Revelations 16 Chapter Three Birth of Modern Food Science 28 Chapter Four Food Preservation and Safety 38 Chapter Five The Government Gets Involved 48 Chapter Six Great War Great Depression Great Science 56 Chapter Seven The Rise of Agribusiness 68 Chapter Eight Emergence of the Food Label 78 Chapter Nine The Future of Food Science 88 TIMELINE 98 ESSENTIAL FACTS 100 GLOSSARY 102 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 104 SOURCE NOTES 106 INDEX 110 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 112
6 Chapter One Rickets Putrid Meat AND PLUMPY’NUT It wasn’t until the 1920s scientists discovered vitamin D even in the form of artificial sunlight was necessary to prevent rickets In approximately 500 BCE Greek scholar Herodotus was inspecting the skeletons of soldiers killed in battle a century earlier in the Egyptian town of Pelusium He noticed the skulls of the Persian soldiers were so thin a small pebble could crush them The skulls of the Egyptian soldiers however were so strong only a large rock caused damage When Herodotus inquired about the unusual observation townspeople provided little information The only difference they could remember was the Persians wore turbans while the Egyptians fought bareheaded exposing their heads to the sun What caused the Persian skulls to crack so easily while all the Egyptian skulls were strong More than 2,000 years later in 1650 CE Professor Francis Glisson studied at Cambridge University in England He was investigating a disease affecting many
