Development of Nutritional Biochemistry

Nutrition,  in  general, and  particularly nutritional biochemistry, has  traveled a  long way since 1926, when nutrition was first recognized as an  independent field of study with  the  appointment of Mary Swartz Rose  as Professor of Nutrition  at Columbia University. This was actually the culmination of a developmental period stemming from Antoine Lavoisier 's  experiments  about 200 years back that formed the basis for the studies on respiratory exchange and calorimetry, the beginning of a new science  - Nutrition. About 100 years  elapsed before carbohydrates,  fats  and  proteins were identified as the  source of  energy  fdr  animal  body. By  the  end  of  the  nineteenth century, the necessity for certain minekals in the diet was established. But it was not until  the decade between  1930 and 1940  that the majority of the  vitamins were identified, isolated from different foods, synthesized in  the  laboratory and  received serious attention  in  order  to understand  their  involvement  in  various biochemical reactions.