Introduction

The fascination of history is the never-ending discovery of remarkable people to whom one is deeply indebted for advances in knowledge. One seldom comes to know about such people suddenly. Like living acquaintances, he first meets them at various places. Gradually he comes to know them more intimately and studies their lives and writings in detail. This is particularly true as regards the people one meets in studying the history of nutrition.NADEGW 1.1

For the past quarter of a century I have taught a course for graduate students on the history of foods and nutrition. In this course are presented original materials, starting with the early Greek work by Athenaeus who lived in Rome at the end of the second century A.D. Down through the succeeding centuries notable names appear. For example, in the middle of the thirteenth century Petrus Hispanus published much about diet. Shortly after the discovery of America one of the greatest books about nutrition and old age was written by Luigi Cornaro (1464?-1566). Later centuries, on down to the twentieth, provide a remarkable array of books that present the theories, and sometimes the research, of the writers, on the broad subject of nutrition and foods. Such historical works must be scrutinized critically, for they contain much that is not true. In fact, most of these works are a curious mixture of truth and error.NADEGW 1.2

Among the thousand historical acquaintances in my files, one of the most worth-while is Ellen G. White. As near as one can judge by the evidence of modern nutritional science, her extensive writings on the subject of nutrition, and health in general, are correct in their conclusions. This is doubly remarkable: Not only was most of her writing done at a time when a bewildering array of new health views—good and bad—were being promoted but the modern science of nutrition, which helps us to check on views and theories, had not yet been born. Even more singular, Mrs. White had no technical training in nutrition, or in any subdivision of science that deals with health. In fact, because of her frail health from childhood she completed only a part of a grammar school education.NADEGW 1.3