A. DISCOURAGINGLY B. TIGHTLY C. UNCOMFORTABLY D. HEAVILYTASK 2

80. A. discouragingly B. tightly C. uncomfortably D. heavily

The history of clinical nutrition, or the study of the relationship between health and how the

body takes in and utilizes food substances, can be divided into four distinct eras: the first began in

the nineteenth century and extended into the early twentieth century when it was recognized for the

first time that food contained constituents that were essential for human function and that different

foods provided different amounts of these essential agents. Near the end of this era, research studies

demonstrated that rapid weight loss was associated with nitrogen imbalance and could only be

rectified by providing adequate dietary protein associated with certain foods.

The second era was initiated in the early decades of the twentieth century and might be called

"the vitamin period. "Vitamins came to be recognized in foods, and deficiency syndromes were

described. As vitamins became recognized as essential food constituents necessary for health, it

became tempting to suggest that every disease and condition for which there had been no previous

effective treatment might be responsive to vitamin therapy. At that point in time, medical schools

started to become more interested in having their curricula integrate nutritional concepts into the

basic sciences. Much of the focus of this education was on the recognition of deficiency symptoms.

Herein lay the beginning of what ultimately turned from ignorance to denial of the value of

nutritional therapies in medicine. Reckless claims were made for effects of vitamins that went far

beyond what could actually be achieved from the use of them.

In the third era of nutritional history in the early 1950's to mid-1960's, vitamin therapy began

to fall into disrepute. Concomitant with this, nutrition education in medical schools also became

less popular. It was just a decade before this that many drug companies had found their vitamin

sales skyrocketing and were quick to supply practicing physicians with generous samples of

vitamins and literature extolling the virtue of supplementation for a variety of health-related

conditions. Expectations as to the success of vitamins in disease control were exaggerated. As is

known in retrospect, vitamin and mineral therapies are much less effective when applied to health-

crisis conditions than when applied to long-term problems of under nutrition that lead to chronic

health problems.