Is Our Knowledge of Human Nutrition Based on Faulty Premises?

Abstract

In animal production and rat feeding experiments — used to determine human nutritional requirements — the ideal levels of nutrients are deemed to coincide with maximum growth promotion. Differences in response between the human and the rat are often overlooked as is the fact that human nutrition is not to fatten for the dinner plate but to provide good health over a life span. Diets conducive to rapid growth are associated with Western type diseases, such as coronary heart disease, and with reduced life expectancy. To obtain valid information on human nutrition one is thus forced to look to other sources of evidence such as epidemiology. Human nutrition is not helped generally by food technology.