History of food mineral: chromium

The German prospector Johann Gottlieb Lehmann (1719-1767) first wrote about this red-orange mineral in 1762, calling it red lead. He analyzed samples from a Siberian mine and wrongly thought they were made from the heavy metals lead and selenium.

Chromium was discovered by the French chemist Louis-Nicholas Vauquelin, Professor at the Ecole des Mines de Paris in 1797, while he was studying the properties of crocoite, and ore which is rich in lead chromate.

Vauquelin’s studies showed the crystals contained lead and a completely new metallic element.

Its common name of chrome was derived from the Greek word chroma, which means color, because the element is present in many different colored compounds.

It was not until 1959 that the medical scientists W. Mertz and K. Schwarz discovered that the feeding of chromium salts resulted from the feeding of diets based upon torula yeast.

Since the 1960s, chromium has been generally believed to be essential for proper carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Chromium deficiency has been suggested to lead to symptoms associated with adult-inset diabetes and cardiovascular.

During the 1960s and 1970s, evidence accumulated that marginal of deficient chromium may predispose to maturity onset diabetes mellitus and atherosclerotic disease.

In 1999, sales of products containing chromium reached almost half-a-billion dollars, making the supplement second in sales only to calcium among mineral supplements.
History of food mineral: chromium

General History of Fruits Beverage

General History of Fruits Beverage
Fruit always played an important role in human nutrition.

However, before the 20th century, drinking squeezed fruit juice was the privilege of a few.

Welch was the first to preserve grape juice with heat treatment in America in 1869, followed by Muller-Thurgan in Switzerland in 1896.

Thus began the production of preserved fruit juices, which was followed by a huge development in the 20th century.

The role of vitamins and minerals in the human body was discovered at that time, which triggered substantial changes in eating habits.

Consequently, fruit consumption has become an everyday need.

Due to the revolutionary development of technical equipment, the appearance of chemicals and biological substances (enzymes, clarifying and flavoring agents), and the applications of new technological procedures, especially the aseptic technique – which enabled the production of fruit juices without preservatives – of fruit juice production became widespread.
General History of Fruits Beverage

Milk, Nutrition and History

Milk, Nutrition and History
Milk has been a staple of the diet of Old World temperate zone people since the agricultural revolution, approx 8000 BC. Milk is mentioned more than 20 times in the Hebrew scriptures (“…. a land flowing with milk and honey………..”) as a metaphor for abundance and wholesomeness.

Also, in one of the Islamic medicine tomes, we read: “Drink milk, for it wipes away heat from the heart, strengthens the back, increases the brain, augment the intelligence, renew vision and drives away forgetfulness”. Although they are not supported by contemporary standards those claim, nevertheless, illustrate the generally high esteem that milk has enjoyed throughout its history.

Milk is a thirst quenching nourishing beverage. For some segments of the populations milk became, and is still today, the principal source of almost all nutrients, with daily consumption of 5 – 7 L.

Nutritional science emerged only at the beginning of the 20th century and quickly recognized the value of milk in a balanced diet. Virtually all US government nutrition programs and nutritional policy statements for the last century have emphasized the importance of milk. As nutritional science grew, so also did the understanding of the composition of milk and of its many benefits.

However, during the past 30-40 years particularly, several factors have converged to alter perceptions of the role of milk in the human diet. These include:
*The emergence and promotion of alternative beverages (and the relative affluence that made their purchase possible),
*Medicine’s emphasis on treating nutrients as toxins (e.g., fat, sodium, cholesterol),
*Animal rights activism
*Still growing technophobia.
Milk, Nutrition and History