By Walter Gratzer
The writing in this one is a little bit dry. Well okay there were parts where if you have insomnia you could pick up this tome and it would help you go right to sleep. But the subject was so interesting (how vitamins were found, changes in food safety, fad diets through the ages) that I was able to get through the slow parts no problem.
I lent this book out so I’m unable to leaf through it to give better examples. From what I remember the most fascinating parts were how scientists first isolated vitamins. Most of which took hundreds of years to isolate or even prove that certain foods even prevented or cured diseases, say vitamin C and scurvy. Once a food was found then the real science began. The foods were broken down; this was before chromatography, various solvents, alcohol, ether, was used to help isolate the compounds in the food to isolate the vitamin. So called because it was the vital ammines.
An interesting book which if you can remember the stories you can retell to your friends and impress them. On a side note, shortly after reading TOTT, I worked with a lady whose mom worked with the state of CA in food safely. She helped to implement the letter grade of food establishments. She also didn’t let her kids eat raisins, because you know bugs can get on them as they dry and you can’t wash them off after they are dried. Whatever, I still enjoy raisins almost everyday.
Happy Mother's Day!
14 years ago
