Preface

Nutrition In A Nutshell (1962)

The whole story of nutrition, with or without a happy ending, cannot be told yet because it is still unfolding. Week by week, year by year, and decade by decade, new clues are coming to light in the research laboratories of the world.

The story becomes more interesting as new clues develop. It is ten times more intriguing now than it was when middle-aged practicing physicians heard it in their medical-school days. It promises to be more thrilling a decade from now.

As a biochemist I have been in the midst of this story since the very early chapters. When nutritional science was in its infancy I helped teach medical students in the University of Chicago what was then known about the subject. Since then I have been for decades actively and continuously engaged in exploring, discovering, and developing better insights into nutrition and its meaning.

The time has come for one who can present a firsthand rather than a second- or thirdhand account to tell the story of nutrition to nonscientists who are not interested in the technicalities of biochemistry. Nutrition is at the threshold of new and revolutionary developments and its potentialities for the improvement of health are vast.

The general story--beginning at the beginning--has never been told in this form before. The approach is fresh and the point of view forward looking. While expert nutritionists and physicians may well ponder over the contents of this little book, it is being written primarily for the public, each of whom has a stake in the outcome.

There exists for each individual a personal story of his own nutrition which he may be able to modify or even revolutionize. Whether this story can be manipulated to yield a happy ending depends in part on his own understanding and insight into what nutrition is all about. Understanding and insight are one’s only protection against those who, on the one hand, may regard nutrition as a science completely wrapped up twenty years ago, or on the other hand, against those who make extravagant and ignorant claims for their own faddist notions.

Roger J. Williams