Nutrition and Health

1. The invention of vitamins is a long story that started with observations made centuries ago in China where the disease now recognised as beriberi was essentially known. It is perhaps also that liver was used in vary early times for the treatment of diseases which may have been related to a vitamin deficiency. Experiences in the Middle Ages showed that certain foods were definitely connected with the prevention and cure of scurvy. All these and other observations led ultimately to the scientific investigations of the present century.