Dissertation Research: Chemical, microbiological and biological evaluation of nutritional deficiencies

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project documents the history of nutrition science in Puerto Rico in the twentieth century from the Great Depression when the island was known for its malnutrition, through the post war recasting of malnutrition as an exclusively biomedical condition to be treated by food enrichment and supplementation technologies, to the 1960s when a survey conducted by the Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition at Puerto Rico's School of Medicine determined that obesity had become a national problem. The research will result in a dissertation and results will be shared with interested scientists at the University of Puerto Rico and to a broader audience in Puerto Rico via online forums.