CHINESE NUTRITIONAL STUDIES—RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT Ⅱ. RECENT NUTRITIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS / 营养学报

ABSTRACT

Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, considerable work on basic nutrition research, applied nutrition and dietary therapy were conducted in various institutions. In brief advancement was attained in investigation on dietary and nutrition surveys, on dietary and nutrition requirement and allowance, which formed the basis for the first revision of the Chinese Dietary Allowances; nutrition deficiency diseases, their treatment and prevention; dietary therapy and special diets for patients of various diseases; food composition analysis including amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and toxic substances; improvement of nutrition survey techniques; influence of cooking, storage, processing and preservatives on the nutritive values of foods; effects of environment on nutrition, etc. There were found for instances that certain algae were suitable as a supplementary food, that low doses of gamma rays radiation for preservation of foods (grain) did not influence the nutritive values nor impart any toxicity to the irradiated foods, and that the nicotinic acid in corn was found to exist in bound form and could be liberatd as free forms by simple addition of sodium bicarbonate during cooking and thus became effective in preventing pellagra. Keshan disaase, an endemic chronic myo-cardiopathy,was found to be related mainly to,a lack of sufficient selenium. The soil and foods of the endemic areas as well as the blood and hair of the inhabitants had been found to be very low in selenium content, while oral intake of small amount of selenium salt greatly lowered the incidence of Keshan disease.