Nutrition

 
 
 
 

Vocabulary

rule	findings	dermatology
accept	influence	pull some stings
accept	ambition	dopamine
vitality	rattle (2)	ambitious
afford	transfer	send/sent/sent
rickets	conduct	find/found/found
non	discover	conventional
gain	protein	significant
proper	purified	eat/ate/eaten
claim	dismiss	experiment
result	pack up	breakthrough
scholar	publish	belongings
take up	institute	preventive
peer	bright (2)	well received
scurvy	research	give/gave/given
faulty	consume	investigate
realize	head (3)	assignment
cure	prevent	roughly (2)
ingest	substance	find/found/found
vital	provide	chemical compound
contain	nitrogen	know/knew/known
public	gain (2)	in order to
role (2)	period (2)	subject (3)
equally	maintain	formulate
expect	existence	concentrate
access		grow/grew/grown

 
 
 
 
 

School

At the time of his birth in 1884, Poland was ruled by the Tsar of Russia.

And if you weren’t ethnically “Russian”, gaining access into the public education system was impossible — unless you knew someone who could pull some strings.

Although his father was a respected dermatologist, this wasn’t influential enough.

So Kazimierz Funk was home-schooled by his mother until he was finally accepted into the secondary school in his hometown.

Studying Abroad

Funk was an ambitious, intelligent young man, and his parents soon realized the local public school system wasn’t able to provide him with a proper education.

As soon as they could afford it, they sent him to Geneva, Switzerland. There Funk studied chemistry, then transferred to the University of Berlin, where he conducted research on food chemistry — and made a major discovery about proteins.

Discoveries

Funk found that when one group of animals was fed non-purified proteins, all gained significant weight. However, the group that ate purified proteins did not.

His discovery rattled conventional thinking; especially that of his Professor, who claimed Funk’s experiment was faulty. And he dismissed the results.

So in 1911, Funk packed up his belongings and moved to London, where he took up the position of a scholar at the Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine. It was there that he first published his studies on how dopamine works within the human body.

Nutrition

Funk’s paper was well received among his peers. And so the head of the institute, Charles Martin, gave Funk his next scholarly assignment: investigating the connection between disease and what foods people ate.

And it’s with this research that Funk made another breakthrough. He realized that some diseases, such as rickets and scurvy, could be cured or prevented if a person ingested the right amount of bio-chemicals found in certain food substances.

Vitamins

But in order to write his new paper on these substances, he needed to call them something. He needed a name . . . one that made sense, was easy to pronounce, and even easier to remember.

The name Funk selected first appeared in his 1912 research paper titled, “Vital-Amines,” with vital meaning vitality and “amines,” for the chemical compound containing nitrogen. The “e” was dropped in 1920’s and the word became what we known as vitamins.

Further Work

It took the public almost 25 years to accept Funk’s findings on vitamins, and the role they play in a person’s health. But that period he continued doing more research on the subject.

In fact, Funk found that other vitamins, such as B1, B2, B3, C, and D, were equally helpful to maintaining good health. He even formulated one of the first vitamin concentrates that are still in existence. Though controversial, the vitamin supplement market has grown into a major industry.

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Questions

1. In the 1800s, all children had access to good public schooling. True or false?

2. Did Kazimierz Funk attend a local school and a regional university?

3. Funk studied psychology and philosophy. Is this right or wrong?

4. Did he only have to deal with scientific issues (and problems)?

5. What were some of Funk’s major discoveries?

6. How did the word “vitamin” originate? What is the etymology of the word “vitamin”?

7. Has Funk’s research largely been forgotten?

 

A. Where I live, everyone has equal access to good quality education. Yes or no?

B. Do you know any research scientists? What do they study or investigate?

C. Is the vitamin and nutritional supplement industry very large? Are vitamins and nutritional supplements rigorously promoted, marketed and advertised?

D. What can we learn from Dr. Funk?

E. What might happen in the future?