This VE (Victory in Europe) Day, I would like to remember Elsie Widdowson, named in 2020 as one of the BBC’s “seven important but little-known British female scientists.” This amazing lady made nutrition what it is today, she laid the foundation for the importance of dietary requirements, not just for Britain but all over the world. Without her research and influence at the time, nutrition and dietary, wouldn’t be what it is today. From making sure we were all getting the right vitamins and requirements during the rationing in WWII, to studying the infant diet on human growth, to co-authoring what dietitians and nutritionists call “The Dietitians Bible” Elsie’s work changed so much for the world back in the 1940’s right up until her death and is still used and remembered now. Here are just some of the many achievements that are little-known but had a huge influence on how dietetics and nutrition are used today.
- Elsie and Dr Robert were responsible for overseeing the addition of vitamins to food and wartime rationing during WWII. They added calcium to bread, ensuring what we needed during the fight to freedom.
- Elsie studied the impact of infant diet on human growth, she studied the effects from deficiencies of salt and water in our diets and produced the first tables of nutritional content before and after cooking.
- Elsie co-authored a book that became wide known as the “dietitians bible” and formed the basis for modern nutritional thinking.
- Her work in WWII changed Britain, herself and her colleagues put themselves on a starvation diet, with rigorous exercise of burning 5000 calories per day, to see the effects of the extreme rationing system. They then developed a diet of bread cabbage and potatoes to show good health could be supported, in times of rationing with little meat, dairy and calcium intake.
- Herself and her colleagues helped the victims of severe starvation in Nazi concentration camps, she followed on from this to study malnourishment in Africa.
- Elsie studied the importance of the nutritional content of infant diets, specifically vitamins and minerals, in natural and artificial milk.
She was awarded many prestigious honours in her time and was president of many organisations, she was Head of the Infant Nutrition Laboratory, President of the Nutrition Society, President of Neonatal Society, President of the British Nutrition Foundation and was even awarded a CBE. So, thanks Elsie for your help in making nutrition what it is today.