Today we decided to introduce you to another lady from the Women in Science series – Elsie Widdowson, British woman who was a dietitian. She mainly dealt with food analysis. She checked the composition of products – fruit, vegetables, sweets, cereals, etc.
In 1940, together with her colleague Robert McCanc, she published a compendium of knowledge about the nutrients of hundreds of products. This team was the first to demonstrate the importance of fluid and electrolyte balance in the human body, especially in people with kidney, heart and diabetes problems.
During the war, Elsie and her associates developed a diet for the people of Great Britain. Introduced, among others to the diet, bread enriched with calcium, thanks to which the deficiency of this element in daily meals was prevented. She did a lot of experiments on her own body, sometimes overpaying it with fever and exhaustion, but satisfying her innate curiosity gave her great fun and pushed her forward.
AUTHOR: mgr inż. Renata Kowalczyk