Tag: History of diet

In the late 19th century, a Wesleyan University chemist named Wilbur Olin Atwater pioneered the scientific measurement of food energy, a concept that would later evolve into modern calorie counting. His work laid the foundation for the practice, which was then popularized for the masses by early 20th-century author Lulu Hunt Peters.

In the United States, sugar consumption per capita reached about 100 pounds annually by 1920, marking a dramatic increase from previous centuries. This statistic offers a fascinating snapshot of how much sugar did people eat 100 years ago, reflecting a diet much different from what came before, and yet still distinct from our modern eating habits.