Perspectives historiques sur la notion de nutrition

Even if the word itself has only been coined recently, the concept of nutrition designating the flow of nutriments by which living matter maintains its stability and the link between what we are and what we eat have been traced back to ancient times in various civilisations.As a science, nutrition originated at the end of the XVIIIth century from the application of analytical methods of chemistry to various fields of the physiology of vegetable, animal and cell nutrition. Nutrition applies to the French word “diététique” which defines a vast field of knowledge ranging from applications of nutritional science to what a healthy or a sick man eats, including the art of keeping fit thanks to a healthy lifestyle.As a development of Lavoisier’s methodological contribution, nutrition first finds its field of application in agriculture and animal husbandry before contributing to the definition of standards and diets based upon the calorie theory.By conceiving nutrition as a science of man and a synthetic science, Jean Trémolières, unsuccessfully set out to break with prevailing ideas.We are now in search of a more individualized approach to nutrition