The Discovery of Vitamins: Who Coined the Term?

The discovery of vitamins was a major breakthrough in our understanding of health and disease. In 1912, Casimir Funk was the first to use the term vitamin. At the time, scientists were trying to solve problems and discovered that foods contained more than three nutrients. Initially, these substances were referred to as “accessory substances”, which was later changed to the term “vitamin” in scientific articles, and eventually to the word we know today.

Casimir Funk proposed that several diseases could be cured if these nutrients were present in foods. Yoder is credited with first using the term vitamania in 1942 to describe the appeal of relying on nutritional supplements instead of obtaining vitamins from a varied diet of foods. In 1905, William Fletcher became the first scientist to determine whether the elimination of special factors, known as vitamins, from food would cause illness. The discovery of vitamins has been a major milestone in our understanding of health and nutrition.

Vitamins are essential for our bodies to function properly and are found in a variety of foods. Without them, we would be at risk for a number of diseases and illnesses. Today, we have a better understanding of how vitamins work and how they can be obtained from a balanced diet. Vitamins are an important part of our daily lives and are essential for our overall health and wellbeing.

We owe a great deal of thanks to Casimir Funk for his pioneering work in discovering vitamins and for coining the term that we use today.

Ben Liebhardt
Ben Liebhardt

Amateur travel fanatic. General web buff. Certified travel junkie. Twitter nerd. Infuriatingly humble web practitioner. Certified beer nerd.

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