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In Dr. Tange's time nutrition was still
a relatively young field. The new discipline of home economics, which integrated
a wide variety of fields, helped provide the foundation for advanced work
in the area of nutrition, which was also based on a new, synthetic approach.
Having studied both organic chemistry, which concerns itself with proteins
and other organic compounds, and biochemistry, which explores the relationship
between living organisms and chemical elements, Ume Tange was able to map
a clear and straight path for her studies within this relatively uncharted
territory.
Using guinea pigs and other laboratory animals, Tange determined experimentally
what nutrients are necessary to sustain life. By collecting data from various
experiments, she demonstrated the roles such nutrients as fats, carbohydrates,
and vitamins play in maintaining good health. These achievements contributed
greatly to the science of nutrition.
Ume Tange's research provided the basis for the establishment of daily minimum
caloric and nutritional requirements in Japan and were also used to help
determine nutritional guidelines for pregnant women, infants, and school
lunches. Even today, when people worry about eating too much instead of
too little, the science of nutrition plays an important role in our lives
by researching such topics as how to achieve weight loss without the loss
of essential nutrients and the importance of trace elements and other supplementary
nutrients. Every month seems to bring new reports of foods that may heighten
immunity or lower the risk of cancer; it is the task of nutritionists to
test and analyze such effects through chemical analysis and animal experiments,
and to determine how the results can best be applied to the human body. |
