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The plight of nutrition
January 2 979
Vol. 4, Nd. 1. f1.50
BiochemicalSciences PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF BIOCHEMISTRY
BY ELSEVIER
The plight of nutrition A that
Among the articles in the News pages of TIBS this month are appreciations of the work of the 1978 Nobel Prizewinners for Chemistry, and for Physiology or Medicine written by J. B. Chappell and G. Bertani. In our Open Question feature, Robert Macnab looks at how bacteria are propelled by their flagella. Topics examined in the six review articles this month include Anthony Fink on Cryoenzymology and David Stellar on Autoimmunity. This month’s 50 Years Ago feature is by Fritz Lipmann on the discovery of the adenylic acid system in animal tissues.
mong the biologica: sciences, nutrition is unusual in the amount of public attention it receives daily. A generation ago, the media and the public relied on information that was supplied by the scientific ‘nutrition establishment’. This has changed abruptly: consumer-activists now identify the establishment with the food industry, which is said to be oblivious to actual needs or safety. An expanding business in so-called ‘health foods’ exploits a nostalgic longing for farm-fresh, uncontaminated food that is identified with a mythical and idealized remembrance of things past. This longing is enhanced by an aversion to the repulsive chemical names of additives that appear on the labels of processed foods, also by findings of toxic effects on laboratory animals resu!ting from feeding high levels of certain ingredients and residues in foods. Young [l] says that the present attitude towards food possesses elements of tragedy and that ‘powerful popular currents, shrewdly exploited by special interest group!., have led to a significant weakening of’protection against promotors of nutritior al nonsense’. The charlatans and woulc--be messiahs of nutrition are greatly a&led by the democratic principle of free speech and equal time that allows quacks to make their sensational claims on the same footing as scientists who attempt to rebut them. Most nutritionists avoid or *ignore such challenges, preferring to follow instead the conventional scientific pattern of laboratory research, academic teachmg, and attending meetings with their colleagues. Also, many nutritionists have strong altruistic and missionary tendencies. They commonly spend leaves in Third World countries to help with food-related programs, thus ignoring the well-fed domestic middle-class, who fall prey to nutritional quacks. The so-called ‘Proxmire Bill’ was passed by the U.S. Senate, 81 to 10 [l]. This bill became law in 1975. It was opposed by all the major professional groups concerned with food and nutrition. It was supported
by Professors Linus Pauling and Roger Williams, and by the National Health Federation (NHF) [2], which is said to have stimulated an avalanche of two million letters urging its passage. The bill specifically removed the legal authority of the Food and Drug Administration to regulate special dietary supplements. its passage was a resounding and lasting defeat for scientific nutrition. NHF and its allies, supported by a few renegade scientists, then proceeded to promote the imaginary ‘vitamins’ B,, [3] and B,, [4]. ‘Vitamin B,, (‘pangamic acid’) is a mechanical mixture of calcium gluconate and synthetic dimethyl glycine. ‘Vitamin B,,’ is a trade name for the quack cancer remedy, laetrile (amygdalin). The power of lobbying over science has led to the legalization of laetrile sales in 15 American states. NHF is campaigning with some success against one of the greatest contributions of scientific nutrition to public health: the fluoridation of drinking water. The ,best-organized refutation of NHF’s misrepresentation of this is in Consumer Heports [5].
The alimentary role of food is being overshadowed by implications that certain foods are carcinogenic [6]. These include saturated fats [7] and pyrolyzed proteins [8]. The .latter finding [8] and an earlier publication describing production of carby barbecuing cinogen hydrocarbons steaks [9] seemed to arouse very little @El.sevier/Norlb-Holland Biomedical Press 1979
N2
TIBS - January 1979
atterition by comparison with a news release stating that the frying of hamburgers caused formation of mutagens [lo]. It has long been evident that gluttony shortens life expectancy, but not until recently was a move made to restrict the individual choice of food sources or intake. This was in a report by Senator McGovern’s committee [ill, which proposed ‘national nutrition goals’, largely in the diriction of increasing consumption of starch as a replacement for fat, sugar and meat. The report relies considerably on hearsay and newspaper articles. It has been criticized by prominent nutritionists [12], who point out that moderation, rather than regimented changes in diet, is the most sensible counteraction to overeating. The benefits of vitamin overdosage primarily accrue to the sellers of vitamins. Strangely enough, the devotees of ‘natural’ foods commonly believe that their diets should also include large amounts of supplementary synthetic vitamins. Fortunately, with the exception of A and D, the vitamins are fairly innocuous, although the excess quantities appear to be useless, when consumed in amounts many times as great as the recommended allowances. Recently, however, there is a suggestion that induction of ascorbic acid destructiofi by massive overdosage with vitamin C may persist for years [12]. Many members of the public have changed their attitudes towards food and nutrition in recent years. A distrust of the food supply, and a general trend of scepticism toward science, have led to rejection of scientific nutrition, and acceptance of a dietary mythology that promises ‘super-health’. THOMAS H. JUKES
Thomas H. Jukes is Professor in Residence of Medical Physics, University of California, Berkeley U.S.A. He is also Public Aflairs Oficer, American Institute of Nutrition.
Young J. H. (1978) The Agile Role of Food: Some Historical Reflections in Nutrition and Drug Interrelation, 1, 1-18, Academic Press, New York Barrett, S. (1976) The Unhealthy Alliance in The Health Robbers pp. 188-201, George F. Stickley Co., Philadelphia Herbert, V., Pangamic Acid (‘Vitamin Bll’) J. Am. Med. Assoc. (in press) Laetrile, Federal Register, 42, 39768-39800, 5 Aug. 1977 Fluoridation, The Cancer Scare, Consumer Reports, July 1978, p. 392; Aug. 1978 p. 480 For example, an industrial news-sheet Chemecology, Manufacturing Chemists Assocn., July 1978, p. 3, says ‘smoking and a high fat diet are said to account for 75 per cent of all cancer deaths.’
Trendsin BiochemicalSciences PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF BIOCHEMI!?XRYBY ELSEVIER January 1979
Volume 4, No. I
Contents Page Nl The plight of nutritign by Thomas H. Jukes N3 Nobel Prize for Chemistry: Peter Mitchell by J. B. ChappeN Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine: Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smi’th by G. Bertani N4 Biochemical nomenclature: an offer to the editors of non-biochemical journals by Claude Lit;becq N5 Emerging Techniques: Affinity electrophoresis by Vaclav Horejsi, Marie Ticha and Jan N6 Kocourek N.9 [n prospect: the XIth International Congress of Biochemistry by J. Gordin Kaplan Open Question: How do flagella propel bacteria? by Robert M. Macnab N 10 N 14 Letter to the Editor Reviews A unique enzyme - protein substrate modifier reaction: plasmin/streptokinase interaction by Francis J. Castellino Biochemical analysis of the targets of autoimmunity by B. David Stellar Cryoenzymology by Anthony L. Fink Multiple roles of ATP in the regulation of muscle sugar transport by M. K. Gould Vitamin D to 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol: evolution of a steroid hormone by Anthony W. Norman and Helen L. Henry Is sporulation a simple model for studying differentiation? by Jekisiei Szulmajster 50 years Ago: Discovery of the adenylic acid system in animal tissues by Fritz Lipmann
1 5 8 10 14 18 22
Film and Book Reviews
N 20
Noticeboard
N 16
Editor-in-Chief: J. Tooze, EMBO, Postfach 102240,69 Heidelkrg 1, W. Germany. Tel. Heidelberg (06221) 383031, Telex 461613. Staff Editor: Steve Prentis, 14A Regent Street, Cambridge CB2 lDB, U.K. Tel. Cambridge (0234) 59787, Telex 81623. Editorial Board: R. L. Baldwin, Sto@ord, G. Bernardi, Paris. R. A. Bradshaw, St. Louis, K. van Dam, Amsterdam, N. M. Green, London, R. L. Hill, Durham, U. F. Uttar, Cleveland. A. R. Williamson, Glasgow, and K. Yogi, Nqoyo. Triads ia Iliocbemieal Beiices is published monthly (one volume per year) by Elsevier/North-Holland 335 Jan van Galenstmat, Amsterdam, for the International Union of Biochemistry.
Biomedical Press,
Personal sobscriptioas U.S. $29.50/D% 68.00 r volume including postage and handling. Application io mail at Second Class Postage rate is pendin at Jamaica, N. K AnfreIght and mailing in the U.S.A. by Publications Expediting Inc., 200 Meacham Avenue, Elmont, a Y11003. Tel. (516) 352-7300. Advertisemaat eoqairies: U.S.A./Cono&: Joseph Bourgholtzer, Inc., The JBI Building, Box 521, Mahwah, New Jersey 04730, U.S.A. Phone 201-529-3883. Other countries: TIBS Business Office, P.O. Box 548, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Registered
os o Newspaper
at the Post O&e
@ 1979. ElsevierlNorth-Holland Biomedical Press.‘AlI rights reserved. No port of this pwblication may be reproduced, stored in II retrieval systetn, or transmitted in any form or by any tneons, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the International Union of Biochemistry. Submission to t/t& journal of a paper entoils the ottthor’s irrevocable nndexclusive authorization of publisher to collect any sums or consideratiaw for copying or reproductionpoyoble by thirdparties (as mentionedin article 17, powgraph 2 of the Dutch Copyright Act of 1912 and in the Royal Decree of June 20.1974 (S. 351) pursuant to article 166 of the Dutch Copyright Act of 1912) and/or to act in or out of Court in connection therewith. Trends in Biochemical Sciences is opofiticoi. The views and opinions expressed by its writers and correspondents do not necesswily reflect those ofthe editorial bwrd or the publisher.
the
7 Enig, M. G., Mann R. J. and Keeney. M. (1978) Fed. Proc. 37, 2215 8 Sugimura, T., Nagao, M., Kawachi, T., Honda, M., Yahagi, T., Seino, Y., Sato, S., Matsukura, N., Matsushima, T., Shirai, A., Sawamura, M. and Matsumoto, H. (1977) Mutagen-carcinogens in Food, with Special Reference to Highly Mutagenic Pyrolytic Products in Broiled Foods in Origins of Human Cancer, 1561-1577, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, N.Y. 9 Lijinsky, W. and Shubik, P. (1964) Benzo(& pyrene and other polynuclear hydrocarbons
10 11
2 3
in charcoal-broiled meat, Science 145, 5355 Food Chemical News, Vol. 20, No. 11, p. 57, 29 May 1978 Dietary Goals for the United States, U.S. Government Printing Office, 052-070-043768, 83 pp., Dec. 1977 Harper, A. E. (1978) Dietary Goals-A Skeptical View, Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 31, 310 Schrauzer, G. N. (1978) Vitamin C: Conservative human requirements and aspects of overdosage, Biochemistry of Nutrition, MTP PubL Co. (in press)
Vol. 4, Nd. 1. f1.50
BiochemicalSciences PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF BIOCHEMISTRY
BY ELSEVIER
The plight of nutrition A that
Among the articles in the News pages of TIBS this month are appreciations of the work of the 1978 Nobel Prizewinners for Chemistry, and for Physiology or Medicine written by J. B. Chappell and G. Bertani. In our Open Question feature, Robert Macnab looks at how bacteria are propelled by their flagella. Topics examined in the six review articles this month include Anthony Fink on Cryoenzymology and David Stellar on Autoimmunity. This month’s 50 Years Ago feature is by Fritz Lipmann on the discovery of the adenylic acid system in animal tissues.
mong the biologica: sciences, nutrition is unusual in the amount of public attention it receives daily. A generation ago, the media and the public relied on information that was supplied by the scientific ‘nutrition establishment’. This has changed abruptly: consumer-activists now identify the establishment with the food industry, which is said to be oblivious to actual needs or safety. An expanding business in so-called ‘health foods’ exploits a nostalgic longing for farm-fresh, uncontaminated food that is identified with a mythical and idealized remembrance of things past. This longing is enhanced by an aversion to the repulsive chemical names of additives that appear on the labels of processed foods, also by findings of toxic effects on laboratory animals resu!ting from feeding high levels of certain ingredients and residues in foods. Young [l] says that the present attitude towards food possesses elements of tragedy and that ‘powerful popular currents, shrewdly exploited by special interest group!., have led to a significant weakening of’protection against promotors of nutritior al nonsense’. The charlatans and woulc--be messiahs of nutrition are greatly a&led by the democratic principle of free speech and equal time that allows quacks to make their sensational claims on the same footing as scientists who attempt to rebut them. Most nutritionists avoid or *ignore such challenges, preferring to follow instead the conventional scientific pattern of laboratory research, academic teachmg, and attending meetings with their colleagues. Also, many nutritionists have strong altruistic and missionary tendencies. They commonly spend leaves in Third World countries to help with food-related programs, thus ignoring the well-fed domestic middle-class, who fall prey to nutritional quacks. The so-called ‘Proxmire Bill’ was passed by the U.S. Senate, 81 to 10 [l]. This bill became law in 1975. It was opposed by all the major professional groups concerned with food and nutrition. It was supported
by Professors Linus Pauling and Roger Williams, and by the National Health Federation (NHF) [2], which is said to have stimulated an avalanche of two million letters urging its passage. The bill specifically removed the legal authority of the Food and Drug Administration to regulate special dietary supplements. its passage was a resounding and lasting defeat for scientific nutrition. NHF and its allies, supported by a few renegade scientists, then proceeded to promote the imaginary ‘vitamins’ B,, [3] and B,, [4]. ‘Vitamin B,, (‘pangamic acid’) is a mechanical mixture of calcium gluconate and synthetic dimethyl glycine. ‘Vitamin B,,’ is a trade name for the quack cancer remedy, laetrile (amygdalin). The power of lobbying over science has led to the legalization of laetrile sales in 15 American states. NHF is campaigning with some success against one of the greatest contributions of scientific nutrition to public health: the fluoridation of drinking water. The ,best-organized refutation of NHF’s misrepresentation of this is in Consumer Heports [5].
The alimentary role of food is being overshadowed by implications that certain foods are carcinogenic [6]. These include saturated fats [7] and pyrolyzed proteins [8]. The .latter finding [8] and an earlier publication describing production of carby barbecuing cinogen hydrocarbons steaks [9] seemed to arouse very little @El.sevier/Norlb-Holland Biomedical Press 1979
N2
TIBS - January 1979
atterition by comparison with a news release stating that the frying of hamburgers caused formation of mutagens [lo]. It has long been evident that gluttony shortens life expectancy, but not until recently was a move made to restrict the individual choice of food sources or intake. This was in a report by Senator McGovern’s committee [ill, which proposed ‘national nutrition goals’, largely in the diriction of increasing consumption of starch as a replacement for fat, sugar and meat. The report relies considerably on hearsay and newspaper articles. It has been criticized by prominent nutritionists [12], who point out that moderation, rather than regimented changes in diet, is the most sensible counteraction to overeating. The benefits of vitamin overdosage primarily accrue to the sellers of vitamins. Strangely enough, the devotees of ‘natural’ foods commonly believe that their diets should also include large amounts of supplementary synthetic vitamins. Fortunately, with the exception of A and D, the vitamins are fairly innocuous, although the excess quantities appear to be useless, when consumed in amounts many times as great as the recommended allowances. Recently, however, there is a suggestion that induction of ascorbic acid destructiofi by massive overdosage with vitamin C may persist for years [12]. Many members of the public have changed their attitudes towards food and nutrition in recent years. A distrust of the food supply, and a general trend of scepticism toward science, have led to rejection of scientific nutrition, and acceptance of a dietary mythology that promises ‘super-health’. THOMAS H. JUKES
Thomas H. Jukes is Professor in Residence of Medical Physics, University of California, Berkeley U.S.A. He is also Public Aflairs Oficer, American Institute of Nutrition.
Young J. H. (1978) The Agile Role of Food: Some Historical Reflections in Nutrition and Drug Interrelation, 1, 1-18, Academic Press, New York Barrett, S. (1976) The Unhealthy Alliance in The Health Robbers pp. 188-201, George F. Stickley Co., Philadelphia Herbert, V., Pangamic Acid (‘Vitamin Bll’) J. Am. Med. Assoc. (in press) Laetrile, Federal Register, 42, 39768-39800, 5 Aug. 1977 Fluoridation, The Cancer Scare, Consumer Reports, July 1978, p. 392; Aug. 1978 p. 480 For example, an industrial news-sheet Chemecology, Manufacturing Chemists Assocn., July 1978, p. 3, says ‘smoking and a high fat diet are said to account for 75 per cent of all cancer deaths.’
Trendsin BiochemicalSciences PUBLISHED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF BIOCHEMI!?XRYBY ELSEVIER January 1979
Volume 4, No. I
Contents Page Nl The plight of nutritign by Thomas H. Jukes N3 Nobel Prize for Chemistry: Peter Mitchell by J. B. ChappeN Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine: Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smi’th by G. Bertani N4 Biochemical nomenclature: an offer to the editors of non-biochemical journals by Claude Lit;becq N5 Emerging Techniques: Affinity electrophoresis by Vaclav Horejsi, Marie Ticha and Jan N6 Kocourek N.9 [n prospect: the XIth International Congress of Biochemistry by J. Gordin Kaplan Open Question: How do flagella propel bacteria? by Robert M. Macnab N 10 N 14 Letter to the Editor Reviews A unique enzyme - protein substrate modifier reaction: plasmin/streptokinase interaction by Francis J. Castellino Biochemical analysis of the targets of autoimmunity by B. David Stellar Cryoenzymology by Anthony L. Fink Multiple roles of ATP in the regulation of muscle sugar transport by M. K. Gould Vitamin D to 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol: evolution of a steroid hormone by Anthony W. Norman and Helen L. Henry Is sporulation a simple model for studying differentiation? by Jekisiei Szulmajster 50 years Ago: Discovery of the adenylic acid system in animal tissues by Fritz Lipmann
1 5 8 10 14 18 22
Film and Book Reviews
N 20
Noticeboard
N 16
Editor-in-Chief: J. Tooze, EMBO, Postfach 102240,69 Heidelkrg 1, W. Germany. Tel. Heidelberg (06221) 383031, Telex 461613. Staff Editor: Steve Prentis, 14A Regent Street, Cambridge CB2 lDB, U.K. Tel. Cambridge (0234) 59787, Telex 81623. Editorial Board: R. L. Baldwin, Sto@ord, G. Bernardi, Paris. R. A. Bradshaw, St. Louis, K. van Dam, Amsterdam, N. M. Green, London, R. L. Hill, Durham, U. F. Uttar, Cleveland. A. R. Williamson, Glasgow, and K. Yogi, Nqoyo. Triads ia Iliocbemieal Beiices is published monthly (one volume per year) by Elsevier/North-Holland 335 Jan van Galenstmat, Amsterdam, for the International Union of Biochemistry.
Biomedical Press,
Personal sobscriptioas U.S. $29.50/D% 68.00 r volume including postage and handling. Application io mail at Second Class Postage rate is pendin at Jamaica, N. K AnfreIght and mailing in the U.S.A. by Publications Expediting Inc., 200 Meacham Avenue, Elmont, a Y11003. Tel. (516) 352-7300. Advertisemaat eoqairies: U.S.A./Cono&: Joseph Bourgholtzer, Inc., The JBI Building, Box 521, Mahwah, New Jersey 04730, U.S.A. Phone 201-529-3883. Other countries: TIBS Business Office, P.O. Box 548, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Registered
os o Newspaper
at the Post O&e
@ 1979. ElsevierlNorth-Holland Biomedical Press.‘AlI rights reserved. No port of this pwblication may be reproduced, stored in II retrieval systetn, or transmitted in any form or by any tneons, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the International Union of Biochemistry. Submission to t/t& journal of a paper entoils the ottthor’s irrevocable nndexclusive authorization of publisher to collect any sums or consideratiaw for copying or reproductionpoyoble by thirdparties (as mentionedin article 17, powgraph 2 of the Dutch Copyright Act of 1912 and in the Royal Decree of June 20.1974 (S. 351) pursuant to article 166 of the Dutch Copyright Act of 1912) and/or to act in or out of Court in connection therewith. Trends in Biochemical Sciences is opofiticoi. The views and opinions expressed by its writers and correspondents do not necesswily reflect those ofthe editorial bwrd or the publisher.
the
7 Enig, M. G., Mann R. J. and Keeney. M. (1978) Fed. Proc. 37, 2215 8 Sugimura, T., Nagao, M., Kawachi, T., Honda, M., Yahagi, T., Seino, Y., Sato, S., Matsukura, N., Matsushima, T., Shirai, A., Sawamura, M. and Matsumoto, H. (1977) Mutagen-carcinogens in Food, with Special Reference to Highly Mutagenic Pyrolytic Products in Broiled Foods in Origins of Human Cancer, 1561-1577, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, N.Y. 9 Lijinsky, W. and Shubik, P. (1964) Benzo(& pyrene and other polynuclear hydrocarbons
10 11
2 3
in charcoal-broiled meat, Science 145, 5355 Food Chemical News, Vol. 20, No. 11, p. 57, 29 May 1978 Dietary Goals for the United States, U.S. Government Printing Office, 052-070-043768, 83 pp., Dec. 1977 Harper, A. E. (1978) Dietary Goals-A Skeptical View, Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 31, 310 Schrauzer, G. N. (1978) Vitamin C: Conservative human requirements and aspects of overdosage, Biochemistry of Nutrition, MTP PubL Co. (in press)