Korean J Med Hist.  2024 Aug;33(2):503-530. 10.13081/kjmh.2024.33.503.

Behind the Protein Battle Lines in the 1970s: Nutritional Turmoil in the Postwar World

• LEE D

• KMID: 2559123
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.13081/kjmh.2024.33.503

Abstract

This study examines the development of international debates about the perception of nutrients, particularly protein, with a focus on the “Protein Debate” of the late 20th century. The nutritional obsession with protein has been ongoing since the early 19th century, when scientific nutrition was established, and has been at the center of debates surrounding food, agriculture, healthcare, and the environment, changing in shape and form over time. In addition to being a nutrient necessary for optimal physical and mental performance, protein has been a marker of poverty and discrimination at the international level and explains differences in individual living standards. Kwashiorkor, also known as protein calorie disorder, medicalized the problem of poverty in the Third World or underdeveloped countries. By the 1970s, the nutritional discussion of protein had undergone a radical transformation, with implications for the entire development discourse, including poverty and human rights. This study of the historical discourse on protein deficiency goes beyond the scientific focus on nutritional status, food, and dietary health to identify the social, economic, and cultural implications of nutrition.

Keyword

Protein; Malnutrition; Global Hunger; UN; Development