ABSTRACT
During the late nineteenth and throughout the twentieth century, numerous experiments were conducted to determine the effects of diet on human health. Notable examples include the work of Goldberg, who studied the effects of diet on pellagra in prisoners, and of Keys, who examined the effects of starvation and refeeding on conscientious objectors during the Second World War.1,2 Without delving into the ethical dilemmas associated with those studies, one thing is clear: the majority of these early studies were conducted on young or middle-aged men, but the results were often extrapolated to men and women, without respect to factors such as age, ethnicity, activity level, and health status. Now, at the beginning of the twenty-rst century, it is becoming increasingly apparent that men and women differ considerably in their response to diet, physical activity, and other factors that may affect changes in body fat.
