When you look at the back of the box of your favorite ready-to-eat meal, where does the list of macromolecules and daily requirements on the nutrition label come from? That's what we are going to find out this week on Seemingly Unrelated as we explore the unusually recent history of the nutrition label by asking: What did we do before we added these things in 1994? Why don't vitamins and minerals show up on every nutrition label? What role did World War II play in getting the governments of the world to take action on minimal nutrition? And why do the founders of vitamines [sic] Funk & McCollum sound like second rate musical writers? We're joined this week by the host of the Blue Collar White Coat podcast, she is a professional science communicator perfectly positioned to talk about the difficulties in translating hard science to public consumption it's Amy Weldon! Together we will find out the greatest mystery of all: Did a corpulant, Victorian undertaker trick us all into counting carbs from beyond the grave? Only here, on Seemingly Unrelated! Bibliography: Bibliography: “About William Banting, Author of Letter on Corpulence.” Accessed November 24, 2025. http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/banting.html. Atwater, W. O. Foods : Nutritive Value and Cost. With National Agricultural Library U. S. Department of Agriculture. Washington : U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1894. http://archive.org/details/CAT87201446. “Elmer Verner McCollum — A Biographical Sketch (1879 — 1967).” The Journal of Nutrition 100, no. 1 (1970): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/100.1.1. “Funk, Casimir.” May 2, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060502084313/http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/F/Funk/1.html. Gilman, Sander L. Diets and Dieting: A Cultural Encyclopedia. Routledge, 2008. Gujral, Unjali P., Mary Beth Weber, Lisa R. Staimez, and K. M. Venkat Narayan. “Diabetes Among Non-Overweight Individuals: An Emerging Public Health Challenge.” Current Diabetes Reports 18, no. 8 (2018): 60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-018-1017-1. Kellem, Betsy Golden. “The Portly Victorian Undertaker Who Launched the World’s First Low-Carb Craze.” Accessed November 24, 2025. https://www.narratively.com/p/the-portly-victorian-undertaker-who-launched-the-worlds-first-low-carb-craze. King, Paromita, Ian Peacock, and Richard Donnelly. “The UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS): Clinical and Therapeutic Implications for Type 2 Diabetes.” British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 48, no. 5 (1999): 643–48. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2125.1999.00092.x. LOWE, CHARLES U., DAVID BAIRD COURSIN, FELIX P. HEALD, et al. “COMMITTEE ON NUTRITION : PROPOSED CHANGES IN FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION REGULATIONS CONCERNING FORMULA PRODUCTS AND VITAMIN-MINERAL DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS FOR INFANTS.” Pediatrics 40, no. 5 (1967): 916–22. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.40.5.916. Miller, Jaime. “‘Do You Bant?’ William Banting and Bantingism: A Cultural History of a Victorian Anti-Fat Aesthetic.” English Theses & Dissertations, ahead of print, July 1, 2014. https://doi.org/10.25777/xda4-7y41. Mozaffarian, Dariush, Irwin Rosenberg, and Ricardo Uauy. “History of Modern Nutrition Science—Implications for Current Research, Dietary Guidelines, and Food Policy.” Analysis. BMJ 361 (June 2018): k2392. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2392. “NATIONAL NUTRITION CONFERENCE FOR DEFENSE.” Journal of the American Medical Association 116, no. 23 (1941): 2598–99. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1941.02820230042013. Nhs.Uk. “Food Labels.” February 23, 2022. https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-guidelines-and-food-labels/how-to-read-food-labels/. “Nutrition on the Home Front in World War II (U.S. National Park Service).” Accessed November 24, 2025. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/nutrition-on-the-home-front-in-world-war-ii.htm. Romm, Cari. “Vitamins Are a Waste of Money—And They’re Not Helping You, Anyway.” Health. The Atlantic, February 26, 2015. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02/vitamin-bs/386126/. Simopoulos, Artemis P. “The Health Implications Of Overweight And Obesity.” Nutrition Reviews 43, no. 2 (1985): 33–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.1985.tb06850.x. SpringerLink. “Re-Appraising Claude Bernard’s Legacy.” Accessed November 24, 2025. https://link.springer.com/collections/aijdbaddaf. Taylor, Roy, and Rury R. Holman. “Normal Weight Individuals Who Develop Type 2 Diabetes: The Personal Fat Threshold.” Clinical Science (London, England: 1979) 128, no. 7 (2015): 405–10. https://doi.org/10.1042/CS20140553. Technical Guidance on Nutrition Labelling. n.d. Teicholz, Nina. “A Short History of Saturated Fat: The Making and Unmaking of a Scientific Consensus.” Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Obesity 30, no. 1 (2023): 65–71. https://doi.org/10.1097/MED.0000000000000791. “Wayback Machine.” December 30, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171230115051/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/42215/5831_aib750b_1_.pdf.
