Dr. Ancel Keys
Quartermaster Hall of Fame
2005
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The
research and career of the physiologist, Dr. Ancel Keys had a profound effect on
society's attitude to food and exercise. His
work spanning from the 1930’s through the 1970’s, introduced many of the
assumptions which we now take for granted about the relationship between diet,
energy expenditure, metabolic rates and health.
In 1937, Keys moved to the University
of
Minnesota
where he organized the laboratory of physiological hygiene where he led
the way in studying the effects of ageing and the body’s responses to heat,
cold or starvation. He determined
the relationships between height and weight, diet and blood fats, blood fats and
the incidence of heart attacks. His
study on the human body’s’ response to extreme conditions prompted the army
to ask him to develop rations for army paratroopers.
What resulted was the famous “K-rations” of World War II, the combat
rations that sustained soldiers throughout the war. Dr. Keys died in 2004 at the
age of 100. He is survived by his
wife, Margaret Keys, a daughter, Carrie D’Andrea, and a son, Dr. Henry Keys;
eight grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
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