Fine wines & fish oil - Jeannette Ewin

The British scientist, Hugh Macdonald Sinclair (1910-1990), is best remembered for his belief that diets deficient in essential fatty acids are the cause of most degenerative illnesses, including coronary heart disease. Sinclair's forceful arguments on this matter preceded firm scientific evidence and were met with ridicule. Nonetheless, convinced he was right, Sinclair raged against the scientific establishment, and thereby cast himself into a professional wilderness. He emerged as a hero when research by others proved him right. Fine Wines and Fish Oil explores the facts behind Sinclair's rise and fall, and finds a complex story involving family life, personal ambition, and the schism between the academic pursuit of knowledge and the use of information for the public good. Much of the story is set against the events of the Second World War, and the struggle to feed people on limited rations as a means of sustaining both human health and the defence of the nation. The study of human nutrition during the twentieth century provides the thread that binds these events together.