Human Amino Acid Requirements

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Abstract
Few issues in nutritional science have aroused such long-standing and deep-seated controversies as protein and amino acid requirements. Those fortunate to read Graham Lusk's description of “A Normal Diet” in his Elements of the Science of Nutrition (Lusk 1928) will be only too aware of the debate that raged around the beginning of the 20th century (and before that) on the issues of the benefits or otherwise of large or small quantities of animal or vegetable protein in the human diet. Lusk records an account of a conversation between Lusk and Chittenden as to whether Lusk's delight and satisfaction with a large slice of cold roast beef consumed on board ship after an austere stay in wartime Britain reflected the replenishment of the “improvement quota” of his protein stores (Lusk's view) or the appetite-creating stimulus of the sea air (Chittenden's view). Lusk wrote that both opinions were proper themes for psychoanalysis. Students of the history of science looking at the current debate about amino acid requirements might have the same response today.
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