Nutrition Science and Everyday Application - beta v 0.1

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD 85
renounced the theory that goiter was the result of poor hygiene. (Physicians at the time also
blamed drunkenness, dampness, and contaminated water as causes of goiter.)
Experimental test: In the late 1860s, authorities in several French villages began giving
out iodine tablets and salt in an effort to treat goiter.
Interpret results: The program was effective, and 80 percent of goitrous children were
cured. However, adults did not always respond well to the treatment, and because men
with goiter were exempted from service in the French military, some people were opposed
to treating it. Some scientists also insisted that goiter was caused by infectious disease, so
iodine wasn’t yet accepted as a means of preventing it.
Hypothesis: In 1918, Swiss doctor Bayard proposed iodizing salt as a good way to treat
areas endemic with goiter.
Experimental test: Iodized salt was transported by mules to a small village at the base of
the Matterhorn, where more than 75 percent of school children were goitrous. It was given
to families to use for six months.
Results: The iodized salt was beneficial in treating goiter in this remote population.
Experimental test: Physician David Marine conducted the first U.S. experiment of treating
goiter with iodized salt in Akron, Ohio.
Results: This study conducted on over 4,000 school children found that iodized salt
prevented goiter.
Conclusions: Seven other studies similar to Marine’s were conducted in Italy and
Switzerland that also demonstrated the effectiveness of iodized salt in treating goiter. In
1924, U.S. public health officials initiated the program of iodizing salt and started eliminating
the scourge of goiterism. Today, more than 70 percent of American households use iodized
salt, and many other countries have followed the same public health strategy to reduce the
health consequences of iodine deficiency.
It took more than one hundred years from iodine’s discovery as an effective treatment for
goiter until public health programs recognized it as such. Although a lengthy process, the
scientific method is a productive way to define essential nutrients and determine their ability
to promote health and prevent disease.
REPORTING SCIENTIFIC WORK
As we saw with the story of iodine research, scientists must share their findings in order
for other researchers to expand and build upon their discoveries. Collaboration with other
scientists when planning and conducting studies and analyzing results is important for
scientific research. For this reason, communicating with peers and disseminating study
results are important aspects of a scientist’s work. Scientists can share results by presenting
them at a scientific meeting or conference, but this approach can reach only the select
few who are present. Instead, most scientists present their results in peer-reviewed
manuscripts that are published in scientific journals.
Peer-reviewed manuscripts are scientific papers that are reviewed by a scientist’s colleagues,
or peers. These colleagues are qualified individuals, often experts in the same research area,
who judge whether or not the scientist’s work is suitable for publication. The process of
peer review is a quality control step; its goal is to ensure that the research described in a
scientific paper is original, significant, logical, and thorough. It’s important to note that peer
review doesn’t mean a study is perfect or even good. Sometimes bad studies slip through
peer review, but because they’re published and other scientists read them, these are usually