Commentary

Ancel Keys: a tribute

Theodore B VanItallie

Department of Medicine, St Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital Center, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA

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Nutrition & Metabolism 2005, 2:4doi:10.1186/1743-7075-2-4

Published:	14 February 2005

Abstract

Ancel Keys, Ph.D., who died in November, 2004, at the age of 100, was among the first scientists to recognize that human atherosclerosis is not an inevitable consequence of aging, and that a high-fat diet can be a major risk factor for coronary heart disease. During World War II, he and a group of talented co-workers at the University of Minnesota conducted a large-scale study of experimentally-induced human starvation. The data generated by this study – which was immediately recognized to be a classic – continue to be of inestimable value to nutrition scientists. In his later years, Keys spent more time at his home in Naples, Italy, where he had the opportunity to continue his personal study of the beneficial effects on health and longevity of a Mediterranean diet.