Helen S. Mitchell

Helen Swift Mitchell (September 25, 1895 - December 12, 1984) was an American biochemist and nutritionist.

Helen Swift Mitchell
BornSeptember 25, 1895
Bridgeport, Connecticut
DiedDecember 12, 1984
Pleasant Hill, Tennessee
OccupationBiochemist, nutritionist

Mitchell was born at Bridgeport, Connecticut. She obtained her Bachelor's degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1917 and a doctorate in biochemistry from Yale University in 1921.[1][2]

Mitchell was research director at Battle Creek Sanitarium.[2] She taught nutrition and physiology at Battle Creek College (1924-1935). She was research professor of nutrition at University of Massachusetts.[2] She was principal nutritionist for the Federal Security Agency (1941-1943) and chief nutritionist for the State Department Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation (1943-1944).[2]

She was appointed dean of home economics at the University of Massachusetts (1946-1960).[1] Her textbook Nutrition in Health and Disease was in print for 56 years and sold more than a million copies.[2] It was positively reviewed in science journals as an excellent source of reference for dietitians, public health nurses and students.[3][4][5]

Mitchell took interest in debunking the irrational claims of fad diets.[6] In 1959, she commented that "ten million Americans, who live in a scientific age, waste 500 million dollars a year on quack diets and fake pills and the junk of non-scientific medicine men."[7]

Selected publications

References
  1. Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy. (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z. Routledge. p. 901. ISBN 0-415-92038-8
  2. "Helen S. Mitchell Dies; Nutritionist and Writer". The New York Times.
  3. Fraser, D. T. (1929). Reviewed Work: Nutrition in Health and Disease by Cooper, Baker and Mitchell. Canadian Public Health Journal 20 (1): 54.
  4. Wiehl, Dorothy G. (1948). Reviewed Work: Nutrition in Health and Disease by Lenna F. Cooper, Edith M. Barber, Helen S. Mitchell. The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 26 (2): 240-241.
  5. Schneider, B. Aubrey. (1952). Reviewed Work: Nutrition in Health and Disease by Lenna F. Cooper, Edith M. Barber, Helen S. Mitchell, Henderika J. Rynbergen. The Quarterly Review of Biology 27 (2): 227-228.
  6. Beecher, Gary R; Dupont, Jacqueline L. (2017). History of Human Nutrition Research in the U. S. Department of Agriculture. United States Department of Agriculture. p. 56
  7. Mitchell, Helen S. (1959). Don't Be Fooled by Fads. Yearbook of Agriculture. United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. p. 660
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