Francois Xavier Gouraud (1877–1913) was a French physician and dietitian.
Francois Xavier Gouraud | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1877 |
| Died | 1913 (age 36) |
| Occupation(s) | Physician, dietitian |
Gouraud was born to a medical family. His father was a doctor at the Hôpital de la Charité. Gouraud studied medicine as an intern in Paris hospitals at the age of 21.[1] His thesis in 1903 was on phosphorus exchanges in the normal and pathological organism.[1] He became head of Paul Georges Dieulafoy's clinic at Hôtel-Dieu, Paris.[1] He was chief of laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris.
Gouraud's best known work on dietetics was Que Faut-Il Manger?. It was translated as What Shall I Eat? in 1911.[2] Armand Gautier wrote a preface for the book.[3] It was positively reviewed in medical journals.[4][5][6][7] The book is an impartial survey of important dietary questions and the reasons why specific foods should be consumed or rejected according to normal or pathological conditions.[5] It was described in a review as a "scientifically correct discussion of nutrition and diet, from the common food standpoint."[4]
The book is notable for its chapters on alcohol, vegetarianism and white bread.[8][9] Gouraud concluded that a strict vegetarian diet is inadvisable for most people but a modified version with eggs and milk (ovo-lacto vegetarianism) is more rational.[10][11] He favoured an omnivorous (mixed diet) as the most suitable diet for mankind.[12] A review for the original French version in the British Medical Journal commented that "the book will be found useful by any practitioner who wishes to construct a dietary for any purpose, and the cautions and recommendations contained in it are sound".[12] A criticism of the English translation was that it contained typological errors.[13]
Selected publications
- What Shall I Eat?: A Manual of Rational Feeding (translated by Francis J. Rebman, 1911)[14]
- Le livre du Médecin: La Tuberculose (1912)[15]
References
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