Military rice, civilian chicken, and Christiaan Eijkman (1858-1930): The beginning of the vitamin era.

Since the beginning of civilisation, our forefathers realized the importance of food for the proper maintenance of life. human civilisation had faced a number of incidences of ailments that took its toll originating from nutritional deficiency. In the history of nutritional science, the pathbreaking work of Christiaan Eijkman not only halted the march of death due to beriberi, but also opened the path for the discovery of various vitamins. These discoveries answered the various enigmas and showed how a very small amount of vitamins could prevent and cure the different disorders that took innumerable lives.