History of nutritional immunology: introduction and overview.

Nutritional immunology is a newly recognized subdiscipline of vast clinical and public health importance. Its history began in 1810 with recognition of lymphoid tissue atrophy due to malnutrition. Discovery of vitamins in the early 1900s was followed by reports on their contribution to immunity and other host defenses. A hiatus in immunonutritional progress occurred during World War II and the "antibiotic era," but a worldwide rebirth of interest began in the 1960s and early 1970s. The current logarithmic growth of nutritional immunology was triggered by increased medical interest, plus the introduction of new concepts and investigative research methodologies from both parent sciences.