Ansel Keys

Ansel Keys was a former chairman of the International Society of Cardiology and former consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO). He was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1904. Keys earned a B.A. in economics and political science from the University of California at Berkeley (1925); M.S. in biology (1929); Ph.D in oceanography and biology (1930); a second Ph.D in physiology from Cambridge University in 1938.

Keys developed the military K-rations which was first introduced to World War II troops in 1942. These rations were intended to last an entire day, and provided three courses--breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

All K-rations meals contained two packages of dried biscuits, cigarettes, chewing gum, sugar, and a key to open a small canned portion.

Breakfast consisted of canned meat and eggs, a fruit bar, and instant coffee; lunch was canned cheese and a lemon, orange, or a grape drink packet; dinner was toilet paper, a bouillon packet, and a lemon, orange, or a grape drink packet.

K-rations provided a total of about 3,000 calories. They were made by the Cracker Jack Company.

Ancel Keys' interest in diet and cardivascular disease was the result, in part, of observing American business executives who had high rates of heart disease while people in post-war Europe had sharply declining rates of cardiovascular disease in the wake of reduced food supplies.

It was Ansel Keys who made a flawed study which incriminated saturated fats in the increase of stroke and heart disease risks. Many doctors today still hold the incorrect view that saturated fats are bad for you.