author
A. W. Duncan
Best known for linking chemistry with practical diet advice, this early food writer brought a scientist’s eye to vegetarian nutrition. His work helped turn everyday questions about eating into something clear, methodical, and surprisingly modern.
1 Audiobook
The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition
by A. W. Duncan
About the author
Arthur William Duncan was an English-Australian analytical chemist, writer, and vegetarian advocate. Born in Hull, Yorkshire, he trained in chemistry and later worked in Manchester, including as an analytical chemist connected with manufacturing chemists. He also became active in the Vegetarian Society after joining it in 1877.
Duncan is chiefly remembered for The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition, a work that grew from an earlier pamphlet, The Chemistry of Foods, first published in 1884 and later reissued by the Vegetarian Society in 1905. He wrote about food with a practical, scientific approach, aiming to explain nutrition in plain terms rather than relying on fad claims.
Later in life he moved to New South Wales, Australia, while remaining connected with vegetarian circles in England. Even if he is not widely known today, his writing stands out as an early attempt to make food science useful to ordinary readers.