Arnold E Bender, 1918 to 1999

Professor Arnold Bender, a founding member of the committee of HealthWatch, died peacefully at home on February 21st after a short illness.

He graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Liverpool, then spent the war years at British Drug Houses Ltd in London. After the war he took his PhD at the University of Sheffield, on the effects of ionising radiation on the endocrine glands, and worked with Professor Sir Hans Krebs in the Dept of Biochemistry at Sheffield, when they pioneered the teaching of nutrition to medical students.

He left academic life in 1947, initially to lead a research team at Crookes Laboratories Ltd where he and the late Derek Miller developed what is now the almost universally accepted method of assessing protein quality and nutritional value. In 1953 he moved to become Head of Research at Bovril Ltd, and then in 1961 to become Head of Research and Development at Farley’s Infant Foods. In this post he claimed to be possibly the only nutritionist to have formulated and brought to market a commercially successful and nutritionally sound infant weaning food.

In 1964 he returned to academic life, initially as a senior lecturer in the Department of Nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College; he was appointed to a personal chair in 1971, and to the established Chair of Nutrition and Dietetics and Head of Department in 1978. He retired from academic life in 1983, but remained active in scientific and professional affairs, and scholarship and writing until a few weeks before his death.

He was the author of some 150 research publications and major academic reviews, and 14 books, many of which have become major reference works and standard textbooks at school and university level. In addition he wrote prolifically for the non-specialist audience, both articles in magazines and journals, and also such books as Health or Hoax: The Truth About Health Foods and Diets (Elvendon Press, 1985).

Over the years he made a significant contribution to the professions of Nutrition and Food Science, not only in his teaching and writing, but also as an editor of professional journals, and a tireless and dedicated committee member of, inter alia, the Nutrition Society, The Institute of Food Science and Technology, and The Royal Society of Health and Hygiene, as well as HealthWatch.

Arnold Bender will be sorely missed not only by his friends and family, but by the wider world of nutrition and food science, as well as by all who valued his careful scientific approach to all questions and problems. He truly believed in, and practised, the HealthWatch motto of "enhancing informed choice through reliable information".