Ruth Lois Huenemann (February 5, 1910 – August 19, 2005) was an American public health nutritionist. She was a pioneer in the study of childhood obesity. Huenemann was a professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and she was the chair of the Department of Social and Administrative Health Sciences in the School of Public Health.

Early life and education

Huenemann was born February 5, 1910, in

Waukon, Iowa Waukon is a city in Makee Township, Allamakee County, Iowa, United States, and the county seat of Allamakee County. The population was 3,827 at the time of the 2020 census. History Waukon is often said to be named for Waukon Decorah, a Ho C ...

, United States. She grew up in both

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

. She was the second of 14 children born to a farming family. She and her siblings were tall and slender. She graduated high school in 1928. During the Great Depression she became a teacher. She attended the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

and graduated in 1938 with a bachelor's degree in nutrition. In 1941, she graduated from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

with a master's degree in nutrition. She taught for a decade at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

as an Associate Professor. She received a scholarship to attend

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. In 1954 she earned her doctorate from Harvard University.

Career

In 1953, Huenemann was hired on at the School of Public Health at the

. She was the chair of the Department of Social and Administrative Health Sciences in the School of Public Health. She was the head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences. She was the founder of the public health nutrition program at UC Berkeley. She became a pioneer in the study of childhood obesity in the 1960s studying the diet and exercise habits of Berkeley teenagers. In one of her studies: The Berkeley Teenage Study (1961–1965), she followed 1000

Berkeley Unified School District The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) is the public school district for the city of Berkeley, California, United States. The district is managed by the Superintendent of Schools, and governed by the Berkeley Board of Education, whose member ...

students in an attempt to determine the development and causes of obesity. The study determined that some students were already obese in their early teen years. Next she began the Berkeley Longitudinal Nutrition Study which studied children six months to sixteen years. It is study of growth and development which assists current efforts to understand obesity. In 1967 she co-authored a paper titled "Caloric and Nutrient Intakes of Teen-Agers". It was the third report in the series of “A Longitudinal Study of Gross Body Composition and Body Conformation and Their Association with Food and Activity in a Teen-Age Population.” From 1969 to 1973, she led the study which was referred to as the Berkeley Longitudinal Nutrition Study. The study followed children from six months of age to 16 years of age. At the time it as unusual to study a group for such a long period of time. She studied teenaged children to learn their eating habits, activity and body type. She endeavored to learn which wide-ranging factors could have influenced the development of obesity. Her study was one of the first to make a connection between socioeconomic status and obesity. The study learned that teenagers were getting less exercise because of television and automobiles. The study also showed that overweight babies do not necessarily become overweight adults: activity level is much more predictive of future weight.

Selected works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huenemann, Ruth 1910 births 2005 deaths People from Waukon, Iowa University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences alumni Harvard University alumni American women nutritionists American nutritionists University of Chicago alumni UC Berkeley School of Public Health faculty University of Tennessee faculty American health and wellness writers Obesity researchers 20th-century American women scientists Scientists from Iowa American medical researchers Women medical researchers Scientists from Wisconsin Scientists from South Dakota