The Polish biochemist Casimir Funk isolated the first 'vitamine' (vital amine), establishing the modern scientific field of nutritional deficiency analysis and proving that catastrophic diseases like scurvy, beriberi, and rickets were caused by the absence of microscopic chemical nutrients rather than bacterial pathogens. This discovery completely transformed global public health, agricultural production, and food fortification policies, shifting the cultural perception of food away from pure caloric volume toward invisible chemical components.

The reduction of traditional, sensory food into a collection of invisible, clinical chemical alphabet letters (Vitamins A, B, C) deeply influenced the objective, analytical spirit of early twentieth-century Avant-Garde and Surrealist poetry. Poets utilized the vocabulary of nutritional deficiency and biological invisible needs to write stark verses commenting on the deep spiritual starvation and moral deficiencies of post-industrial urban society.